Communications - January 2010

Are you pleased with the results?

There’s been a really good return on investment. Researchers are not only inventing new stuff, they are jointly writing top quality, peer-reviewed conference and journal articles.

You’ve worked hard to transfer the re-
sults of HP Labs research into actual
business products.

We formed a research advisory board that’s composed of lab directors, technologists from all across HP, and business unit leaders. Jointly, we meet and select which projects get funded at HP Labs. We also provide a much better match between what we build in HP Labs and what a business unit can actually receive. Every big bet project gets reviewed twice a year. That way, the business unit members are part of selecting the project, they see how it’s progressing, and when the project has ended, they are ready to catch the technology, so to speak.

“in the ideal world
of academic purity,
each researcher
does whatever they
want and you hope
for the best. But
our approach has
been an approach
of focus, and that’s
really paid off.”

Unless I engage with the researchers on a regular basis, the passion will not be there, the intensity will not be there. I say, “What are you trying to build? Can we not do something bigger?” Then I say, “The specific research you are doing, how will it make that dream come true?” There’s an unrelenting pressure that I want to be able to feel—that

CACM lifetime mem half page ad:Layout 1  8/13/09  3:57 PM  Page 1

How do you inspire your researchers to
think big?

last byte

if we don’t do it, someone else will.

Before you joined HP, you spent more
than 20 years in academia. Did you find
the transition difficult?

Many people warned me, “Prith, you will not survive.” Fortunately, my experience in academia was not in only one position. I also took two exits into the world of startups, and what I learned from those startups are things I’ve tried to preach and practice at HP Labs.

Such as?

In academia, professors can work and work and refine their papers to the last word. The world of startups doesn’t give you that luxury. I learned how to deliver fast. I learned how to run—I am always running. I try to convey that to my colleagues at HP Labs—you have to find the right trade-off. I want you to document your work. I want you to advance the state of the art, but don’t just keep on publishing and refining—run, right? Start making stuff, as well.