The Soul in the Computer: The Story of a Corporate Revolutionary

by Barbara Waugh, Margot Silk Forrest

When Barbara Waugh took a job in the mid 1980s with the venerable blue-chip, high-tech corporation Hewlett-Packard, she was a longtime radical activist--with a history of institutional confrontation--searching for a way to make a bigger impact on the world. It seemed an unlikely match. This galvanizing memoir follows her from day one of her seventeen undaunted years at Hewlett-Packard. She used her positions as company recruiting manager, then personnel director and worldwide change manager at the renowned HP Labs, to energize the latent creativity and altruism of employees at all levels, and to further open up the company to women and minorities. "Flying under the radar," maneuvering intuitively around the formal corporate hierarchy, Barbara Waugh discovered and created with her colleagues a set of "radical tools." The result was nothing less than the transformation of Hewlett-Packard's corporate culture. She is now co-founder of HP's World e-Inclusion, a program to enable the four billion people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to have easy access to the opportunities of the Internet. Fast-moving, filled with stirring and often funny anecdotes, The Soul in the Computer is a visionary's handbook for practical change, in any company or organization.

272 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

Reviews

[Kellan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like new Noam Chomsky for grassroots public campaign organizers turned CSR organizers. Loved it.