Have you heard of Packard’s Law?

Dave Packard created it (HP founder along with Bill Hewlett).

They tossed a coin to see whose name would come first.

Packard won the toss & put Hewlett’s name first. Now that’s the sign of a great leader & partnership.

Packard believed…

‘No company can grow revenues consistently faster than it’s ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth & still become a great company.’

‘If growth in revenues consistently outpaces growth in people, you simply cannot build a great company.’

This was Packard’s guiding light in building HP into a great company.

And, as Jim Collins details in ‘Good to Great‘, other great companies in the 20th century adopted this mantra too.

But does it ring true today?

Today organisations (accelerated by the pandemic) are replacing people with AI driven software & systems.

Which goes against Packard’s law. With growth rate revenues in these organisations far out stripping their people growth rates.

We believe though (in a service driven business) keeping the human element will become increasingly important.

Rather than replacing people directly with automation & self learning software & systems, we’ll use it to support them in providing an improved customer experience.

…what’s your view on the relevance of Packard’s Law today?