Earlier today, I announced that I will be retiring from HP.
This is not the traditional retirement. I’m not planning on spending my days playing golf or sitting around the house driving my wife crazy. I have far too much passion, energy and ideas to sit on the sidelines.
My definition of retirement is the freedom to write, speak, mentor, advise and teach without the restrictions of the traditional employee/corporate structure.
My passion is to help innovators get better at innovating and I’ve spent the better part of the last dozen years fulfilling that mission. My time at HP started out as an advisor on innovation that turned into a request to join for a year or so to “help grow the innovation culture at HP”. That was 9 years ago. I can honestly say that I’ve done everything that is within my power to fulfill that objective.
In helping grow the innovation culture at HP, I had the privilege to mentor, be a part of and lead teams that delivered some amazing innovations including: Blackbird, Firebird, Envy 133, Gabble, Twynergy, Pluribus, Vantage TouchWall, DreamScreen and many more.
These innovations were the catalyst for HP making it on to the Most Creative Company lists for the first time. The innovation teams at HP deserve the recognition.
In the near term, I will be focusing on the launch of my first book, Beyond The Obvious. At the same time, I will be expanding my efforts on the blog, podcast, speaking and teaching Killer Innovation Workshops.
I’m also excited that once again, I will be able to take on board seats, advisory roles and mentoring opportunities since I will no longer have to worry about conflict of interest and other corporate restrictions.
HP has asked me to stay on through a transition period and to ensure that a number of customer obligations are completed. I anticipate that my last official day at HP will be 12/31.
Congrats to you for being free to do what you love. The downside is HP losing a strong advocate for creativity and innovation during a time when it needs all the brain power it can muster.
WebOS forever!
PS. Good luck!
Congratulations, Phil! And thanks for all of the support you provided the Bitfone team while we were there.
Congratulations on your retirement! I know that you will do some amazing things on your own now that you are free from the confines of HP.
You sound right for Apple.
this is exactly what i was thinking of during the reading of the blog. That would be a very great idea.
I hope you can do something for webOS in your new “position”. All the best and looking forward to whatever comes out of this.
You are indeed too creative and too valuable to the advancement of user experience technology to stay with the sad shadow of its old self that HP has become.
Good luck in all your future projects; it was an honor to meet you at webOS Developer Day NYC 2010.
Congrats. HP is a sinking ship. Please save WebOS; simply the greatest mobile operating system that nobody knew about and HP priced out of the market.
It was all too obvious in recent years that the company’s leadership was going down different paths than those those you espoused. Good luck – you will be missed.
The end of an era… Where have all the good times gone?
Phil,
The time we spent working on Gabble were the best years if my career so far. Thanks for giving us the support and freedom to give it a shot. All the best on your next venture.
Alex
The past 10 years saw a resurgence of innovation at HP. Best wishes on continued happiness and success.
Why was the marvelous HP Slate killed in favor of the pedestrian- and doomed- Touchpad?
Best of luck, Phil. Stay in touch.
Enjoyed working with you in the past and hope will will again. Best of luck. End of an era beginning of a new one.
Phil, I anxiously await my pre-ordered copy of your book and look forward to seeing you again for an autograph. I enjoyed collaborating with you at Teligent and then DataZen. Yale and I are at CA and trying to get Teddy on the team. Best of luck going forward.
Congratulations! I wish you all the best. But when you are following your passion then every day is a good day.
“…I will be able to take on board seats, advisory roles and mentoring opportunities since I will no longer have to worry about conflict of interest and other corporate restrictions.”
Not to spoil your party here, but this kind of sounds unfocused and unfulfilling. Seems like you’re in for a bunch of shallow, low-impact engagements, a bunch of “one-night stands” if you will. And you’ll always be shadowed by conflicts of interest and corporate restrictions anytime you enter into contracts. You’ll especially become nauseatingly familiar with NDAs. But hey, good luck to you in exercising your “new” freedoms.
good luck 🙂
Dear Phil McKinney, take a look at http://www.afterclassroom.com, and its latest learning tools at https://editdoc.afterclassroom.com.
How can he be right person for Apple when this guy helped to come up with an idea to create hardware-less HP.
wow, congrats on nine years of successes at HP and your first book! and cheers on the exciting chapters to come! you are one of my faves!
Very nice politically correct sign-off note without the slightest whiff of overcooked bridges anywhere in view. I supposed HP doesn’t need another summary of how far they have fallen, but I suspect you would not be making this move if HP still had any of the energy for which it was famous in the past. Very sad that the “HP Way” now means the exit.
you’ll be missed
Congrats to you for free to do what you love! Good luck!
Phil, it won’t take long for a smart, innovative company to get you onboard – to make a dent In the Universe…
Good luck,
Andy Cavallini – http://www.gaia-matrix.com
Phil, sad news but glad news. Always enjoyed working with you and your company over a beer or two in various parts of the world. Best of luck. martyn warwick, Editor-in-Chief, telecomTV
Yep – ditto on the webOS front – it deserves either a stable home or an official death. Hopefully the former.
WOW! Big decision there.. Good luck to you on this new quest.. God will be with you!
Hi Phil,
All the best for the future.
Ton
You had great run at hp, Phil. Good luck.
Phil, we’ll miss working with you. You’re vision and passion made for some great collaborations and inspiring projects. I hope you keep up some of the work you were doing with the autism community. All the best. We’ll be watching and will keep in touch too.
Phil – it has been a pleasure. I will miss catching up with you in the halls at HP Labs, and I look forward to reading more from you in the future! All the best on your next awesome adventure. -April
Phil, would be honored to get a brain like you mentoring our team.
http://www.ensemba.com
All the best in your creative new start. You can only give your all if you love your job and can see that you are changing things around you for the better…
Phil, thanks for your assistance in a variety of ways and number of endeavours.
Michael Zerman
Adelaide AUSTRALIA
Congrats Phil!
Maybe you can come give a little help to the future of wireless here at LightSquared!
I’ve enjoyed meeting you at TechCon Orlando. Wish you all the best!
Looking forward to the book. And happy retirement
Phil,
I look forward to watching you work your magic without the HP constraints.
Thanks for all you have done…
Phil Christopher
Congratulations and I wish you the best in the next path of your career, It will be fun to watch you use all of your energy to help the entire innovation community full time now.
It was great working with you during my brief time at HP and I wish you the best in the next adventure, Phil. Would love to catch up and swap stories sometime soon.
Phil, you are my “hero” and grateful for our friendship! I am excited for you; and know that the World is always a better place with you and Michelle in it…keep creating and innovating the world of technologies!
Phil. I would like to talk to you ASAP about an event I’m planning for VLAB.org for Jan 17 on the new platforms for Smart Watches. If you can spare 10 minutes for brainstorming, that would be awesome, 650 255 2549, fredhstein@gmail.com, @simchastein
Are you sure? Maybe another company?
Anyway, I hope your “new” life bring you again to Spain. I really enjoyed listening to you.