the minutes: http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/hparchives/archive/2008/11/27/original-business-plan-1937.aspx http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blo

the minutes: http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/hparchives/archive/2008/11/27/original-business-plan-1937.aspx http://www.communities.hp.com/online/blogs/hparchives/archiv... By what criterion did they decide if a field looks "good" or not? It matters less what you see than how you see. It looks like market assessment, probably based on likely growth in demand, existing competitors and the HP founders' capabilities to make a "[technical] contribution" (as they later came to call it).