Some of you may know already but my last day at HP, after just over 11 years, is tomorrow.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs, 2005

Life is change, growth, risk, failure, reward, success.

I’ve experienced all of those in my time at HP and have had the pleasure of working with many people who have impacted me and my career in many ways, assisting my growth on both a professional and personal level. I hope I’ve reciprocated in some way.

I joined HP back in August 2000 as the only sales resource focused on the development and growth of the HP (ProCurve) Networking business in all of Asia-Pacific. At the time Gartner, Dell’Oro, Instat and all other major analysts had HP in the “Other” category for Networking Vendors. Cisco, Bay Networks (Nortel), 3Com & Lucent were the market heavyweights. I was naive, full of youthful energy and believed I could change the world, and was lucky enough to work with a team that did just that.

Today, HP Networking is the Number 2 Networking Vendor in the world behind Cisco and no longer sits in the “Other” category. HP Networking got here in part by focusing on customers, customer experience and developing reliable technology with a clear vision that was unique from any other vendor - HP was able to beat Cisco by not trying to be Cisco. More importantly HP got here through the hard work and dedication of a lot of brilliant people, many of whom I feel privileged to call friends.

HP over this time has also changed as any company of it’s size, depth & breadth will, and it’s up to each of us to know when this change works or doesn’t for us. I took a chance to try something new, moving into TS to work with a great team of people focusing on growing our current consulting business while re-inventing themselves within a world where Cisco is no longer a partner but an enemy. There’s lots to do and talented people are working on it. Over time, however, I realised that it wasn’t the role for me and I made the decision along with my manager to do the right thing both for me and for this amazing team. There’s no use doing something you’re not 100% committed to. I wish them every success.

As I said at the beginning of this email though, “It’s time”, so enough looking back.

It’s time… time for a change; to re-invigorate, to re-energise. As Steve Jobs said and I quoted above, “…have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary”.

I’m going to get back to life, hopefully with more personal success than failure. I’m going to take a short break, then get back into things with a smaller company, but one that I think will be a good fit for me. This farewell email may come across as a bit too much, but then again I never had a problem talking too much or too fast - something I’m still working on :)

Thanks to you all, and I wish anyone still reading at this point all the prosperity and success you deserve in whatever you do.

—

Shane Lord