An Interview with Michael L. Hackworth

Ricket :   Do you have any advice for young people?
Hackworth :   If you have any interest in computers and technology when you're in junior high, pay attention to your math and science courses because theyall build. If you don't stay on that math and science track, you can't re-enter it. If you went to sleep in algebra, forget about calculus.

Even if you're not interested in high tech now, at least you have the option to be interested when you go into college. If you suddenly wake up as a senior in high school, and say, I think I'd like to be in computer science, if you didn't max out on those math and science courses, don't even think about it.

As far as going into management, pick something in college that you like, so you'll do well in it. Don't force yourself into a particular technical study. Try to take a reasonable balance of liberal arts courses, English, history, economics, whatever. So when you come out of the university, you have a balance between a liberal arts education and a technical field.

You'll learn the details of the technical on the job. You don't really learn that in the university environment. You learn the basics, you learn the tools, but you really learn the deep, deep technical stuff in the job itself.

If you suddenly wake up as a senior in high school, and say, I think I'd like to be in computer science, if you didn't max out on those math and science courses, don't even think about it.

And if you haven't taken some English, history, and economics, you'll lack the ability to put things in perspective. You'll lack the ability to communicate and the ability to persuade. Even though you may be a technical giant, you may be surpassed in your career pursuits by lesser technical people because they have those other skills.

Wolfson :   Could you address the issue of corporate responsibility towards the community?
Hackworth :   The larger you become as an employer, the bigger impact you have on the community. So if it's a 2-man operation or 2-woman operation, you have one sense of obligation: it's pretty small.

But if you're Lockheed, with tens of thousands of employees, you have an enormous impact on the local community. I think you have a lot of responsibility in terms of anything from governance of the company to improving the quality of life of the community, across the spectrum: from the disadvantaged, like supporting the the shelters and City Team Ministries, to the the high end -- supporting the arts.

And if you haven't taken some English, history, and economics, you'll lack the ability to put things in perspective.
Wolfson :   How does your company support this philosophy?
Hackworth :   We try. We never do as much as we like to. We budget a certain percentage of our earnings to put back into the community in a variety of ways. And we have some larger projects that we do, and then we have an employee group that takes care of a large number of smaller requests.

We encourage, in fact we incentiveize our employees to be volunteers in certain programs.

High tech companies generally are young companies, and being in the high tech field with high change and high uncertainty, no one feels that their company has made it and that therefore, they can relax.

Wolfson: A lot of high tech companies don't do that. They say that they are too busy or too financially tied up.

Hackworth: I know the complaints. But I bet there's more being done than people realize. That's one statement. The other is that high tech companies generally are young companies, and being in the high tech field with high change and high uncertainty, no one feels that their company has made it and that therefore, they can relax. That concept doesn't exist in high tech.

That's very different than the east coast with steel companies and oil companies. They went through the consolidation phase and Standard Oil emerged and U.S. Steel emerged, and it isn't going to change much. It is easier to put back resources into the community, easier to think about that. In the high tech companies, it's tough to get into the giving mode.

In junior chemistry. They told us about putting sodium in the water. I don't know what the hell I did wrong, but I blew up the tank.
Wolfson :   Did you ever blow anything up in a science project?
Hackworth :   Yes It was in Father Strong's class in junior chemistry. They told us about putting sodium in the water.
What would you most like to be remembered for?
I guess I'd like to have my mother proud of what I did. There's probably a better way to phrase that: That I did the right thing.
I don't know what the hell I did wrong, but I blew up the tank. Glass all over, and water all over. I guess I wanted to see if there really was enough hydrogen being formed there that it would explode.
Wolfson :   What would you most like to be remembered for?
Hackworth :   I guess I'd like to have my mother proud of what I did. There's probably a better way to phrase that: That I did the right thing.