Working out of a strip mall in Boise, Idaho, this individual and a small team of colleagues helped build it into a multi-billion dollar business. This is just one example of how decentralization enables some divisions to make great leaps forward while other divisions learn from them. Decentralization helps us retain the spirit of a small company-and in today's competitive, fast changing marketplace, that's often a good size to be. One of our software divisions, for example, might be an agile, S3 million dollar company. We insist that this unit have the same Return on Investment as a stand-alone firm of that size.
Decentralization fosters a competitive spirit within our company.
We in Canada, for example, compete for the exclusive right to produce particular services or goods for Hewlett-Packard worldwide. During the past ten years, HP Canada has won five global product mandates. Four of the five are in telecommunications and networking, which are our specialty here in Canada. Each of these products is sold worldwide. Our production units are lean, entrepreneurial, and successful.