People I interviewed talked again and again about simple values like trust, respect and integrity they learnt from HP, which they took with them as life skills.

I met some very helpful ex-HP people like Mr Han Jok Kwang, who especially went out of his way to call, email or just flag down his ex-colleagues to talk to me. Among them are Mr Koh Boon Hwee, who was HP Singapore's managing director (MD) from 1985 to 1990, and he went on to helm Singapore-born corporations, SingTel, Singapore Airlines and DBS Bank.

HP Alumni's chairman Wong Ngit Liong (middle in blue shirt) with members and their friends at a charity bicycle ride to raise funds for ST School Pocket Money Fund. Mr Han Jok Kwang (in red shirt, seated front row) rallied alumni members for this charity ride on Nov 14.

Another was Mr Wong Ngit Liong, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Venture Corp, who joined HP Singapore in 1970, the year it was set up. They didn't need to bother with another interview, yet they did. I put it down to their HP training of having time for people, no matter how busy they were.

Mr Han - now chief information officer at Venture Corp - even used his own time to garner ex-colleagues from the HP Alumni, and friends, to part with $50,000 for the ST School Pocket Money Fund in a charity bicycle ride held on Nov 14.

I could not put everyone's comments in a print story but felt they have good experiences to share that apply to those who manage or are being managed.

Ms Lien Siaou Sze, though undergoing cancer treatment, wanted to participate the HP Alumni Dinner's fashion show to meet up with her ex-HP colleagues.

Ms Lien Siaou Sze really touched me. She was diagnosed with cancer two months ago, had an operation, and is undergoing a six-month long chemotherapy. Yet, she was at the HP Alumni dinner three weeks ago and took part in a fashion show, sashaying in a grey-silver sari; her clean-shaven head the only tell-tale sign of her illness.

Ms Lien started her career at HP as a systems engineer in 1978, and rose to hold positions like senior vice-president of HP Asia-Pacific and Japan between 2002 and 2006. She retired from HP in 2007.

She was in and out of hospital for treatment, yet she replied my email to answer what made her work for the same company for 29 years.

As she said: 'HP has always been known for its management philosophy, the HP Way, that emphasises integrity, respect for individuals, teamwork, innovation, and making genuine contributions both to customers and to each community where HP operated. Everyone was expected to contribute as an individual and at the same time to be part of a team.

'To me, the most important characteristics were the openness and trust. This permitted honest communications up and down the ranks.

'People were encouraged to express their thoughts, opinions and feelings and listen to the thoughts, opinions and feelings of others. People could agree – or disagree – without ever worrying that there might be reprisals or consequences to their careers.'

Then, there are other stories from ex-HP people like Mr Stephen Lim, now CEO and MD of SQLView. He related a tale of how his former HP boss, Mr Wong Heng Chiew, now president of Fujitsu Asia and a systems engineer then in the late 1980s, bought him and his team, fried kway teow at 3am while they busied themselves over a tender bid.

'How many bosses would do this at 3am? That little gesture meant a lot to me. Ranks aside, we all rolled up our sleeves to work.'

When Mr Lim started his first company, Netband, a network systems integrator, to go after National University of Singapore's (NUS) campus-wide networking, he turned to HP and called on Ms Lien to partner with HP for the computing hardware. In 1989, HP, 3Com, a networking provider, and Netband, won the first campus network in Singapore in NUS, a milestone then.

Current HP Singapore management executives like Ms Kelly Tan, current MD of HP Singapore Serena Yong and Ms Janice Lim, who is the general manager of Personal System Group and Imaging and Printing Group at HP Singapore, said the HP Way and the values HP represent are still very much alive, especially on how the company cares enough to find, hire and keep good workers.

Each of them has spent about 20 years with the company.

Both Ms Tan and Ms Yong have personally went through career crossroads when they had wanted to try new roles and HP planned and found opportunities for them, hence retaining good talent. They all like the 'family' environment at work, the open discussions colleagues - regardless of ranks - and the trust and respect exercised.

Well, what values make a company a great place to work? You think about it.