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Carly Fiorina Remarks at Tsinghua University
Beijing, China March 12, 2004
Xie, xie. Xia wu hao. Those are the only two words of Chinese I know. That's no true, I know a third–Ni hao. I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your what I know that is a very busy study schedule to be here today. I know this is valuable time for you that you could be using to work, or study, or maybe to play Sword on line. Thank you for having me here today.
Coming from a company that has“invent”as part of our brand, as part of our signature, I sometimes begin speeches by saying that invention and innovation have been part the DNA of HP’s for more than sixty years. Our scientists and engineers today generate more than 11 patents every day. We spend more than 4 billion dollars a year on R&D. So invention is part of our future as well as part of our past.
That all sounds pretty impressive until you think about China’s history, and you realize that“invent”has been part of China’s DNA for more than 5,000 years. Every schoolchild in America learns about China’s many gifts to this world—from the invention of paper, to gunpowder, the wheelbarrow, the compass, acupuncture—right up to the first blast furnace and the first use of iron casting, back in the sixth century.
As a company, we actually at HP are especially indebted to a man named Bi Sheng, who had the vision in 1045 A.D. to invent the world’s first movable type, which led to its first printer—a full 300 years before Gutenberg's invention of movable type changed the Western world. So today, I want to issue a belated thank you to Bi Sheng for having the foresight to set in motion a process that would eventually lead to a 20 billion business for HP.
That great tradition of invention and innovation has certainly been carried on here at Tsinghua, where some of the finest instructors in the world today are working to train some of the finest scientists and engineers. It’s a bit ironic that this school was originally established nearly 100 years ago as a place where young Chinese could go to America and other western nations to learn from us. Today, the rest of the world, I think, has much to learn from China.
It’s always struck me that the process of invention is a little bit like the process of being a college student. After all, as an inventor, you go into a lab and you have a strong but perhaps vague idea of what you want to achieve. By working hard, experimenting, learning along the way, and using as a guide the work of those who went before you–you advance down the road towards discovery. You may not end up where you started–or even where you expected, but if you are successful, then begins another difficult process of trying to make your invention work in the world around you.
Like inventors, many of you have traveled the same road over the last four years here in university. The person you are today–the goals you have today, the dreams you have today–may be different from the ones you had when you first came here. And now, you are becoming prepared to take all that you’ve learned here and make it work in the world around you.
I believe that young people are graduating today into a world filled with more hope and more promise than in any other time in our history. I know sometimes that might sound strange, because we think always of the dangers and challenges in the world around us. But I have studied history in my life. I do believe this is an era of great promise and great opportunity.
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