MBWA was popularised by becoming an important part of “The HP Way”, the open style of management pioneered by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the two founders of the eponymous computer company. Many of the practices of The HP Way became widely copied by corporations throughout the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The idea received a further boost when Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote that top managers in their “excellent” companies believed in management by walking about. In his second book, “A Passion for Excellence”, Peters said that he saw “managing by wandering about” as the basis of leadership and excellence. Peters called MBWA the “technology of the obvious”. As leaders and managers wander about, he said that at least three things should be going on:
• They should be listening to what people are saying.
• They should be using the opportunity to transmit the company's values face to face.
• They should be prepared and able to give people on-the-spot help.