Hughes Dynamics

Hughes Dynamics, Inc. was an American computer firm that was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hughes Tool Company. It existed from 1962 to around 1965. It offered consulting and services in data processing, information technology, credit information processing, and advanced business techniques and management methods. One mid-1963 description given to a trade industry publication was that Hughes Dynamics provided a "broad range of research and consulting services in management sciences and information technology; operations research, systems analysis and design, computer programming and operations, [and] market research" and that its business model involved "consultation with businesses, industries, governments, [and] institutions [as well as] fee for services". It staged a rapid growth from mid-1962 to early 1964, primarily through acquisitions, but then just as quickly shut itself down and dispersed its businesses. The role of Howard Hughes in all this is somewhat unclear.

The first mentions of Hughes Dynamics, including Help Wanted ads for positions within the company and speaker notices for a seminar on data retrieval, began appearing as early as July 1962 in newspapers in Louisiana and Texas. The employment ad was listed for "males" and offered "unusual career opportunities for experience professionals in information systems research and engineering computer programming technical systems marketing in Houston and Dallas, Texas."

Existence of Hughes Dynamics was publicly announced on or about September 1, 1962. Much of its staff consisted of scientists, engineers, or other such technical positions. The general manager of Hughes Dynamics was John E. Hodges, who had been a vice president of Hughes Tool Company. The initial emphases of the new venture were said by the announcement to be "technical, scientific and management services to the oil and transport industries."

The new entity was based in Los Angeles, California. The central computer facilities were acquired from the firm C-E-I-R and consisted of IBM 360 mainframes in the Miracle Mile area. It also had offices in Houston and elsewhere.

The core business of the parent company, Hughes Tool, was the manufacture of drill bits for wells and associated products and services. The announcement regarding Hughes Dynamics was made by Raymond Holliday, Executive Vice President of the Hughes Tool Company. Holliday was a longtime assistant in the Hughes organization who was functionally a chief officer of Hughes Tool from 1957 on (and who would become CEO of it in 1972 after Howard Hughes sold it to the public).

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