Runner and riders for HP's top job Who is next in line to become the new boss at HP, the company that likes its CEOs to shoot themselves in the foot? Puritanical and whiter-than-white HP has forced its miracle-working CEO Mark Hurd out after tawdry accusations of sexual harassment, since settled privately, revealed inappropriate expenses claims by Hurd and meet …
Stop making this out to be more than it is. Reading between the lines, nothing that he did would really get him the boot unless they wanted him out. The sexual harassment claim didn't hold water and every single person on this planet has done some sort of minor expense fiddle at some stage.
Have I ever fiddled my expenses? - I'll take the 5th amendment on that.
What would have happened if I'd been found out (assuming I'd submitted a false claim)? - Almost certainly sacked for gross misconduct.
But what makes you think that these were minor? My reading between the lines suggests that he submitted completely fictitious reports, probably making up business trips in his pursuit of the contractor.
Whereas I, as a lowly HP employee, have to go through hoops to be able to travel - several layers of senior managers have to approve the trip prior to its commencement.
I agree with your sentiment here. It seems that something else would be going on to boot him out over this. He resigned (from what I understand) so perhaps he knows something he did that no one else does yet?
As for why HP would want him gone... I'm not sure. He really has been a huge positive force for HP during his time. HP went from leading in many areas but struggling to dominating large portions of the industry. The only area they are not number one is networking, and they are getting closer to catching up to Cisco every day.
Maybe we'll see someone else come forward with something he did, or someone will uncover a larger accounting issue.
Maybe everyone could be hungout to dry for expenses claims, were they analysed. That is why HP has SBC after all - it's the ultimate get out card to play if they really want someone to go.
However, not everyone is taking $30M+ a year out of the business, and if one is, shouldn't one behave impeccably and be beyond reproach?
I know HP very well. I know of one former employee who was summarily fired for expensing lap dancers. He won a subsequent Tribunal hearing, much to embarassment of HP UK. His defence? He named several senior managers also involved in doing exactly the same on previous occasions, citing them as establishing a Best Practice, they he merely followed.
This stuff is rife, but the CEO should be above it all, especially for some scraggy, plastic, botoxed cougar type. At least it wasn't Rent Boys.
I haven't, in fact I avoid incurring or claiming them wherever possible. I'm guessing many subsistence-level farmers haven't indulged in a "minor-level expense fiddle", either. Also, people more honest than you probably haven't, either.
It's difficult to guage whether an internal or external would make the best choice, as the vision and direction has been handed down as a mandate from the CEO over the past few years. Joshi, Livermore, or even Ianotti might make good CEOs, but we don't have an indication, as they've been kept on short leashes while Hurd was CEO. I'm quite sure the board or it's designated search group will do a very thorough job, and not just hire the first "big name" that becomes available. Or I could be completely wrong.
Only time will tell.
Either way, I welcome our new god emperor of HP.. whomever he or she might be.
Can anyone please tell me who @TiersofJoy is on Twitter? Refuses to give his real identity, but i think he's from the U.K. He predicted that Mark Hurd would not be HP's CEO back in January. It took me awhile to find it this morning, but there it was on January 7th at 5:07 p.m. - "Mark Hurd will NOT be HP's CEO by year-end." HP was performing well. How could he know this??
http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2009/10/28/hp_strike_ballot/
Penultimate post on the above thread predict Hurd's exit in 2010. Didn't take Livermore with him though.
Not really hard to predict. 5 years and most 'cost cutters' (Hurd) are out of ideas as are 'Visionaries' (Fiorina) - especially those lacking any operationsal skills. So it's time for golden exit.
Or he's been studying their methods. What you do is, at the beginning of the year, make several predictions that have some possibility of being right. At the end of the year, review them. Any that came true, claim them as evidence of your great insight. For the rest, any that have a chance of still coming true, put them in again. Quietly bin the others, no one will remember them anyway.
"Back to basics and do what they do best." Return to core company values and the HP Way. Ecept of course it's all long gone and irretrievable.
Implementing that strategy will keep the next CEO occupied and affluent for five years, as long as he/she can keep his hands to himself. Then ?HP can hire another operationally inept Visionary. Then 5 years with a Cost Cutter. And so on ad infinitum.
Unless they hire an HP long termer from within.....and then stick a family member back on the executive board for good measure. Trouble is Fiorina threw Walter out with the baby and the bathwater.
I fear for the med/long tern value of my HP shares.
I spent many happy years of my life working for HP, it was a terrific company. But that was in the golden days when the two company founders were still influencing things. It sadly changed when they were no longer in charge and the bean counters moved their caravans into the HP parking lot.
A significant part of the problems that HP faces today go back to what were low level managers in the early 80's. These weren't the HP types of yesteryear, but were people who saw a passing truck and jumped on it. Some of them moved through the ranks to become senior in their respective organisation. And though some were deserving of their elevated position, some were not. And I'm sure some of them are there today making HP the sort of place where no-one wants to work.
What made HP such a special employer 20+ years ago was their commitment to their staff. It was a big family where everyone got on with everyone else. Sadly the company has been spoiled over recent years as the poison dwarves have worked their way into the fabric of the company, and the calls of "he's behind you!" go out as yet another axe thuds into the wall alongside you.
It would be nice for the company to go back to as it was, but it'll never happen.
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