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"In closing, I point out the impressive courage of the HP board of directors to ignore popular opinion and do the right thing. It is not an easy thing to fire a

"In closing, I point out the impressive courage of the HP board of directors to ignore popular opinion and do the right thing. It is not an easy thing to fire a popular, highly successful CEO." Oh, my. This is a crock of you-know-what. The HP board has their head stuck up their collective asses and have been holding that position for years. Carly was a joke, Hurd was so hated at his previous company he needed body guards to get to his car with the slashed tires in the parking lot, the HP way is dead and gone. And Hurd was a huge part of that. Make the current quarter look good, HP way and employees be damned. "Highly popular CEO" Are you fucking kidding me? 66% of HP employees would take a job elsewhere for no bump in salary or title. Until Hurd that number had never been higher that 10% (that's my memory, maybe Carly pushed it up as well). Popular? Yeah, maybe, with his cronies that he pays while watching the profit sharing and other employee benefits be tossed into the crapper. I'm not a current or former HP employee, though I did interview for a position at HP Labs about 15 years ago and have friends there. What's happened to HP is a crying shame. HP used to be a place that you envied. Now it is a place that makes you cringe. "Impressive courage". Gimme a break. If the HP board had courage they would have given the CEO job to VJ or someone like him. Someone from the inside, with a clue, that still cared about the HP way and the people that work for HP. I'm ranting because this post got me pissed off. So you might wonder if I have a clue. I'd suggest you go read Chuck's blog here: http://hpphenom.blogspot.com http://hpphenom.blogspot.com He was there for a decade or two. Wrote a book about it. And maybe dig out that calculator that the salesman threw across the room as hard as he could at the wall and picked it up and showed you that it worked. Remember those? Just one little example of how much HP cared about you, the customer, once upon a time. Does anyone think they care now?

phuff 16y ago
I dunno much about the HP board or the HP culture. But having spoken personally with Ben Horowitz about creating company culture, and after working at Ning, which is a heavily Horowitz + Andreeson-based culture, for nearly a year, I can say this: he's sincere and the real deal when he says this stuff. And as an employee, it totally works for me. I feel taken care of, like the company has a greater mission than just making money, and like they care about doing the right thing. While I'm sure HP has many other corporate forces at play in it's decisions, and I am but a lowly code monkey, if what Ben Horowitz outlines in the post was at least a partial motivation for what they did, then I think there's at least a glimmer of hope that things might get better there.
- luckydude 16y ago
  He may be great, I don't know him. HP I know better. Their board is beyond confused. Read this, for example: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/09nocera.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/09nocera.html

phuff 16y ago

I dunno much about the HP board or the HP culture. But having spoken personally with Ben Horowitz about creating company culture, and after working at Ning, which is a heavily Horowitz + Andreeson-based culture, for nearly a year, I can say this: he's sincere and the real deal when he says this stuff. And as an employee, it totally works for me. I feel taken care of, like the company has a greater mission than just making money, and like they care about doing the right thing. While I'm sure HP has many other corporate forces at play in it's decisions, and I am but a lowly code monkey, if what Ben Horowitz outlines in the post was at least a partial motivation for what they did, then I think there's at least a glimmer of hope that things might get better there.

luckydude 16y ago
He may be great, I don't know him. HP I know better. Their board is beyond confused. Read this, for example: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/09nocera.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/09nocera.html