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Firing Hurd was the right thing to do - I will argue that they were late. Hurd was seen as aligning with Oracle and making decisions that did not conflict with
by blinkingled 15y ago
Firing Hurd was the right thing to do - I will argue that they were late. Hurd was seen as aligning with Oracle and making decisions that did not conflict with Oracle. EDS, conveniently missed Sun acquisition, consumer focus in lieu of enterprise paints a consistent picture. There is a reason Hurd now works at Oracle and Larry did not like him getting fired. Besides show me what he did apart from cost cutting.
Apotheker comes from Oracle's competitor SAP. To that effect he isn't shy of focusing on interests that happen to conflict with Oracle's. To that end, what Gruber is saying is right - the board always wanted more Enterprise focus and that required going against Oracle. That's what Apotheker is doing.
As for missed opportunities - it does not matter. HP just does not have the DNA to do great in the already saturated PC and phone/tablets market. Not having to deal with that means they can focus their resources and capital where they are well oiled to do great. It only mattered if HP managed to get a CEO that can change its DNA - Neither Hurd nor Apotheker were into that. If they could have found a great consumer focused CEO with proven and relevant record, then it would have been worthwhile to risk competing in consumer space when it meant losing focus on Enterprise. Otherwise its just not really smart.
And they are still not giving up on webOS. But the only catches here are they don't yet know what to do with webOS and the Oracle/Itanium problem. With PSG off their bottom line they could now afford to ignore webOS until they find the right thing for it and focus their hardware resources to sell more proliants and fix the Itanium problem. That's the idea.
- palish 15y agoWait --- what? They fired Hurd as a direct consequence of him paying a hooker. What's that got to do with strategy? Or are we claiming that it's "okay to lie" about why someone is being fired..?
- technoslut 15y agoI wonder if Hurd stayed, regardless or not of personal issues, if he would've been fired for job performance. To me it doesn't change, the HP board guided this company towards ruin.
- blinkingled 15y agoIt's of course not OK to lie and get caught. If the board wanted him badly I am sure they would have found other ways of keeping him around - fines etc and worst case hiding it or downplaying it. Things aren't that simplistic at corporate board level of a multi billion company. Fact of the matter is that he was going to be shown the door - if not for lying then for job performance. He just wasn't doing the things the board wanted him to do. That never ends well.
- teyc 15y agoHurd didn't pay a hooker. At worst he was having an affair with a events organiser. With full hindsight, I'd say the board wanted Hurd and consumer business out.
- IgorPartola 15y agoSome references: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/hp-chief-mark-hurd-resigns-finance-chief-cathie-lesjak-named-interim-ceo.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-06/hp-chief-mark-hurd-... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hurd#Resignation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hurd#Resignation
- wisty 15y agoAt worst, he used company funds to pay for his affair. That's a big no-no.
- Anti-Ratfish 15y agoA bit nitpicky, but Im not sure I'd describe the phone/tablet market as saturated. It just isn't open to HP.