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I'm not a fan of Whitman in charge of HP but this article is a joke. She hosted a dinner? Whoop, a lot of very successful CEO's host political dinners. You kno

I'm not a fan of Whitman in charge of HP but this article is a joke. She hosted a dinner? Whoop, a lot of very successful CEO's host political dinners. You know who else is extremely involved in politics? The Koch brothers and their companies seem to be doing just fine. * * I'm not making any judgement on the Koch brothers here, I'll leave that for other outlets on teh interwebs.

sc68cal 15y ago
>You know who else is extremely involved in politics? The Koch brothers and their companies seem to be doing just fine. Indeed, they've carved out a very large market for their enterprises, which has freed up time for them to dabble in politics as well. HP is not in such a comfortable position, they have serious challenges in a fast paced market. In addition, Koch industries is a family business. There's a big difference between hired help (Whitman) and having real skin in the game. I'm sure if a competitor came along and started eating their lunch, the Koch brothers would scale back their political work.
jsavimbi 15y ago
> She hosted a dinner? Exactly. Private activities are pretty much out of scope in relation for job suitability, unless they're illegal or really "out there", but I think in the case of HP, the company as a whole has taken a series of beatings as of late and instead of appointing a controversial person to the top slot, the board would've better served the company if they'd gone out and found someone who could both unify and right the ship. Personally, I'd have a problem working for someone whose public political views were in conflict with my own. I'd suck it up, but I doubt that I would be able to be as focus and committed to the company's vision knowing that any success that I may contribute may come back to bite me in another setting. I think business-minded CEO's should leave sex, politics and religion out of their public life and if they find that to be impossible then maybe they should focus on one or more of those topics to pursue but not as part of a global company's management team. Then again, maybe I don't understand HP at all.
davidu 15y ago
Koch brothers aren't politicians, they are financiers of political endeavors -- huge huge difference. Meg wants to be in the spotlight, the Koch family wants to be in the shadows pulling the strings.
bmahmood 15y ago
Agree. Not a fan of Whitman either, but many other successful executives have hosted political dinners this past year (Sheryl Sandberg, John Doerr, etc), with little to no consequence to their business.

sc68cal 15y ago

>You know who else is extremely involved in politics? The Koch brothers and their companies seem to be doing just fine. Indeed, they've carved out a very large market for their enterprises, which has freed up time for them to dabble in politics as well. HP is not in such a comfortable position, they have serious challenges in a fast paced market. In addition, Koch industries is a family business. There's a big difference between hired help (Whitman) and having real skin in the game. I'm sure if a competitor came along and started eating their lunch, the Koch brothers would scale back their political work.

jsavimbi 15y ago

> She hosted a dinner? Exactly. Private activities are pretty much out of scope in relation for job suitability, unless they're illegal or really "out there", but I think in the case of HP, the company as a whole has taken a series of beatings as of late and instead of appointing a controversial person to the top slot, the board would've better served the company if they'd gone out and found someone who could both unify and right the ship. Personally, I'd have a problem working for someone whose public political views were in conflict with my own. I'd suck it up, but I doubt that I would be able to be as focus and committed to the company's vision knowing that any success that I may contribute may come back to bite me in another setting. I think business-minded CEO's should leave sex, politics and religion out of their public life and if they find that to be impossible then maybe they should focus on one or more of those topics to pursue but not as part of a global company's management team. Then again, maybe I don't understand HP at all.

davidu 15y ago

Koch brothers aren't politicians, they are financiers of political endeavors -- huge huge difference. Meg wants to be in the spotlight, the Koch family wants to be in the shadows pulling the strings.

bmahmood 15y ago

Agree. Not a fan of Whitman either, but many other successful executives have hosted political dinners this past year (Sheryl Sandberg, John Doerr, etc), with little to no consequence to their business.