4 ms·

HP "The Witch" Carly Fiorina is still the leader I'd say.

pavlov 4y ago
HP also had Léo Apotheker as CEO, so the competition is very tough at this company. A pet rock would have done a better job for cheaper than Apotheker.
- awill 4y ago
  Can confirm. I was at HP during Leo's tenure. I remember we bought Palm in July, 2010, but because the Palm Tablet (TouchPad) didn't immediately eclipse the iPad in sales, the whole thing was cancelled. How arrogant do you have to be to think you will overtake the iPad in sales over a single quarter.
  - kyleee 4y ago
    The whole touchpad thing is really baffling, I remember they fire-saled them and having one. It wasn’t half bad and deserved much better commitment from the execs. What a waste of engineering effort
    - compsciphd 4y ago
      WebOS and the touchpad in particular were in many ways superior to android. However, HP didn't have the stomach for the fight. Heck, even MSFT didn't have the stomach for the fight At the end of the day, android was paid for by ads, so google could keep on pushing it in ways that everyone else couldn't, even without owning the hardware.
- ninjagoo 4y ago
  It seems to be the general trend - HP, Google being the poster companies for this - post-founder companies seem to lose their soul altogether, if they had one to start with. I wonder if that is because the skills and values needed to climb the corporate ladder to Executive positions are fundamentally different from those of Founders that formed their ethos in the broader society, outside of the ladder-climbing environment. This hypothesis has interesting implications for founders that wish their companies to be reflective of their ethos over time. Suddenly the Japanese practice of adopting successors to leadership instead of hereditary succession makes a lot more sense - valuing temperament over bloodline. It also completely bypasses the issues with internal promotions in a hierarchical structure. Debian is interesting with their use of an alternate operating model and democratically elected leadership. Given how long-lasting companies can become destructive to the societies that they operate in, it seems to be that Society has a vested interest in solving this problem of companies losing their soul. Maybe there are corporate structures that can be designed to minimize these issues? Anyone aware of research or proposals in this area?
  - jeffwask 4y ago
    The key quote I see in a lot of these stories is "change the culture" and it seems the decision to change the culture from what got you there to something else is done entirely without understanding what the current culture actually is.
    - ninjagoo 4y ago
      > The key quote I see in a lot of these stories is "change the culture" and it seems the decision to change the culture from what got you there to something else is done entirely without understanding what the current culture actually is. That's a great point. Might be splitting hairs a little bit here - but the question must be asked - if the ethos of the Successors are fundamentally different from those of the Founders, maybe the "change the culture" is deliberate, to align with the ethos of the Successors? There's an additional factor at play here: age. The Founders of the two companies - HP and Google - were in their 20s at the time of founding. The Successors were likely much older (40s? 50s?) when they took over - it takes time to climb to the Executive positions. How much of an impact that simple number (Age at Founding/Succession) would have had on what culture would be fostered. It would be really interesting to see a macro study on cultures at companies 1-5 years from Founding/Succession, grouped by age decade (20s, 30s, 40s) at founding/succession. Dell and Apple could be case studies onto themselves because their founders left and then came back at a different age.
trynewideas 4y ago
Marissa Mayer deserves a spot for stack-ranking Yahoo into the grave. An early pioneer of forcing remote workers into offices or exits. The Tumblr acquisition. "There will be no layoffs this week", then calling layoffs "remixes".
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
dilyevsky 4y ago
There was also Meg Whitman who ran multiple companies into the ground
- jeffwask 4y ago
  CEO of Quibi should earn a lifetime achievement award in lighting money on fire.
  - dilyevsky 4y ago
    Well technically i think she was co-ceo of that one? she also had a stint at Ebay and HP which I don't think anyone can call successful

HP also had Léo Apotheker as CEO, so the competition is very tough at this company. A pet rock would have done a better job for cheaper than Apotheker.

awill 4y ago
Can confirm. I was at HP during Leo's tenure. I remember we bought Palm in July, 2010, but because the Palm Tablet (TouchPad) didn't immediately eclipse the iPad in sales, the whole thing was cancelled. How arrogant do you have to be to think you will overtake the iPad in sales over a single quarter.
- kyleee 4y ago
  The whole touchpad thing is really baffling, I remember they fire-saled them and having one. It wasn’t half bad and deserved much better commitment from the execs. What a waste of engineering effort
  - compsciphd 4y ago
    WebOS and the touchpad in particular were in many ways superior to android. However, HP didn't have the stomach for the fight. Heck, even MSFT didn't have the stomach for the fight At the end of the day, android was paid for by ads, so google could keep on pushing it in ways that everyone else couldn't, even without owning the hardware.
ninjagoo 4y ago
It seems to be the general trend - HP, Google being the poster companies for this - post-founder companies seem to lose their soul altogether, if they had one to start with. I wonder if that is because the skills and values needed to climb the corporate ladder to Executive positions are fundamentally different from those of Founders that formed their ethos in the broader society, outside of the ladder-climbing environment. This hypothesis has interesting implications for founders that wish their companies to be reflective of their ethos over time. Suddenly the Japanese practice of adopting successors to leadership instead of hereditary succession makes a lot more sense - valuing temperament over bloodline. It also completely bypasses the issues with internal promotions in a hierarchical structure. Debian is interesting with their use of an alternate operating model and democratically elected leadership. Given how long-lasting companies can become destructive to the societies that they operate in, it seems to be that Society has a vested interest in solving this problem of companies losing their soul. Maybe there are corporate structures that can be designed to minimize these issues? Anyone aware of research or proposals in this area?
- jeffwask 4y ago
  The key quote I see in a lot of these stories is "change the culture" and it seems the decision to change the culture from what got you there to something else is done entirely without understanding what the current culture actually is.
  - ninjagoo 4y ago
    > The key quote I see in a lot of these stories is "change the culture" and it seems the decision to change the culture from what got you there to something else is done entirely without understanding what the current culture actually is. That's a great point. Might be splitting hairs a little bit here - but the question must be asked - if the ethos of the Successors are fundamentally different from those of the Founders, maybe the "change the culture" is deliberate, to align with the ethos of the Successors? There's an additional factor at play here: age. The Founders of the two companies - HP and Google - were in their 20s at the time of founding. The Successors were likely much older (40s? 50s?) when they took over - it takes time to climb to the Executive positions. How much of an impact that simple number (Age at Founding/Succession) would have had on what culture would be fostered. It would be really interesting to see a macro study on cultures at companies 1-5 years from Founding/Succession, grouped by age decade (20s, 30s, 40s) at founding/succession. Dell and Apple could be case studies onto themselves because their founders left and then came back at a different age.

trynewideas 4y ago

Marissa Mayer deserves a spot for stack-ranking Yahoo into the grave. An early pioneer of forcing remote workers into offices or exits. The Tumblr acquisition. "There will be no layoffs this week", then calling layoffs "remixes".

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dilyevsky 4y ago

There was also Meg Whitman who ran multiple companies into the ground

jeffwask 4y ago
CEO of Quibi should earn a lifetime achievement award in lighting money on fire.
- dilyevsky 4y ago
  Well technically i think she was co-ceo of that one? she also had a stint at Ebay and HP which I don't think anyone can call successful