

HP Names Meg Whitman President and Chief Executive Officer - llambda
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2011/110922xb.html?mtxs=rss-corp-news

======
alanh
Robert X Cringely quote† from 7 months back, posted earlier today by Gruber‡:

> _Then there’s Meg Whitman, who expected at this point to have resigned from
> the HP board to spend all her time running California as governor. But that
> didn’t happen, so now what is she to do? [...] She’ll eventually get around
> to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job._

† [http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-
fi...](http://www.cringely.com/2011/02/why-leo-apotheker-will-be-fired-from-
hewlett-packard/)

‡ [http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/09/22/cringely-
apothek...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/09/22/cringely-apotheker-
whitman)

~~~
shalmanese
This strikes me as an excellent demonstration of the "make as many wild ass
predictions as possible until one of them hits and then have everyone think
you're a visionary genius".

~~~
jfischer
Yes, Cringely can really be out in left field sometimes. A good example was
his recent theory that Tim Cook is only a temporary CEO and that Steve Jobs
has a secret hand-picked successor that he will name in the future [1]. I read
Cringely partly for the entertainment value and partly because he really does
think out of the box. When the strange happens, at least we're not surprised.

[1] <http://www.cringely.com/2011/08/cupertino-two-step/>

------
dgallagher
HP appointed Meg Whitman as CEO earlier today, in an attempt to save the
troubled computer maker. When asked what her first course of action would be,
Mrs. Whitman firmly answered "eBay."

"I'm an excellent eBayer, and have been for years. You've never seen a
feedback profile with so many A+++++'s before." Mrs. Whitman continued, "HP
has warehouses full of inventory, ready to be gobbled up by the highest
bidder. On my way in today, I must have passed about a dozen pallets of iPaq
3630's just collecting dust. Those go for a lot of money you know! There's so
much stuff just lying around here that can be sold for big big bucks!"

The board of directors was quick to point out Mrs. Whitman's Titanium
PowerSeller level status, among her many other credentials. "She accepts all
major forms of payment, including PayPal." When asked about their CEO
selection process, a board member went on to say "We won an auction for a used
paper towel holder from her the other week. She even emailed a tracking number
so we could determine the exact date it would be delivered. I must have
refreshed UPS.com about a zillion times! Well, when we got it, turns out it
was actually new, not used! That level of service amazed us, and we knew right
then and there we found our next CEO."

Mrs. Whitman quickly detailed a plan to get the company back on track,
including getting their feedback rating back up to 100%. "All these negative
feedbacks about this Norton AntiVirus thing have got to go. And paying to
upgrade your auction to bold, and including a picture, really does make a
difference!" One shareholder noted that "It's executive-level thinking like
this which will save this company." Other Shareholders have agreed, and bid
the stock up to a yearly-high shortly after the announcement.

"Is Woz's cubicle still around here? I bet there's several Apple I's under his
desk that'll go for lots."

When asked about long-term prospects beyond selling all of HP's assets, Mrs.
Whitman indicated that they can continue to thrive by adopting IBM's business
model of advertising their brand everywhere, without actually selling
anything, financing it with Jeopardy-playing machines. "I love that show and
watch it every night. Ooo, maybe we can make a Wheel of Fortune machine too!
That'll really pump our margins up!"

~~~
azulum
this would be better than the truth.

here's an idea for the hp bod—go read something called the hp way
[http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Hp-Way-How-Bill-Hewlett-
and...](http://product.half.ebay.com/The-Hp-Way-How-Bill-Hewlett-and-I-Built-
Our-Company-by-David-Packard-1996-Paperback/331181&tg=info) it's only a few
bucks. need a primer on what it's about? read this:
[http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/the-hp-
way...](http://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/the-hp-way.html)
it's very enlightening. it seems very coincidental that it too has the letters
hp in it. it might be helpful

EDIT: the save 94% on half.com makes me laugh. FIRE SALE!

------
epistasis
So, this board has recently brought in a software guy who doesn't seem a good
fit for a company that does a lot of hardware, had him make a bunch of
unpopular decisions, then quickly replaced him with somebody that's been on
the board for quite some time, without reversing any of the previous "damage"
that Apotheker is being blamed for.

Apotheker appears to be the fall guy for some unpopular decisions that the
board wanted made anyway.

~~~
Element_
The article in the NYT today reported that the board fully supported the
decisions he had made but didn't like the way he was communicating the changes
inside and out of the company. Whether or not that is the real reason they
fired him is anyones guess I suppose.

~~~
r00fus
It's the only way they come out looking competent, so I guess that's what
they're running with.

I don't see how Leo would go rogue... he was clearly a fall guy and he might
have been ok with it.

~~~
alexqgb
As a creature of the board - as opposed to an internal hire with a built-in
power base - he's actually the last person you'd expect to go rogue. Indeed,
the big criticism of high-level external hires is that they're insufficiently
independent and easily manipulated.

For a guy whose credibility was already in tatters, $35 mm to be a fall-guy
for hire seems like a pretty good deal. I suspect he felt the same way when he
signed up. I just wonder if he realized the payout was going to come so
swiftly.

------
alttag
I said earlier Whitman would be on my short list of bad choices for the job. I
spent some time today thinking about who I _would_ pick.

Someone with experience at a product company, that had to oversee design,
manufacturing, and logistics. (Ebay is clearly not this.) Also, someone with
experience at a services company with a track record of success. (Despite
service--and SaaS--experience, Ebay "survived" rather than "succeeded", and in
my judgement is not this either.) Someone who doesn't look to acquisitions as
a primary way to expand the company's strategy. (Skype is evidence Ebay isn't
this.) Someone who can communicate effectively with both the public and
internal stakeholder. (A failed gubernatorial bid suggests few people were
buying what Whitman was selling.)

In every relevant category, Whitman doesn't make the cut.

~~~
cpeterso
_> I spent some time today thinking about who I would pick._

So who _did_ you pick? I'm drawing a blank..

~~~
alttag
It's possible someone from Amazon, G.E., or Oracle would meet those criteria.

The big thing HP was (is) lacking is a leader with experience manufacturing
physical products. Putting that in place would settle some of the fears of
procurement managers the world over (and maybe settle the stock market too).
These aren't the only companies with experience, but it's one place to look.

However, were I on the search committee, I'd look internally first. A junior
executive who knows the company might already have the respect of the
employees.

Given carte blanche, I'd remove the Board and most of the senior staff.

------
0x12
HP is as good as dead. It will take a long time to die but they're now
officially the Yahoo! of hardware. Brand damage this severe is going to be
very very hard to fix.

~~~
astrodust
They're going to chart a path like SGI. From industry leader to historical
footnote.

~~~
0x12
It hurts just to think about that.

In a weird way I'm happy that Hewlett and Packard are not around to witness
this, to see the work of a lifetime butchered like this is just too painful.

~~~
timtadh
Actually for the company that Hewlett and Packard founded see Agilent. After
the HP/Agilent division around 2000, Agilent took most of the early HP
records. Why? Because Agilent's business lines were the original HP business
lines.

<http://www.home.agilent.com/>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilent_Technologies>

~~~
0x12
Yes, and I think that Agilents future is a lot more secure than HPs at this
point in time.

Agilent is basically the instrument division of the 'old' HP.

------
markokocic
Not a good move. He started his job by doing some hard upfront decisions that
he hoped will play in HP advantage in the long run. And the board cut him off
at the point when he didn't even started the transformation. Now, who knows
what will happen.

The other possible explanation is that he knew that he is going to be scraped,
and had enormous compensation for receiving the blame.

~~~
jeroen
His total earnings from these 11 months seems to be $35 million. $9.8M in
salary, signing bonus, etc, and $25.2M severence in cash and stock.

source:
[http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/22/technology/hp_leo_apotheker_...](http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/22/technology/hp_leo_apotheker_severance/)

~~~
eric-hu
I figured he'd be well compensated, but wouldn't this mark the end of his
career as a high level executive?

~~~
potatolicious
Carly drove the company into the ground too and doesn't seem to have trouble
finding work even now.

For better or for worse, I don't think Apotheker will have trouble finding
another company to run.

------
T_S_
Will we ever rid ourselves of corporate-speak? How many bits of information
here?

 _“We are fortunate to have someone of Meg Whitman’s caliber and experience
step up to lead HP,” said Lane. “We are at a critical moment and we need
renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage
of the market opportunities ahead. Meg is a technology visionary with a proven
track record of execution. She is a strong communicator who is customer
focused with deep leadership capabilities. Furthermore, as a member of HP’s
board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a solid understanding of
our products and markets.”_

~~~
VladRussian
>as a member of HP’s board of directors for the past eight months, Meg has a
solid understanding of our products and markets.

8 months to solid understanding of HP products and markets?

~~~
count
Well, yeah, they don't make computers and just sell consulting services now -
seems pretty simple to me!

------
jarek
Ah, been a while since we had such an entertaining high profile trainwreck in
progress to watch. What the hell is the board thinking?

~~~
slantyyz
"A while" being days, assuming Yahoo counts.

Of course, there's the ongoing smaller trainwreck waiting to happen called
RIM.

\--edit-- let's not forget Netflix either.

~~~
0x12
A RIM trainwreck would see QnX in new hands, that would be interesting.

~~~
potatolicious
RIM is betting the farm on QNX, they have a death grip on it. If it goes
anywhere it'll be down with the captain of the ship.

The only scenario in which QNX is likely to be sold, from what I can see, is
when creditors are disassembling RIM piece by piece. At that point, is there
enough of QNX left to save?

~~~
0x12
QnX will survive in one form or another if only because so many defense
contractors rely on it. (and RTOS of course).

One can only hope that it would be open sourced under a permissive license in
such a situation but I highly doubt that will ever happen.

------
makecheck
What I find funny about such rapid changes is, can they reverse any of his
decisions? For instance, will HP magically announce they're not really leaving
the PC business and will be shipping new tablets?

~~~
mortenjorck
The simple fact of having dumped the old CEO could at least lend a bit of
credibility to reversing course on WebOS. Not a lot, to be sure, but
definitely a nonzero amount, unlike the present state of WebOS.

~~~
mturmon
Doubt this. Layoffs within the WebOS division were announced three days ago,
and are underway this week:

<http://allthingsd.com/20110919/layoffs-at-hps-palm-division/>

~~~
lawnchair_larry
This is such a shame. I got a touchpad in the fire sale and they really did a
decent job on that thing. I would put it ahead of android but slightly behind
iOS. Although I personally don't care too much which OS I end up with, it's
clear that a lot of good work went into this.

------
jordan0day
I'm sure the HP board is full of smart people, so my question is: what's next?
Over the past decade they've seemingly made so many more poor decisions
relative to good decisions, I have to imagine they feel a lot of heat to do
something... redeeming?

I mean, they're still a very large and very powerful company, and I think
predictions of their impending doom are highly overblown, but they've
certainly been dealt some serious PR damage. Do they swing for the fences with
some "revolutionary" device/system/platform? Do they limp along (are they
really limping in any sense other than PR?) hoping to heal as they go? Do they
follow the path that's been set by the previous CEO, or do they reverse those
moves?

It's going to be an interesting year, that's for sure.

~~~
slantyyz
HP's board might be full of smart people who make stupid decisions. HP's board
started the decline by hiring Carly Fiorina, being a part of the pre-texting
scandal, hiring and then firing Hurd, and now hiring and firing Apotheker.

Perhaps it's time to clean house at the board level.

~~~
0x12
It is hard to even think about what they could do to salvage their reputation
at this point. The board (Whitman included) collectively falling on their
swords as a mea culpa would leave HP rudderless (but that may not even be
worse than the kind of shockwaves that it has undergone in the the last
years).

Right now there are a number of very tough decision to be made and none of
those are good. Either the former CEOs decisions will stand and then someone
without that vision will have to implement them, the former CEOs decisions
will be rescinded (it looks like they will stand for now) or there will be
some magical third option.

For the moment the best thing about HP is that they are still selling ink,
toner cartridges and enterprise gear and I wouldn't bet too long on the latter
(see above).

You simply can't run a company like this, even a very big one. Employees,
customers and 'the channel' want to see stability.

------
jfoucher
I mistakely read that as "Meg Ryan" (yes I am slightly dislexic). She'd
probably do a better job too!

------
startupcomment
This will certainly help her replenish her coffers after her $100+ million
depletion on last year's failed gubernatorial bid.

------
vaksel
at least everyone will finally get to see that she was successful with eBay
because of luck and not skill

~~~
rmason
It was Napoleon who said that he didn't want a good general, but a lucky one.

------
hasanove
Time to accept bets on what the next screw-up will be.

~~~
joeblossom
As much as I love webOS... they'll resurrect it and release another set of
sub-par phones & tablets and can it again.

------
marcamillion
You know...this might seem silly, but until I actually read the story did I
remember that Meg Whitman was Ebay's CEO.

For some reason, I kept thinking that it was Carol Bartz that was now CEO of
HP.

The ironic thing is, given what I have been seeing of HP's upper-level
management problems recently, it didn't surprise me. I didn't even bat an eye-
lid.

It's just after seeing the title on about 4 different links that I decided to
click the NYTimes article and realized it was eBay's ex-CEO not Yahoo!'s.

------
yalogin
This is like the HP Board saying - sorry we meant to shoot ourselves in the
left foot not the right one proceeds to shoot itself.

------
faizanaziz
We all make mistakes, but give him some time. After you make your decission
"wisely" at least show some faith. Ridiculous

------
Macsenour
I gotta start working harder on my book... "How to fail up"

------
joshhart
According to the HP board, all you need is "the right operational and
communication skills and leadership abilities"...

------
brevityness
Silicon Valley just collectively cringed upon hearing this news.

------
BlazingFrog
I used to admire HP...

------
michaelochurch
Given Whitman's scummy behavior at Goldman Sachs around IPO practices, I have
to ask: does HP make planes? Because they just flew one into themselves.

~~~
Apocryphon
Too soon.

~~~
michaelochurch
That metaphor has been around for a lot longer than 10 years and I'll continue
to use it. Airplanes have been flown into human-made structures for a long
time, either as an act of war (kamikaze pilots) or malice (Joe Stack) or mere
stupidity.

I prefer that metaphor over "train wreck" because the latter has the sound of
being accidental. No. It's not mere incompetence. You do not make CEO someone
who made millions in IPO spinning unless you harbor a deep hatred for the
company on whose board you serve. The intentional plane crash metaphor is
perfect.

