Mark Hurd now has an Extraordinary Opportunity to let HP be HP again

On my first day at Hewlett-Packard I was given a copy of The HP Way--the world according to David Packard.  Schmaltzy, sure.  But at least the guy knew what he stood for-and what we wouldn't stand for.  Unfortunately, the slightly loopy, relatively happy company described in the book didn't exist anymore.

Joining HP after the Compaq merger was to enter a house divided.  Even three years later, employees routinely identified themselves along un-assimilated lines.  Proud ex-Compaqers never hesitated to tell you who they were.  Divided loyalties contributed to an unspoken tension in the ranks--not a good, creative tension either.  And it was no secret that the wounds of the merger were still roiling in the Boardroom.  No, by the start of 2005, HP had become more a confederation than a corporation.

And then Carly fell. 

I remember when Carly Fiorina's portrait was removed from the Hanover lobby.  It was reminiscent of Saddam's statue being pulled down in Baghdad.  Like a metastasizing cell, the already-balkanized company further divided.  One can only imagine the strife in the Boardroom. 

The interregnum period before Mark Hurd's arrival was largely about repudiating Carly.  Executives generally fell into two camps: those who openly distanced themselves from her world view, and those who remained silent.  I was too new to stand in either place, so I just listened.

The skulduggery in the Boardroom was, of course, a direct consequence of these uneasy times and mixed loyalties.  So frustrated had some directors become during Carly's tenure, that they had taken to employing tactics which Dave would never have tolerated.  That's where the leaks stemmed from--frustration.  But, like Skyline Boulevard in February, that became a slippery slope.  Now, in an ironic, okay perverse, sense, the spygate controversy may allow HP to rediscover its past glory.

Mark Hurd has an opportunity to use this crisis as a cathartic inflection point.  Sure, he whiffed on his first at bat on Friday, but he still has a chance to turn things around.  This crisis has happened to the company collectively.  It has many old timers shaking their heads.  But it also has many newbies shaking their heads.  And that is a good sign.  The once-divided company is now united by a common crisis.  If Hurd plays his cards well, he can rally HPers in a way that hasn't happened in years.  If he takes full responsibility for his part in this bonehead saga, if he summons the HP elders to help heal the old wounds (going back to the aforementioned Merger), if he sets world-class expectations for a new environment of civility and trust and transparency, he might be able to set HP apart again as a great place to work, innovate and spend a career.  But now is the time for bold strokes, not fine print.  Hurd must put the big wheels in motion for cultural revolution before he testifies to Congress.  If he hasn't summoned the best of the HP spirit by then, if he hasn't by then put a punctuation mark on this Keystone Cops misadventure, the company well may float on into a protracted season of malaise and emotional confusion.

Comments

[ZF]

He'll be out well before the end of October. The Chairmanship was just the latest poisoned chalice offered him by Patricia Dunn, and one he should have had the sense to refuse.