A few weeks ago the Department of Justice ordered a few of the big software companies, Apple, Adobe, Google, et al, to remove each other from a no-call list, preventing employees from being taken from one firm to another. This was an attempt by the government to halt the possibility of collusive activity between these software giants, implying the importance of competition within an industry.
Flash forward to the present and enter into the drama of Hewlett-Packard and Oracle. Oracle boss, Larry Ellison, is in a rage about the hiring of Leo Apotheker by Hewlett-Packard as a replacement for Mark Hurd, who was hired by Oracle after he was let go from Hewlett-Packard, creating tension between the once complementary companies.
Quickly, Hurd left H-P over allegations of sexual harassment and went to Oracle. Oracle develops software and H-P primarily develops hardware, such as printers and the netbook I am using now. When Hurd was taken in by Oracle, H-P was freaking out because they thought Hurd had access to privileged information and would use that information against H-P.
In the computer industry, software and hardware are perfect complements; and, H-P and Oracle had a successful relationship, sharing 14,000 customers. H-P chose to hang Hurd out to dry when he was presented with some problems, despite the immeasurable success that he brought to the company “on the back of fierce fiscal discipline,” according to the New York Times, “focused on fostering growth in three areas: operating and managing next-generation data centers, mobile technology, and printing in its broadest applications.” In fact, when I looked at H-P share value, the stock doubled while Hurd was at the helm from $20 in 2005 to $40 in 2010.
It is obvious he was important to H-P, first a lawsuit was filed against him, and then they hired Mr Apotheker. If H-P were a man, (We’ll call him Tony) he is morally adverse to the actions of Mr Hurd but still has a need for his innate qualities as a leader. Tony has an anger problem and is acting in his well-being, yet filled with anger; nothing good can come from that. The next step for Tony, apparently, is making a bitter decision to “get back” at Hurd and his new family (we’ll call them the Osterholms).
H-P needs to forget about Hurd and let him live his new life with his family, stop pestering him and, ultimately, Tony needs to get his own life. Whether it was truly a strategic management decision to hire a former software CEO in Mr Apotheker, or a bitter hiring decision directed at Hurd and Oracle, one hopes that H-P is able to survive on the island it has built for itself, depending on no one else to seamlessly transition from hardware to its weak spot, software. Can anyone say “Apple?”
I read a few things in the wake of all that about Mark Hurd and his popularity level within the company. It seems that HP employee satisfaction was somewhere around 20% when he left. R&D spending had plummeted in favor of buying companies with innovative technology.
ReplyDeleteTheir stock price may have gone up, but what I've read gave me the impression that his tactics were basically creating an internal financial bubble that would've popped eventually anyway. Short term gains over long term sustainability - worked grrreat for Bush, right?
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