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.
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.
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will stand and then someone without that vision will have to implement them, the former CEOs decisions will be rescinded (it looks like they will stand for now) or there will be some magical third option.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.
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.