I shouldn’t be surprised at the behavior of any large corporation, I suppose, but it’s very sad to read about the reprehensible spying done at the behest of HP’s board.
HP was my introduction to Silicon Valley. In 1987 I was editor of Management Today, Britain’s leading business magazine (and known to some naysayers as Management Toady), and HP flew me over to interview then-CEO John Young and to learn about the HP Way. This was pre-Web, pre-dotcom, pre-Silicon Valley hype, at least internationally. And the trip was totally eye-opening for me. As an introduction to the vibrancy and excitement of the Bay Area technology world it was wonderful. In very small ways, that visit nearly 20 years ago paved the way for my move to California last year.
I subsequently was able to meet Bill (always first names: Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard) and many years later interviewed lauded/reviled (choose one) Carly Fiorina. So HP is a big part of my impressions of the tech industry.
What now? The company is doing well under newish CEO Mark Hurd. But the board is beyond hope. Surely chair Patricia Dunn must resign. That seems a minimum for righting a board culture that has clearly gone desperately wrong.
An aside. It’s a pity the Wall Street Journal, which broke the story and is at the center of it, can’t be linked because of its subscription paywall. Its reporters are way, way out ahead of the others in coverage. But yesterday’s front page splash (well, the Journal doesn’t really splash, but you know what I mean) was cheapened by this reference to Dunn: “She grew up in Las Vegas, where her father was entertainment director at various casinos and her mother had been a showgirl.” What does that have to do with anything? I wouldn’t have thought that such acute class consciousness was part of the Journal’s ethos.