Three years later Anderson followed. Anderson immediately started using his relationship with Clarke to influence business decisions. Anderson also leveraged his ties to discreetly resolve two allegations of sexual harassment against him. Although the majority of senior executives and managers believed Clarke was an extremely tenacious and good executive, they also believed he was getting bad advice and accepting it. There is no way of knowing.
People spread rumors.
This and other incidents further strained relations between Clarke and the rest of the senior executive team. Busy with the task of running one of the world's leading PC manufacturing organizations, Clarke began relying heavily on three senior executives - Anderson, Senior Vice President Tim Hunt, and Chief Financial Officer Barry Lynn. The rest of the team felt increasingly alienated. At the center of this exodus was the bizarre dynamics between Clarke and Anderson. Many believed that Clarke empowered Anderson to do things way beyond his role in human resources.