-hp- CEOs - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 04:32:26 pm
content: With C Fiorina's campaign for the Republican nomination, there has been renewed interest in her administration at Hewlett Packard before being fired by the board. Today's New York Times business section has an interesting article on the controversy of who was the worst CEO there: C Fiorina or L Apotheker. She was known for her merger with Compaq, and he was known for his acquisition of Autonomy (British software company). During six years of Fiorina's tenure, HP stock fell by more than 50%, but during only one year of Apotheker's tenure it fell by roughly 50%. The best tidbit in the article is that HP hired KPMG to do the usual due diligence before the deal with Autonomy, but apparently neither Apotheker, nor the board chairman R J Lane, nor any other member of the board read the report (not even the executive summary), which contained ample warnings to anyone interested. The fallout from the Autonomy deal is still in the courts.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 06:37:49 pm
content: I have a friend who worked at HP, he just about coped with Ms Fiorina but the reign of Leo Apotheker was enough for him to quit. He described the situation there as "Lions led by donkeys".https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 07:30:07 pm
content: Quote from: German_EE on October 09, 2015, 06:37:49 pmI left HP because of Fiorina; she talked management gobbledegook about "double downing" and explicitly declared the HP Way was dead and gone.ISTR, probably on one of the internal HP usenet groups, that she once gave a talk to Bill. He remained silent until the end, when he said "get me out of here" - and nothing else. I'dloveto find a decent reference for that, otherwise I'll half believe it is only a figment of my fevered imagination.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 07:46:33 pm
content: I was not a stockholder, but have been a fan of -hp- equipment (especially the real stuff with red and black knobs) and RPN calculators.However, I was aghast when Carly ran an advertisement during the proxy fight that showed a beat-up -hp- 200 audio generator (the famous garage-built Wien-bridge unit) and asked if -hp- should have stayed at that level. For her information, that series of equipment (including the later solid-state units) is probably the best-selling such series of all time. Apparently, she couldn't handle RPN, since her adminstration also discontinued the classic calculators (except for the financial-firmware unit, of course). When I was trying to find out if they were, in fact, discontinued, I got a reply from someone in the calculator section (who was probably looking elsewhere for employment) to the effect "I don't know why corporate sent your question here--they haven't told us anything at all about these units."

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 08:01:54 pm
content: Quote from: TimFox on October 09, 2015, 04:32:26 pmCan you complete these numbers with how the whole market was doing at that time? Here, locally, we compare such things with Bel-20.I think there is no CEO that made the stock of his company climb between half 2007 and begin 2008. Were the other stocks rising or falling that same time?

author: John_ITIC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 09, 2015, 09:38:14 pm
content: Quote from: tggzzz on October 09, 2015, 07:30:07 pmThis incident was mentioned on one of my books about Hewlett, Packard or HP, the company. Apparently, Fiorina was brought to the home of Hewlett (who at the time was quite old and in wheel chair). Fiorina (being high-level executive) started 'selling' to Hewlett and babbling about grand visions for the company. Apparently, this was not appreciated by Hewlett who asked to be wheeled away.For those in the know, apparently, Hewlett was the rather introverted of the two (Packard being extroverted). As an introverted myself, I can identify with Hewlett getting such a visitor. I, also, want to run away when the "leader" types start to talk nonsense...

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2015, 08:55:19 am
content: CEOs were head-hunted to take over are in it for themselves. Everything else - the technology, the people, the product quality, and the rhetoric are just a means to an end. If these CEO's took an honesty pill, they would tell their workers:"I really don't give two hoots about you or your product. I am here to increase shareholder value because I can make a fortune in stock options. And if I have to spend a few pennies to make you happy, or do what I can to sell more product and not be sued, so be it. If I have to retrench people to increase the share price, so be it. I will probably be gone from here long before you are, but because you have big mortgages and families to feed, you better toe the line. Just remember, you are resource."Its a bit like Amway. Some "friend" who want to use you in his network to make himself money is in my opinion, no genuine friend.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2015, 10:51:41 am
content: Quote from: John_ITIC on October 09, 2015, 09:38:14 pmI'd be interested to learn which one. It couldn't be in the only relevant book I own, because that was by Dave.

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 10, 2015, 04:28:46 pm
content: Quote from: Galenbo on October 09, 2015, 08:01:54 pmA fair question. I found this article (from May 2015) comparing the stock price to the overall market (S&P 500 in US), along with actual company performance. Please see it for more detail than can be covered in this post. Note that her strategy seemed to be to increase sales numbers by acquiring other companies whose activity added to the corporate accounts, rather than growing the core business. See:http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/04/president-fiorina-how-carly-did-at-hp/The article in the New York Times (Oct 9, 2015) quoted Prof. J Sonnenfeld (Yale School of Management), who is a critic of Fiorina: "Apotheker's reign was terrible, but still not as destructive as Fiorina's reign of terror. The magnitude of the damage from the Compaq deal was greater, both culturally and financially, than Autonomy. And at least they got rid of Apotheker and wrote off Autonomy right away. Compaq lingered for a tortured decade."

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2015, 07:31:44 am
content: It ain't over, Meg's the same...

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2015, 04:16:44 pm
content: Quote from: Galenbo on October 09, 2015, 08:01:54 pmHere is a comparison at roughly the time period Fiorina was the CEO, it coincided with the Internet big boom and bust. Makes sense to compare with direct competitors of HP (who are they?). Sun Microsystems is gone so the tool doesn't have its ticker. You can add more symbols with the Add button.http://tinyurl.com/pm4ox2s

author: xrunner
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 11, 2015, 11:39:05 pm
content: When was the decision made (and who made it) to put the test equipment under the Agilent name? I have never understood why you would remove such a renowned product name.

author: tggzzz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2015, 12:24:29 am
content: Quote from: xrunner on October 11, 2015, 11:39:05 pmThey thought engineers could cope with a name change, whereas the great unwashed public printer purchasers could not.

author: JoeB83
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2015, 07:31:03 am
content: I grew up in Fort Collins, CO, where HP did/does a lot of computer stuff, and just down the road is Loveland, where (before Agilent was spun off) HP designed DMMs, fct gens, etc. so naturally I knew a lot of people employed at HP.Let me put it this way: I personally knew four separate people who quit during the first year of Fiorina'sdictatorshipleadership.

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 12, 2015, 08:30:03 am
content: Quote from: zapta on October 11, 2015, 04:16:44 pmI often usehttps://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=hpq, but it's always difficult (impossible) to compare companies in other continents, because often their finances are spread between multiple companies, and you really have to know the history, and what decisions had effect when.Thanks for your specific and applied answer.I dont specially like or dislike the lady, but based on your chart, I think she can be accused of everything, except generating bad stock numbers?

author: eas
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2015, 06:45:13 am
content: During the Fiorina years, I wasn't paying much attention to HP. To me, name brand computers and servers were the least interesting thing in computing at the time. Most of the criticism I heard had a strong smell of ugly sexism and so I didn't take most of it too seriously.Now that she's in the clown car though, I've taken a closer look, and god, she was/is horrible. The early 2000s weren't great for established IT hardware and services companies, but HP did worse than many (for example, competitors like IBM and Dell). She boasts of doubling revenues, which might be impressive, except she did it by acquiring Compaq, killing profits, and destroying value in the process.The republican candidates who run on their private sector experience are pretty much always parasites who've managed to milk established companies, rather than build new ones, who seem to think that their gift for failing upward entitles them to be president. Thankfully, the electorate hasn't (yet) fallen for it. Mitt Romney traded heavily on his father's business and political connections, while believing that he was self-made, but at least he did actually have some real successes under his belt, as well as a fairly successful run as a governor. Trump has succeeded in squandering a good chunk of the fortune amassed by his father and grandfather, but I guess his 20+ run finding greater fools to invest in his projects and bail him out speak to some talent.Fiorina though, the daughter of the Dean of the Duke Law School and an appellate court judge who claims to have started her career as a secretary, glossing over the fact that it was just a short-term job she held after dropping out of law school and before going to business school... so full of crap. Since getting canned from HP, she's failed to be elected to congress and hasn't been able to find another board dysfunctional enough to hire her as the CEO of a public company. The only good thing I can say about he is that she bodychecked Trump in the debates but her cynical strategy of lying about Planned Parenthood, over and over and over, is shameful and disgusting. I can only hope that after failing to secure the Republican nomination she'll slink away, never to be heard from again.Oh, if you want more:http://stevenrattner.com/article/carly-fiorina-really-was-that-bad/http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/09/carly-fiorina-ceo-jeffrey-sonnenfeld-2016-213163

author: Luap2
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: October 14, 2015, 10:11:01 pm
content: Did She ( Fiorina ) not have the board of dir. spied on at her time at H.P. ? I do not recall if the State of Calf. ever pressed charges for her actionsCan anyone recall that was the outcome of that