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Martin MC Brown's picture
Martin MC Brown

Computing From the Front Lines

HP head does the decent thing

As reported here by the BBC, and a myriad other places, Patricia Dunn has resigned as Chairman (Chairwoman?) of HP, effective from January 2007.

She is not going immediately, and only stepping down from the top position; she will remain at HP.

The whole situation is bad for HP, and bad press for corporations and directors of many companies, because it gives the impression that others would be willing to do the same in similar circumstances.

The delay to me seems strange, although it seems to be a common practice in companies (and politics) that when something goes wrong, you stick it out and hope you can carry on as if nothing happened. It used to be that once discovered, the person would resign and leave immediately.

Longer term, it will be interesting to see how this affects HP. It might not change what people buy their machines, but it will unnerve investors and that will affect HP's position in the marketplace, which will undoubtedly have a longer lasting effect on how HP applies itself in the years to come.

See more coverage:

  •  Hurd to replace Patricia Dunn as HP chairman in January
  •  HP: 'No Surprise'
  •  Opinion: A demand for immediate and full disclosure
  •  Reporters' phone records accessed by HP during leak probe
  •  California AG probing HP boardroom leaks

What People Are Saying

She should have known better

She should have known better and given how long she's been in the game I am pretty sure she knew exactly what was going on. The trick for the Feds will be getting someone to admit her role. At this point HP did the only thing they could to show institutional control and that was to appoint Mark Hurd.

The decent thing? The

The decent thing? The decent thing would be be, at minimum, to resign from the Board completely. The message being sent is, "We at HP will tolerate no wrongdoing . . . unless, of course, you're on the Board. In that case, do as you please."
Another message is, "We do this to each other and to the media. What won't we do to our customers and competitors?"

How sweet it must to be in

How sweet it must to be in Teac Alley. The board room. God’s right hand. Imagine.

Imagine if the leak, or any betrayal of the company was done by an EMPLOYEE! Oh, God. There’d be hell to pay. Escorted to their car by security. Warning? I doubt it. Would a miscreant employee be “allowed” to set a 5 month exit strategy? I doubt it. HP deserves better. The innocent stock holders deserve better.

They deserve better corporate governance. They deserve a board that is accountable for their actions. It’s time to clean house. Escort the bastards (the board) to their cars. FIRE THEM.

Not one of the board members currently mismanaging HP would tolerate this from an employee for even ONE MINUTE. Clean sweep time.

I blame you guys in the media for not calling it what it is--INCOMPETENCE.

January? Mark Hurd taking

January? Mark Hurd taking over as the Chair? Why even bother? Too little, too late.
And to make matters worse it is not going to help HP by having Mark Hurd have to split his time between two jobs.
The whole bloody mess was known by the board directors as well, they didn't say anything so it's a conspiracy by all to defraud.
All they are doing here is playing musical chairs (no pun intended) and no ethical corrections made.
I have lost total faith in HP as a company.