Steve Jobs fought to keep ousted CEO Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard
In an in-depth expose on Hewlett-Packard's past, present and future, it was revealed that late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs reached out to Mark Hurd shortly after his ousting in an attempt to return the CEO to power and save HP from entering a death spin.
The story of Jobs and Hurd was included as part of a lengthy BusinessWeek article, which takes a look at how HP fell from its dominating position in tech and if new CEO Meg Whitman can right the ship.
According to people familiar with the matter, Hurd received an email from Jobs three days after he had resigned from his post at HP under mounting pressure from the company's board of directors. Jobs wanted to both support his friend as well as offer counsel as to how Hurd should reconcile differences with the board so he could return to the company. After five years under Hurd, HP became the largest in tech with sales were up to $126 billion and rapidly rising profits.
Jobs, who himself was kicked out of the company he had built, had first-hand knowledge of the issues Hurd was facing at the time. The late tech guru and Hurd spent over two hours together walking through Jobs' neighborhood, according to unnamed sourced who know both men. Jobs was looking to set things right with Hurd and HP's directors, and even offered to write a letter to the board and call each person one by one.
Due to its vast influence, Jobs knew at a healthy HP equated to a healthy Silicon Vally, and wanted Hurd to continue growing the business instead of seeing the company's board send the firm into a tailspin.
In the end, Jobs was unable to get Hurd back on at HP, but was able to see his forecast played out before succumbing to pancreatic cancer, as the the board of directors named L?o Apotheker as CEO and Ray Lane as chairman. Under a subsequent restructuring, HP's profits and sales began to sag in what BusinessWeek referred to as an "implosion."
Before his death, Jobs was able to give advice to some of the top players in tech, including one-on-one mentorships with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Hurd is now co-president and board member at Larry Ellison's Oracle Corporation.
The story of Jobs and Hurd was included as part of a lengthy BusinessWeek article, which takes a look at how HP fell from its dominating position in tech and if new CEO Meg Whitman can right the ship.
According to people familiar with the matter, Hurd received an email from Jobs three days after he had resigned from his post at HP under mounting pressure from the company's board of directors. Jobs wanted to both support his friend as well as offer counsel as to how Hurd should reconcile differences with the board so he could return to the company. After five years under Hurd, HP became the largest in tech with sales were up to $126 billion and rapidly rising profits.
Jobs, who himself was kicked out of the company he had built, had first-hand knowledge of the issues Hurd was facing at the time. The late tech guru and Hurd spent over two hours together walking through Jobs' neighborhood, according to unnamed sourced who know both men. Jobs was looking to set things right with Hurd and HP's directors, and even offered to write a letter to the board and call each person one by one.
Due to its vast influence, Jobs knew at a healthy HP equated to a healthy Silicon Vally, and wanted Hurd to continue growing the business instead of seeing the company's board send the firm into a tailspin.
In the end, Jobs was unable to get Hurd back on at HP, but was able to see his forecast played out before succumbing to pancreatic cancer, as the the board of directors named L?o Apotheker as CEO and Ray Lane as chairman. Under a subsequent restructuring, HP's profits and sales began to sag in what BusinessWeek referred to as an "implosion."
Before his death, Jobs was able to give advice to some of the top players in tech, including one-on-one mentorships with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Hurd is now co-president and board member at Larry Ellison's Oracle Corporation.
Comments
This makes sense, I guess. Steve had a lot of respect for HP back in the day. It's interesting to see him reach out to a competitor (well, you know) like this for the sake of saving the company. Who better to know how to turn a company around!
And now Apple's fans fight to keep Ballmer at Microsoft, but for an entirely different reason.
He's so right. He didn't look at every company as a competitor -- more as "part of the ecosystem." A healthy Silicon Valley needs a healthy HP.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
This makes sense, I guess. Steve had a lot of respect for HP back in the day. It's interesting to see him reach out to a competitor (well, you know) like this for the sake of saving the company. Who better to know how to turn a company around!
And now Apple's fans fight to keep Ballmer at Microsoft, but for an entirely different reason.
We want Ballmer more for the entertainment value of his great comments and fantastic photos
This makes sense, I guess. Steve had a lot of respect for HP back in the day. It's interesting to see him reach out to a competitor (well, you know) like this for the sake of saving the company. Who better to know how to turn a company around!
And now Apple's fans fight to keep Ballmer at Microsoft, but for an entirely different reason.
Well seeing as how Microsoft never acted as a HEALTHY company for the ecosystem of technology, I can see keeping Blamer at Microsoft as entirely consistent with this philosophy.Quote:
Originally Posted by GadgetCanada
We want Ballmer more for the entertainment value of his great comments and fantastic photos
Quote:
Originally Posted by JollyPaul
HP's biggest leadership problem is the incestuous relationship between the board, CEO and CEOs at other companies. They never choose the best, they only choose close associates who can return any favors. So Mark was best buddies with Larry. Larry calls Steve. Steve fights for Mark. Shareholders take it in the shorts.
I have not followed HP at all, but based on this article, your statement seems odd. The articles says:
Quote:
After five years under Hurd, HP became the largest in tech with sales were up to $126 billion and rapidly rising profits.
So HP was doing well under Hurd.
Steve Jobs tried to help Hurd stay at HP.
After Hurd left (apparently due to a conflict with the board), HP started doing badly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JollyPaul
HP's biggest leadership problem is the incestuous relationship between the board, CEO and CEOs at other companies. They never choose the best, they only choose close associates who can return any favors. So Mark was best buddies with Larry. Larry calls Steve. Steve fights for Mark. Shareholders take it in the shorts.
Congratulations on turning a wonderful, positive story about a charming man and turning it into a pile of poo.
hurd was offed by hp for two reasons:
fraud and sexual harrassment
unlike what i am pretty sure is true of most posters on this forum, i know him personally (not at hp) from years ago, and was never impressed
imho, hurd had no vision, all he knew about was cutting, but defining the future, no way, hp needed, and still needs, better
Quote:
Originally Posted by JollyPaul
HP's biggest leadership problem is the incestuous relationship between the board, CEO and CEOs at other companies. They never choose the best, they only choose close associates who can return any favors. So Mark was best buddies with Larry. Larry calls Steve. Steve fights for Mark. Shareholders take it in the shorts.
Hmmm... taking a look at HPQ over the last 10 years all I see is a big plus for shareholders between 2005 and 2010... and then it goes for a shit after Hurd departed.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong...
Quote:
Originally Posted by umumum
hurd was offed by hp for two reasons:
fraud and sexual harrassment
unlike what i am pretty sure is true of most posters on this forum, i know him personally (not at hp) from years ago, and was never impressed
imho, hurd had no vision, all he knew about was cutting, but defining the future, no way, hp needed, and still needs, better
You forgot to mention that, from what I understand by reading a few stories, Hurd was generally considered a complete asshole by the HP employees.
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
Hmmm... taking a look at HPQ over the last 10 years all I see is a big plus for shareholders between 2005 and 2010... and then it goes for a shit after Hurd departed.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong...
I've only gone into light reading on the topic, but everywhere I look it mentions layoffs and cost cutting measures as well as minor acquisitions, at least minor relative to buying Compaq in 2002. That isn't the kind of thing they could do indefinitely, even if it makes for pretty short term numbers. Is there anything you feel he did particularly well during his tenure?
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm
I've only gone into light reading on the topic, but everywhere I look it mentions layoffs and cost cutting measures as well as minor acquisitions, at least minor relative to buying Compaq in 2002. That isn't the kind of thing they could do indefinitely, even if it makes for pretty short term numbers. Is there anything you feel he did particularly well during his tenure?
Personally, I don't give a damn about what he did well or didn't do well. Like you I only have done light reading on the subject. Printer sales were up considerably, that isn't considered cost cutting.
... but that wasn't the gist of the comment that I replied to. That member said that stockholders took it in the shorts during Hurd's time. I inferred that they did all right under Hurd. If you know otherwise please elaborate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GadgetCanada
We want Ballmer more for the entertainment value...
I have heard, from a reliable source, that the Apple TV will have an entire channel devoted to Ballmer...
Oh yeah, Whitman will 'right the ship.'
/s
Originally Posted by doctoritsm
Seems to show that Steve values friendship more than what is morally correct.
That's about as far from what it implies as is possible.
It was under Hurd that HP really became an ink seller with a sideline in printers and PCs. That couldn't last, the crash was sure to come when there was nothing left to cut and no path forward either.
Hurd's one potentially smart move was of course buying Palm, but he fumbled even that and his successors have totally dropped the consumer ball since. So now they have no strategy, no product line worthy of the name, and more problems than they know what to do with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
... but that wasn't the gist of the comment that I replied to. That member said that stockholders took it in the shorts during Hurd's time. I inferred that they did all right under Hurd. If you know otherwise please elaborate.
I wasn't really addressing that. I was trying to look up who approved the purchase of Palm, as I was curious if management changes screwed it up post purchase. The one thing that really puzzled me was why they purchased Compaq prior to Hurd. They bought out a competitor at a seemingly high price that addressed a market that was nearing saturation at the time. Palm would have made more sense if they knew what to do with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmm
I wasn't really addressing that. I was trying to look up who approved the purchase of Palm, as I was curious if management changes screwed it up post purchase. The one thing that really puzzled me was why they purchased Compaq prior to Hurd. They bought out a competitor at a seemingly high price that addressed a market that was nearing saturation at the time. Palm would have made more sense if they knew what to do with it.
Hurd was CEO when Palm was purchased but left a little over 3 months later.
Maybe Hurd had a plan but it became obvious that if so then it either didn't work or nobody listened.