February 09, 2005
Fiorina's HP departure
Here's a roundup of some of the initial coverage of Carly Fiorina's exit from Hewlett-Packard, which has sparked new speculation about H-P's future as an intact company. H-P is not only the second-biggest maker of Windows PCs, it's also the largest maker, by far, of Windows Media Center PCs, the model on which Microsoft is staking its future in the consumer PC market.
Posted by Todd Bishop at February 9, 2005 07:59 AM
What is Microsoft going to buy HP now (joking of course.)
Lesson to learn: When your CEO's press is as or more important than your product, watch out. A CEO has to be media savvy, but there needs to be solid products to back up the puff.
The most solid division of HP is the printer division (including photo printers). The rest lag behind it in terms of both innovation and prominence.
A CEO doesn't have to be an engineer (and there are many reasons he/she shouldn't be). But they do have to fix what's wrong internally and keep it ahead of what's being said externally.
