"...she will soon kill the greatest company ever known."

September 8, 2001 9:12 AM

"...she will soon kill the greatest company ever known." I don't know why exactly, but HP always seemed like a class act (which, considering the completely amoral, soul-less nature of most US corporations isn't saying much.)
posted by drunkkeith (10 comments total)

she may have an accident or sudden change of heart, but i doubt it.
posted by clavdivs at 9:28 AM on September 8, 2001

Yes indeedy, because Sony and Daimler-Chrysler are loving, caring corporations. It's just us damned USAians who produce evil monoliths.
posted by darukaru at 9:58 AM on September 8, 2001

The "class act" was the part that got spun off as Agilent. That's the group which continues the business that Mr. Hewlett and Mr. Packard actually begun: test and measurement equipment. (That's the part I used to compete against when I worked at Tektronix.)
posted by Steven Den Beste at 10:36 AM on September 8, 2001

(i learned to drive in the parking lots of tektronix :)
posted by kliuless at 11:42 AM on September 8, 2001

I keep hearing about these "soul-less, amoral" corporations. We are not so naive as to believe big business doesn't produce some nasty characters, but it's BUSINESS, big and small, that propels American innovation and competition. It's the DOLLAR, BABY!

We need to keep an eye on these "big nasties," but we don't need to vilify them and make CAPITALISM the enemy.

Liberal guilt is a terrible thing to live with.
posted by padinka at 2:02 PM on September 8, 2001

Are "commoditized" and "inassimilable" real words?

I can kind of feel for the writer though. It seemed that HP _did_ have a plan but now they are a reactive entity and it isn't pretty.

Buying Compaq and their DEC baggage seems kind of mad to me.

I wish the Alpha had made it though, I tried one once and I loved it.
posted by jackiemcghee at 2:07 PM on September 8, 2001

Plenty of people whose opinion I respect on this matter have argued that Carly Fiorina has driven HP full-speed into the wall since taking over the CEO role. Perhaps it's a necessary corollary to Brooks' Law that the more successful a company gets, and the more it expands, the less likely it is to survive without, um, behaving like Microsoft.

As Steven said, Agilent and its spinofflets are the place to find the innovation and prowess that built HP in the first place. (A friend works for Lumileds, and that's going places, even if it takes them riding the tech nuclear winter.)
posted by holgate at 2:14 PM on September 8, 2001

(closing my italic tags) continue on...
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 4:39 PM on September 8, 2001

This piece resonates because the guy cares and because he challenges the prevailing 'wisdom'. Padinka I think you really miss the point. Malone is arguing that Fiorina is making bad strategic decisions, not that she is evil because she is a 'capitalist'.
posted by christophernaze at 10:20 PM on September 8, 2001