San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Silicon Valley Dispatches Column
Apr 30, 2002 (San Jose Mercury News - Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News via COMTEX) -- These guys are good.
Hewlett-Packard execs don't just want to be declared winners in the Compaq merger rumble. They want to be declared victims.
They want the Delaware judge deciding Walter Hewlett's challenge to the deal to offer "public vindication" of the "integrity and moral rectitude of Carly Fiorina and Bob Wayman," according to the written final argument HP filed last week.
It takes chutzpah to run a Fortune 500 company in modern America, and Fiorina, HP's chief executive, and Wayman, the company's finance chief, certainly have what it takes.
After testimony that showed a cynical management style and a cold-blooded zeal for advancing their interests, the company's leaders should be happy to take a probable court victory and slink back to Palo Alto to work on damage control.
There is plenty in need of repair. While it may be true that the HP Way died years ago, the public funeral was held for three days in that Delaware courtroom.
First, consider the company's credibility in light of revelations that Fiorina and others continued to push the benefits of the Compaq purchase when HP and Compaq managers were providing figures that showed the deal would not be as wonderful as advertised.
Fiorina testified that she could explain everything. Which leads directly to the second piece of post-trial work for HP's brass: repairing the damage to the relationship between HP's workers and its top management.
Fiorina essentially explained the gap between what she was saying publicly and what she was being told privately by citing a lack of ambition among those who work for her and for Compaq. Think of it as management by condescension.
HP and Compaq managers were "sandbagging," is the way Fiorina put it. The internal numbers weren't as good as the publicly announced figures, Fiorina explained, because those who would lead business divisions in the new company underestimated revenues and cost savings. They wanted to create targets they could meet without breaking a sweat.
"The way they operate," Fiorina said of the company's best and brightest, "is they try to establish numbers that they know they can exceed."
She may not have meant any disrespect. We all probably try to manage our bosses' expectations to some extent. And maybe nobody had pushed HP managers to excel before, and Fiorina saw that as her job as the new CEO.
Whatever the case, those in the trenches can't be feeling too good. Fiorina's testimony hardly conjured up the image of a highly motivated workforce charging ahead to invent the future. Her words did not have the ring of teamwork and openness that was central to the old HP's image.
The testimony may have been painful for the remaining true believers in the HP Way. But as is often the case with pain, it does come with some gain. The trial offered a rare opportunity to see how those who run big business see the world and those who work for them.
The picture left by the HP merger trial is not a pretty one. But that doesn't mean the company went beyond legal bounds to get its merger done.
The jurist is still out on former board member Hewlett's charge that HP mislead shareholders and bought votes from a key investor. The judge is expected to rule any day and the smart money says he will rule for HP.
That may well be the ruling the law demands. But nothing, certainly not their behavior in selling the merger, calls for a public vindication of Fiorina and Wayman.
Have an only-in-Silicon Valley story? Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5536.
By Mike Cassidy To see more of the San Jose Mercury News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to bayarea.com
(c) 2002, San Jose Mercury News, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. |
