Computerized Storm Clouds - an MBA Legacy

[tw]

On March 19, HP will decide the future of Compaq and HP. Today, Lew Platt, the previous CEO of HP goes before an investor advisory board in Rockville MD to add to a chorus against an anti-American, MBA thinking HP CEO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/04/te...gy/04HEWL.html

Carly Fiorina is a Stamford U graduate in medieval History and a successful Lucent salesman. She has no experience where the work gets done. She is a classic MBA who only understands business from her spread sheet training. Therefore she would never understand Warren Buffett who says that only the stockholders of the taken over company prosper in a merger. The merger of Compaq and HP would be a disaster for HP as any 'product oriented' thinker could see.

Walter Hewlett is the only HP BoD member to stand up against this anti-HP MBA. In fact, the entire Hewlett and Packard family object to a merger that only makes short term spread sheets look good (and that enriches top management at the expense of the world).

Well, it got nasty as only an MBA would do. The MBA started slinging mud by calling Walter Hewlett a philanthropist and musician. No mention of his master degrees in Electrical Engineering and advanced physics. Shameful but predictable that an MBA with only a medieval history degree would make such dirty claims.

As a stockholder, I am receiving letters from both sides weekly. Now I am receiving phone calls from both weekly. Although my votes will be trivial, it suggests how close this vote will be. Too many on large mutual funds are MBAs and will not see how destructive another MBA would be to HP. Therefore the votes will be close. Why do they not learn from HP history? Remember John Young?

John Young, an HP CFO took over as CEO when Bill and Dave retired. In four years, he quickly drove HP into the ground by stifling the innovation pipeline. So in classic MBA style, he bought Apollo Computer to enhance the HP computer line. As any product oriented person could tell in advance, it was a disaster. HP floundered so badly that Dave Packard was all but assaulted at Palo Alto beer bashes (from a friend who was there) by frustrated employees. Eventually Dave Packard, old and hurting from his wife's death, had to return to save his company (BTW, Dave of Wendy's also had to do same). John Young is a classic MBA who looked good on paper as he slowly destroyed HP's innovative culture. As soon as John Young was removed, HP began releasing stifled technology such as the Laserjet 4.

After removing the MBA John Young, Dave left the company in Lew Platt's good hands. HP went on to become the dominant printer manufacturer including ink jet printers. Ever buy an HP inkjet lately? It does not have the reliability it once had because, who took over after Lew Platt? The MBA salesman from Lucent.

Now that her big plan to merge Compaq is in trouble, she is disparaging Walter Hewlett. That was when I decided those commercials, where she promoted the word "Innovation" in front of Bill and Dave's famous garage, may be nothing more than a classic MBA talking (lying). I discovered that Carly Fiorina is a classic MBA - with no dirt under her fingernails, and with a cost control, anti-innovation mentality.

I am going to that board meeting expecting to watch a dirty proxy fight. I did not get to see the one where Apple Computer stockholders are rumored to yell four letter words down upon the Board. So violent were those expressions that Apple's BoD held an emergency meeting to remove Michael Spindler. He was given 24 hours to fly from NYC to CA and clean out his desk. Eventually most of those MBA's on Apple's BoD were removed - good riddance.

An MBA with credentials just like Fiorina's, was removed from Apple to save the company. Kudos to Apple's stockholders for abusing Apple's Board of Directors into voting for the company instead of its MBA. After reviewing their background, only one Apple Director had anything close to experience in the computer industry. One lady Director was nothing more than a professional spokesperson. No wonder they thought the MBA Michael Spindler would not bankrupt Apple. They knew nothing about computers and therefore were going to support the MBA Spindler in the destruction of Apple Computer.

Will the HP board meeting be as active? Maybe. I am reminded of another merger that resulted in anti-innovation; the merger of Tandem and DEC into Compaq. Ironic that Compaq is no longer the premier PC manufacturer because they wasted good money on bad mergers. For example, the crown jewel of DEC, the Alpha processor, instead had to be abandoned by Compaq. Where did DEC provide any value? Would HP realize why those Compaq mergers were so destructive? Of course not. HP is currently run by a MBA named Carly Fiorina who now disparages good people like a vindictive housewife.

Watch these next two weeks as we will see what MBAs (like those who ran Enron) will do to get their way - or at least enrich themselves at the expense of America and the world.

One must remember why Bill and Dave were so successful. They would identify a new, innovative technology before it was surrounded by a large company- before the technology could be measured on spread sheets. A new technology and its innovators would be merged into HP as a new division run by those innovators. Therefore HP did not have to disassemble an entire, existing company, and rebuild it into the HP structure. Even moreso, Bill and Dave were innovators. They could see value in an innovation before the spread sheets could report same.

Carly Fiorina can only see value after the innovations are no longer innovative. She can only see what spread sheets tell her. Any product oriented thinker knows those spread sheets summarize work and innvations of four to ten years previous. But Carly is MBA trained and could not understand innovation if we stuck it up her nose. Looking forward to a real WWF type brawl - not faked like on TV. Also will be curious to see how big Carly's nose really is.