Scott McNealy's Carly Fiorina moment

Ever since Hewlett-Packard??s board dumped Carly Fiorina, I??ve tried to come up with a Top Ten list of reasons why Sun Microsystems should keep Scott McNealy as CEO.

But I remain stumped.

A year and a half ago, I awarded McNealy a ??gentleman??s C?? for his performance. Truth be told, I second-guessed myself at the time for grade inflation and Sun??s performance hasn??t much improved since then. The stock now trades at around 4 bucks a share -- long after the tech recession ended.

That's quite a dismal performance. So why does McNealy still have a CEO job while Fiorina was sent into splendid retirement?

To be sure, McNealy is a co-founder and still owns more than 56 million shares. But my guess is the top institutional holders--Capital Research and Management Company, Barclays?? Bank, State Street Corp., the Vanguard Group and FMR Corp.??are increasingly anxious to see better results sooner, not later.

For the first time in years, Sun has a convincing story to sell. However, if the company again fails to turn things around, how much longer will the board sit on its hands? Until now McNealy??s been able to buy time because Sun??s sitting on $7.5 billion in cash. And the company can continue to fire more employees to cut costs ??the latest round--claimed some 3,600 positions.

But that??s not a substitute for a growth story. Just ask Fiorina what happens next. As for the Top 10 reasons why Sun should keep McNealy, send me your suggestions and I'll post the best responses.