Perspective: HP's lame mea culpa

In 1952, Richard Nixon revived his flagging candidacy for the vice-presidential nomination on the Republican ticket with a mawkishly effective television performance known since by posterity as the "Checkers" speech.

Maybe if Mark Hurd had brought along a black and white spotted cocker spaniel for his gala media moment he could have defused the controversy surrounding the escalating corporate snooping scandal at Hewlett-Packard.

Such was not the case. On Friday afternoon HP's CEO offered one of the lamest mea culpas imaginable for the pretexting affair that has rocked this venerable company. He put on a scripted performance--but that's all it was: a performance. Hurd's brief remarks--it was originally billed as a press conference though reporters were not allowed to ask questions--raised even more questions. Perhaps some of them will get answered next week when Hurd gets sworn in before a congressional committee investigating the shenanigans that occurred on his watch.

But all Hurd managed to do was confirm the sneaking suspicion that very senior people at HP were going through the motions of doing their job.

Not the least being Hurd himself.

All Hurd managed to do was confirm the sneaking suspicion that very senior people at HP were going through the motions of doing their job.

In February 2006, Hurd approved a ridiculous scheme to trick a CNET News.com reporter by sending off a bogus e-mail to figure out her source inside the company. But Hurd, likely coached by a hotshot lawyer, says he can't recall seeing or approving the use of tracer technology. Well, that's swell of him. Now, where was his better judgment about the proprietary of this Inspector Clouseau routine?

Even stranger, Hurd's underlings sent in a memo reporting on the investigation that he failed to read. Failed to read? Was there a golf tournament going on that diverted his attention? Somewhere in the acronmym "CEO" you'll find the word "chief." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines the term as the "head of a body of persons or an organization." If Hurd didn't think mastering the details of a spy probe were worth his time, he shouldn't be surprised things got out of hand.

special coverage
HP's boardroom drama

Catch up on the complete coverage, including the latest news on HP's controversial effort to root out media leaks.

Wall Street desperately wishes this affair blows over as soon as possible. No surprise there. Those folks are less interested in questions of corporate ethics than in keeping the money machine going with no interruptions. But HP's in a mess of its own making because of poor management.

Ever since HP appointed Hurd to replace Carly Fiorina in early 2005, he's been treated to an extended public relations honeymoon. In all of the adoring profiles written about Hurd that I've read, he comes across as a details-oriented, sleeves-rolled-up manager. I can understand why he might go berserk if told that board members were leaking confidential information. But the failure to pay attention to the methodologies employed doesn't jibe with the Mark Hurd image we've been handed.

And so it was that Patricia Dunn was served up as the sacrificial lamb. Somebody had to pay and she was the obvious candidate. (Bummer: Now I can't call this affair "Patriciagate" anymore.) In her written resignation, she passed the buck, saying underlings had let her down. "I did not select the people who conducted the investigation, which was undertaken after consultation with board members."

So she's no Harry Truman. I'm sure this isn't one of Dunn's best days but again, I'm left dumbfounded about the lack of good judgment. Both Dunn and Hurd can alibi all they want. But neither is a babe in the corporate woods. They ought to have paid closer attention after ordering up an investigation to plug the leaks--especially after learning about some of the techniques being employed.

I say all this at the risk of sounding like the armchair quarterback that I am. Then again, I'm not receiving millions of dollars in compensation to guide the fortunes of one of America's most storied technology companies.

These guys just have to be kidding.

Biography
Charles Cooper is CNET News.com's executive editor of commentary.

More Perspectives

[Len Bullard]

All Too Common

Good call, Charles, but HP's act is all too common and expected. It would be too narrow to say this is the corporate way, the American way or even just the lawyer's way. It is what happens when the trial in court of public opinion outweighs a legal trial. You're too good a journalist not to know the drill now. Between plausible deniability and absence of malice is a chasm filled with golden parachutes and escape clauses. It is so easy and so well-understood, Presidents are elected with it and pawns are made of minions.

It comes down to this: if the rules for one aren't the same for all, then there are no rules and where there are no rules, fear rules. Fear kills the mind (F. Herbert) and once the mind is gone, the human devolves into an animal ruled only by instinct, emotion, and environment.

It reads like a preachy speech, I know, but rule of law, fair and balanced, is nonetheless the indisputable difference between honorable service and just civilization and a popularity contest in junior high school. Justice comes not from nature but from the tedious and too often unrewarded work of honorable men and women.

Hurd and the others like him keep their jobs. They forfeit their honor. See Shakespeare for a funny fellow named "Falstaff" for the denouement of that old old play.

[Len Bullard]

All Too Common

Good call, Charles, but HP's act is all too common and expected. It would be too narrow to say this is the corporate way, the American way or even just the lawyer's way. It is what happens when the trial in the court of public opinion outweighs a legal trial. You're too good a journalist not to know the drill now. Between plausible deniability and absence of malice is a chasm filled with golden parachutes and escape clauses. It is so easy and so well-understood, Presidents are elected with it and pawns are made of minions.

It comes down to this: if the rules for one aren't the same for all, then there are no rules and where there are no rules, fear rules. Fear kills the mind (F. Herbert) and once the mind is gone, the human devolves into an animal ruled only by instinct, emotion, and environment.

It reads like a preachy speech, I know, but rule of law, fair and balanced, is nonetheless the indisputable difference between honorable service and just civilization and a popularity contest in junior high school. Justice comes not from nature but from the tedious and too often unrewarded work of honorable men and women.

Hurd and the others like him keep their jobs. They forfeit their honor. See Shakespeare for a funny fellow named "Falstaff" for the denouement of that old old play.

[fred dunn]

This thing is going to peel like an onion...

We haven't heard anything yet. The devil is in the details and so far those are few and far betweeen.
Also the HP legal counsel both internal and external have been "hair-splitting" as to whether this was legal or that was legal and who is ultimately responsible.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the buck stops with both the CEO and the Chair of the board, period. Legal counsel will undoubtedly be in the mix but a corporation is guided by it's leaders and just as a captain of a ship they too go down with the ship.

[BoxlessThinker]

HURD should be herded

This idea that CEO Hurd knows nothing...sees nothing...did noooothing is ridiculous. These broken records where CEOs proclaim being hands-on and then instantly take their hands off the wheel when anything about ethics pops up...let alone criminal misconduct...is an example of the insular pat-on-the-back boardroom mentality. The only problem here is that the boardroom players attacked each other. Too bad. The firing of Fiorina sparked a boardroom brawl...and now they are at each other's throats...or private phone records. Not only is Dunn done...but Hurd should be herded right on out of there. According to Perkins, Hurd knew and approved the methods of the investigation. Criminal...you bet. But it speaks even more to this CEOtitist...a disease of massive arrogance, privilege, and separation from the reality of life within and outside their corporations. We as normal people are sick to death of massive greed and power brokering in America. And within venerable HP, just like venerable Enron (MOST Admired Company AND Most Socially Responsible according to the press at one point) there lurks the underpinnings of elistism and invincibility. Out with the lot of them at HP I say...just like with our Congressmen and Senators in the near elections. Time for a real change that reflects a concern for fundamental rights and the well being of average people. They can take their millions and go play on some remote island, drinking rum juice drinks, and bashing each other, but not harming how we work and live anymore.