Perspective: Taking Mark Hurd at his word

Maybe it was the nature of the early hour on the West Coast when I tuned in to Congress' investigation into the mess at Hewlett-Packard. But as I began watching the morning's festivities, I wondered whether somebody had hacked into the server to stream a segment from the 1950 Kefauver hearings into organized crime.

Everybody from HP was taking the Fifth. Starting with the (now former) top legal brain at the company to the hole-in-the-wall contractors at the bottom of the pretexting food chain, everybody cited their constitutional right not to incriminate themselves.

I can understand their vow of omerta. Who wants to end up like the crooks at Enron, supposedly the smartest guys in the room? Today we got a glimpse of the folks in the room down the hall--the one with the "remedial" sign hanging outside the door.

After listening to Dunn's testimony, I still can't make up my mind whether she's peerlessly brilliant or the village idiot incarnate.

Nobody offered an opening statement and nobody was saying nuthin'. They know what happened after former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling testified before Congress. That was a bad move and his words came back to haunt his subsequent trial. Who wants to chance it knowing they might face the wrong end of a prosecutor's wrath in the not-too-distant future.

Their refusal to testify came as a disappointment to surprised members of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which was holding the hearing. They clearly were in a grandstanding frame of mind. After all, there's an election in less than six weeks and taking down a corporate fat cat or two--or at least publicly embarrassing the stuffing out of them--would look awfully good to the folks back in the district.

Then they swore in Pattie Dunn, the former "non-executive" chairwoman (a moniker she kept insisting on using throughout the Q&A) who proceeded to gift-wrap their headline.

I've been trying to find sympathy for Dunn. Here's somebody whose otherwise long and distinguished career is finishing out in miserable fashion. But each time I give her a chance to prove me wrong, Dunn reconfirms my original impression of her as an amoral corporate operator.

The first thing out of her mouth was to proclaim that corporate boards have rights and then pass the buck.

At least Dunn was consistent. In previous written statements, she expressed disappointment in underlings. Dunn explained that she is not a lawyer and so relied on the advice of legal experts who said the pretexting techniques used by HP during the investigation were "not generally unlawful." And so it continued with Dunn staying on message as she stiff-armed sundry representatives trying to pin her down.

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After listening to Dunn's testimony, I still can't make up my mind whether she's peerlessly brilliant or the village idiot incarnate. At her seemingly most clueless, Dunn said she had thought phone records were publicly available. Otherwise, she was evasive and inexact in telling the committee what she knew and when.

HP's outside counsel, Larry Sonsini, also testified, giving the sort of careful command performance you would expect from one of Silicon Valley's best-connected lawyers. Sonsini got out of every tight corner with a series of legal explanations that kept his inquisitors frustrated. It was a bravura corporate rope-a-dope. But what's legal is not always ethical. Sonsini did urge legislators to provide more clarity on pretexting, but sharp lawyers doubtless know that that sort of technique is a stinker from the get-go.

Hurd steps up
At least Mark Hurd wasn't morally obtuse or didn't pretend not to understand the damage inflicted by the mushrooming scandal. When he got his chance to testify, Hurd again apologized for the mess and said that if HP's co-founders were alive today, they'd be embarrassed. So indeed they would. Reaching back into the company's history at this point aligns him--even if only metaphorically--with the storybook legend of Bill Hewlett and David Packard. And to his credit, Hurd has started to clean house. Dunn is gone. So is senior counsel Kevin Hunsaker, as well as Ann Baskins, who was Hunsaker's boss. Other shoes will likely drop in coming days and weeks.

Even more, Hurd lived up to his advance billing as a top-notch leader for the first time since the pretexting affair broke earlier this month. He wasn't hiding behind his PR team or blaming out-of-control goofballs for what's happened.

Instead of ducking hard questions, Hurd pledged his support for legislation to make pretexting illegal--a savvy move that may help get Congress off his back. I can see the wording on the handbills: "Who better than to understand this scourge than the company that's become the poster child for pretexting?"

As the hearing neared its finish, Hurd also offered a profound parting observation to the committee. Everyone makes errors. But in the end, we're ultimately defined by how we deal with those mistakes. If Hurd's pledge is a real harbinger, HP may be able to glimpse the light at the end of the tunnel sooner, rather than later.

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

More Perspectives

[dmegan]

HP Circus

I watched a good portion of the hearings, though still need to see Mr. Hurd's participation.... I can say from viewing everyone else I was disgusted... I thought one of these low lifes would take the high ground and say, "you know, I'm ashamed at what I did and I'll help in any way I can!" Especialy some of the folks on the low end of this scandal. Congress isn't looking to jail some Private dick for going throug trash and even if they did it would be a tiny sentence.... And had a person decided to do that, they'd be instantly famous and in America fame (and infamy) equals money! I believe Kevin Metnick, our most famous hacker, is making millions as a consultant now!

I will have to see if Mr. Hurd can bring me back to believing in HP again. In a time when American companies need American citizens to have pride in our brands (for everything they represent), this is just another nail in the coffin that emphasizes loyalty is for suckers!

[Too Old For IT]

Dunn: Affirmative Action Poster Child (Where is Ken Starr?)

Where is Ken Starr when you need him? None of these fifth-taking weasels would last a day.

[TomMariner]

Witch Hunt

With everything that our Congress ought to be paying attention to, they have time to call meetings costing tens of millions of dollars and takes up days of their time to investigate what is at best an ethical lapse. That has already been corrected.

With the absolute and awesome power a representative on a committee has, can you blame anyone for taking the fifth. The slightest misstatement could land them in Federal Prison for the rest of their working life. Not had the company reacted to clear up the problem, but local law enforcement had even started stirring up muck. Why did we need to literally stop the business of our country to not only hold the televised, highly reported "hearings", but spend the tens of thousands of staff hours that were diverted to compile an "evidence folder" that was hundreds of exhibits long? (Using my tax dollars.)

Aha, I believe I have answered by own question -- Midterm elections are coming. So the facts are that our appointed (and paid) representatives did great harm to one of our most productive companies to increase their chances of getting elected. Why don't we have HP hold televised hearings where our congresspeople (PC) have to answer brutal questions about why they abandoned their elected tasks to not only waste time, but hurt our competitiveness?

[fred dunn]

Yeah...Trust Me

We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg as far as what HP has done and not been caught.
But I shouldn't isolate HP on this given the state of the union today. I do believ this to be a VERY common occurence and even a sporting challenge to some like the 2 geeks on the extreme right at the senate hearings.
Will Mark Hurd turn HP around, who gives a damn? They have been caught with their pants down, any fool knows they are going to pull their pants back up and "straighten out". The question is how soon will this occur again, not if.

[shanedr]

Word of Someone who didn't do their job?

By his own testimony before Congress, Mark Hurd failed to do his job. Namely properly oversee what his subordinates were doing. Worse he even refused to read information those subordinates sent him. By what stretch of the imagination can anyone believe that he is now prepared to do the job he refused to do before. Obviously HP's Board of Directors are as stupid and negligent as those who served as Enron's Board of Directors. HP Stockholders need to replace all those at fault including the Board of Directors in their entirety.

[JustPutt2]

HP CEO & ETHICS

You were a little faster to judgment, BUT!! I tend to agree with you. He was very remiss in his HP CEO duties, knowledge, and sensitivity to their corporate ethics. As far as HIGH ETHICS go,,, it really is NOT a matter of how long you have been on the job!!!!!!!!!! You bring them WITH YOU, TO THE JOB!!!!!

[Little Gorm]

HP and corporate ethics

OK, here is the thing. Corporations really do not have anything like "ethics", at least the type of ethics that philosophers spoke about over the centuries. In the corporate mind, the term "ethics" and "legal behavior" are synonomous. If I did not break the law (i.e., got convicted) than I am perfectly ethical. Once you accept this view, you will see HP's actions as perfectly OK. They will become "unethical" when and if the convictions come.

Until then let's knock of holding HP or any corporation up as some kind of "Gold Standard". Corporations exist to make a buck for their shareholders, not to be humanitarian charities. To think otherwise is delusional and naive. If you note, HP's stock price only began to flutter a bit when Hurd was all of sudden caught with his pants down. The shareholders and Wall Street did not give a damn about all of this noise several weeks back. When the possibility that Hurd might be accused of criminal wrongdoing (which he may or may not be)Wall street went nuts.

Corporate America looks only at the bottom line. Let us not bring in ethical behavior into such a discussion--Plato and Socrates will roll over in their graves!

[shanedr]

Plato and Socrates?

Where did you get the idea that Plato and Socrates even conceived of entities such as corporations. Just because many corporations are unethical is no reason to state that they shouldn't be ethical. What we've seen with Enron and now HP is that there is a dire need for ethical behavior being enforced at the highest level of corporations are any business. It is past time for stockholders and consumers to demand ethical behavior from the business world. Ethics is not just something that gets in the way of profits. Ethical behavior proof to stockholders and consumers that they need not fear being cheated by that business. I wouldn't trust any company that showed its level of ethics was inadequate by MY standards. IF HP wants my business in the future they'll have to convince me that they measure up to MY ethical standards.

[Dragon Forge]

What an AZZ!

You want to try and pull an all business like, tough guy, reality versus utopia, 'wake up and smell the coffee' set of perspectives here?

As an HP paid for poll, barometer as you will, you are imagining to yourself that it is business as usual and the throngs will get over it.

Let of first of all bear testimony to let this typical example of business conduct be held up and established as a documented proof, a relatively absolute truth, of how things are done in corporate america, (which now gradutes to little "A" in this azznine rhetoric.

One of the newer IT technologies is 'peristent memory'. No not the kind we see in the architectures of computing devices but that socialized concept of being able to communicate, ruminate and organize actions thanks to the ready access of the net. As the public begins to reaize that things can actually be done that will benefit them individually and society as a whole it will al become blazingly clear.

How's that for a reality.

Now on to the business at hand....

In discussing this I care not for you postion, upbringing and personal lack of comapssion, empathy and ethics. It does speak volumes about how scared, little minded individuals, who have no intellect to rise about the dictatorial indoctrinating, by businesses hiding behind vapid ideologies and slogans wish to cower in amongst the ranks of these organizations to protect all that they think they know.

To pretend you are a rational, clearminded, business person by spouting such malarky is offensive. What you are saying that businesses need to forget that we are people serving people in order to succeed. No, these are the call signs of those that which have no capacity in what little soul they have left.

This is not "the thing" and what you define a business organization doing is a personal opinion meant to sound logical. To hopefully put a spin on it that will stem the tide of the public's dissapprovals and calls for action.

There is definitey a concerted effort by most organizations to stetch the bonds or reasobnability and try and "get away with" as much as it possibly can attempting to justify it with boolstering the market system. Herein lies a kernel of much of what is wrong with the American culture and society.

Perhaps Gernmany in '36 is a better place for you.

I will guarantee you this... that at the end of a lifetime of fooling yourself, the swift epiphany of mortality will steal from you all that you imagined you gained in a lifetime.

[JustPutt2]

HP CNET Commentary

Very well written article, mostly because I agree with the author. I have seen Patricia Dunn before in my prior Hi Tech Corporate life,,, A high achiever, totally goal oriented, aiming only for personal success, and being ever so nimble to escape personal blame for anything.

In my opinion, the jury is still out on Mark Hurd,,, his mea culpas were so cliche, and sometimes trite, in fact even he mentioned that. His judgment day will come when their customers start buying HP products, AND SAY WITHOUT PRODDING, "HEY, THIS IS AN HONEST COMPANY"

[diggityd]

Can you really trust HP

Is Mark Hurd really someone we can trust? We can only take him at his word that he didn't read the report that he said he should have read. Admitting that he had read the report would be like admitting guilt.
The bigger question though is can a consumer really trust HP/Mark Hurd? In the wake of the battery mess HP still insists that its computer are not effected -- just like Lenovo insisted until a Thinkpad caught fire at LAX. Can we really trust HP? No, this problem is industry wide and not just limited to a few companies that use SONY batteries. This poor little girl's HP caught fire while she was surfing the internet: http://expressen.se/index.jsp?d=10&a=578852

HP has been too involved with their boardroom to give the proper attention to their customers.

[Dragon Forge]

The Burning Ring of Fire

Down down down.... you go, and so being so used to the flames no one notices the scenery.

Everyone is utterly fed up with the impotent and near useless processes the US deploys to "make things right". No matter how many times you site to yourselves that the system works and little by little you that think you are getting better, the world stands agawk at the fitful, troll of diminished capacity making a spectacle of its self.

Perhaps more appropriately now the MadHatter's tea party begins where the rest of the world is Alice and America, well you know the rest.

Subterfuge, diversions, facades, faux concern, 'minisculealities', misdirection, spinning, ahh well practiced tools that are used to dissipate attention, concern and the preceptions of importance.

As the US begins its "factfinding" 'investigation' and 'remedial processes' into trying to understand "how could this ever happen" in the midst of its personal hell, we all know it will amount to squat. Some watered down, ineffectual scotchtape, [in place of a bandaid], will be held up for all to see what a wonderful system it is.

A business is supposed to organize itself along the lines of equitability. Just because there are so many components in this "complex" (hah) "assembly" does not mean that the public should expect that the responsibilities can be spread out among all the pieces.

The organization has managers, boards, executives, Chief <whatevers>, 'policies', 'mission statements', "standards" and shareholders that are supposedly meant to provide direction and guidance. Apparently none of these thing at HP either work or have kept in mind the importance of human endeavors in a lifetime of developments.

Oh yay! Hurd is 'taking responsibility'. Is this what you are convincing yourself of? The act was done, committed by "business leaders". We are far beyond the dissappoinment stage. It is not easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission as so many pundits jokingly proclaim. Or since we are dealing with human lives here should not be.

Well maybe, as you all see the flames are getting higher you are panicked into believing anything.

America, the cartoon.

[Richard Stephens]

HP-time to INVENT itself?

This whole embarrassing scene would be a great silver screen venture, except that it is true, so pointless and really quite unnecessary. An organization culture now so weak, so inward looking, that a disproportionate level of suspicion and unbalanced fear resides, and not so surprisingly HP have simply been exposed taking actions which many large corps at some time to some extent implement...(or at least think about)...but perhaps not actioned in such a sloppy and stupid way!!
What a shame.
For HP is such a great international company, too good in fact to be having to defend the indefensible in this horrible and embarrassing way.
Those involved have let HP down badly as well as themselves and seriously damaged worldwide business and investor confidence.

Clearly corporate standards and quality conduct at the highest levels have dramatically dropped since Mr. Packard and Mr. Hewlett controlled things (such Happy People) ? a company once so straight, so simple, so open that what you saw was what you got (even if it arrived a bit later than maybe you expected).

Further signs (if we needed any more) of the remaining death throws of what surely is the last 60?s IT dinosaur! (Digital, DG, IBM.... all have dramatically changed to suit the new environment or quickly died).

That said, the HP view has increasingly been exposed to modern times and changing challenges and, although I think failed, it has tried to adapt (much to the entertainment of the IT press and others)- the company is still very old fashioned, too big, too late?and still hugging ideas more akin to the thinking of engineering...when today ?end to end? communications is what is needed.
The culture is above all defensive and structurally bounded rather than integrated or flexible and expansionary. Yet this wonderfull Corporation unrealistically hangs on to its badge of ?inventiveness?- yet thorough re-inventing of itself is what is now desperately needed.

If only the company was more like the brand!!!