Nobody knows exactly when Hewlett-Packard's $13.9 billion acquisition of EDS will close, but it may already be too late for the tech giant to take a run at IBM's leadership in global technology services.
Eight years ago, then-CEO Carly Fiorina looked into acquiring PricewaterhouseCoopers to expand HP's services business, but it ultimately balked at the deal. IBM scooped up the consulting firm for $3.5 billion just two years later, a move that accelerated its famously successful repositioning as a services company.
HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd
(Credit: Hewlett-Packard)Now HP Chief Executive Mark Hurd is trying to do what Fiorina failed to do eight long years ago--eons in today's ultrafast-pace technology world. ... Read more
Occam's Razor essentially says that all things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. The principle has implications in virtually every field of science, not to mention philosophy, aesthetics, marketing, business, you name it.
If for some reason you don't buy the word of a 14th-century Franciscan friar, it might interest you to know that Albert Einstein also believed the universe loves simplicity. I don't know about you, but I'm in no position to argue with that guy.
You'd think that keeping things simple would be the easiest path, but that's not necessarily the case. Sometimes it's downright impossible. Look at the personal computer, for example. The need for backwards compatibility with legacy programs and interfaces has forever rendered the PC more complex than any of us would like. ... Read more
There are lots of things I don't understand. They make me crazy. But don't worry, it isn't contagious.
What I don't understand
How was Lou Gerstner able to reposition a zillion-year-old company like IBM from big iron to services, while Jerry Yang doesn't even know where to begin reinventing Yahoo!?
Why does my wife clean the house before the cleaning people come?
When you tell telemarketers you're not interested, why do they keep talking until you hang up on them?
Why do criminals go to all the trouble of robbing a bank or smuggling drugs and then get caught with the goods doing something stupid like speeding?
Last week my dog pissed on the couch; the same day the cat threw up in my slippers. Why do bad things happen in groups? Is there some unknown force of attraction between disastrous events? Where are the physicists on this? ... Read more
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