Cerebral Shangrila

Monday, February 14, 2005

HP & Fiorina Posted by Hello



This is not just another Garage . This is the Garage where Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard founded HP more than 65 years ago. The Commemorative Plaque outside proclaims this place as the " Birthplace of Silicon Valley" . For the uninitiated , Silicon Valley (or Bay Area) is the Stretch between San Francisco & San Jose
( Almost 50 miles if you drive on 101 Freeway) in California which is the Home of Tech Giants such as HP,Oracle,Cisco,Intel,Sun Microsystems,Yahoo,Google,Apple.


When I heard the news about the ouster of Carly , I couldn't help feeling a sense of Clairvoyance.HP is a company that I admire a lot . Aren't they afterall credited with the Creation of " Silicon Valley" ? I lived in the valley for almost 3 years . The Silicon Valley is famous for many things -- Innovation , Venture Capitalism,Entrepreneurial Spirit , Geekdom and also sadly greed. HP was one of those few companies with brain & soul in an otherwise competitive cerebral world . Folklores are legendary inside HP about its Founders' simplicity and unique " Management by Walking Around (MBWA)".

During my recent MBA projects (OB Project on HP-Compaq Merger and Costing project on " Cost of Quality" at HP) on HP , I couldn't help having a eerie feeling when I realized that 70% of HP's profits came from its Lucrative Printing / Imaging division or when the bulk of market Cap of HP was due to its "cash cow" printers (Actually catridges) . Most analysts wanted the company to be split to enhance shareholder value and also the HP-Compaq merger had not gone as well as they wanted it to be ( IBM is still a king in Services and Dell seems no signs of wearing down in PC Business enjoying the highest margins ).

Against all this Backdrop , I thought Fiorina would quit and probably pursue her political ambitions ( BusinessWeek reports that she is close to the Republicans and has aspirations to run for the Senate ). But fate (or the Board) willed otherwise .........

2 Comments:

  • Hi,

    In here after a long time! Nice snap of the historic 'garage'!! So where were you three yrs in the valley. With CSC? They don't send u onsite for that long? Anyways how have you been doing? What about ur intersnships and all?

    By Blogger Abhay, at 12:18 PM  

  • Confused, Sure. Will send you the ppt today. SO all set to fizzle at Pepsico?

    Abby, I am doing good. Got to start the internship search now that exams are over. I was with a Consulting firm in Santa Clara for a few years before CSC.

    By Blogger Cogito, at 5:02 PM  

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