Head in the Clouds? HP Faces Uncertain Future
A year before his death, Steve Jobs went for a stroll around his neighborhood with Mark Hurd, who had just been ousted as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The late Apple cofounder offered to contact each member of the HP board individually to get Hurd reinstated. In five years at the helm, Hurd had made HP the largest tech company in the world and continually increased profits. Yet, the board had still forced his resignation over claims of sexual harassment and misuse of his expense account. Larry Ellison, Jobs and Hurd’s mutual pal, labeled the move “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs.”
Why was Jobs pitching in for Hurd? It wasn’t just to help a friend in need, but because Jobs foresaw the collapse of a founding member of Silicon Valley. “This was a company founded by good men with good employees that built good products,” says Stanford historian Leslie Berlin. “It functioned as sort of the moral core of the Valley.” Jobs’ fears, it turns out, were on the money. HP’s share price has dropped 70 percent since 2010, and the company has lost US$68 billion in value. Dwindling market share has also been an issue. In January, UBS turned up the volume on a progressively vociferous murmur in the Valley: A break-up of the company might be in order. How did it get to this point?
從雲端到谷底 惠普力搏翻身
在他去世的前一年，史蒂夫‧賈伯斯於住家附近和剛被免除惠普執行長一職的馬克‧赫德一同散步。這位已故蘋果共同創辦人願意分別去聯繫惠普的董事會成員來讓赫德復職。在五年的執掌期間，赫德讓惠普成為全球最大的科技公司且不斷增加利潤。然而董事會仍主張他性騷擾與濫用公款而迫使他辭職。賈伯斯與赫德的共同朋友賴瑞‧艾里森把這項舉動稱為「自蘋果董事會的笨蛋們開除史蒂夫‧賈伯斯後，最糟糕的人事決定。」
為什麼賈伯斯要如此幫助赫德？這並非只是拉有難的朋友一把，而是因為賈伯斯已預見惠普這個矽谷創始成員的崩解。「惠普是由一群好人和製造優良產品的好員工所創立的公司，」史丹佛大學歷史學家萊斯莉‧柏林表示。「它的功能就像是矽谷的道德核心。」結果，賈伯斯的擔憂發生在錢的部分。惠普的股價自二○一○年以來已下跌 70%，公司市值則減少 680 億美元。市佔率縮小也是個問題。一月時，瑞銀集團更讓「惠普可能就要瓦解」的這個耳語在矽谷甚囂塵上。事情怎麼會演變到這樣的地步？
資料來源：biz 互動英語電子報
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