"Society"  wrote in message
news:110nm4uhsuvmi7b{at}corp.supernews.com...
>
> "Philip Lewis"  wrote in message
> news:370i0gF57h88qU1{at}individual.net...
>>
>> Ian wrote...
>>>
>>>   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4250315.stm
>>>
>>>   "Ms Fiorina, one of America's most powerful
>>>   businesswomen, said she was leaving after a
>>>   dispute with the company's board over future
>>>   strategy"
>>>
>>> Surely that was "once one of..."
>
> :-)   Yup.
>
>>> [...] So, looking forward, what's going to
>>> happen to HP, now that she's completely
>>> fucked it? Epson could pick up the printer
>>> market,
>
> HP's printer business remains strong so
> a windfall for Epson is unlikely.  In my
> estimation, even if HP went into bankruptcy
> its printer business would emerge intact
> after the corporate reorganization.
>
>>> if it wasn't for HP putting stupid
>>> device drivers on their allinone network
>>> printers that fuck up the most commonly
>>> used operating system in the world, XP.
>>> Was that another Fiaronoism?
>>>
>>> Carly :  Noun. "Fuck up" - To do a Carly.
>
> Anybody else remember how much time
> went by before HP finally digested its
> acquisition of Apollo?  (Anybody else even
> _remember_ Apollo Computer?)
>
>> DEC was fucked --> Compaq gobbled it up,
>> then Compaq was fucked--->HP gobbled
>> it up, then HP was fucked (internal management
>> cultures characterised by multiple little fiefdoms
>> with little awareness of the 'big picture')!!
>
> Phil, you left out Tandem.  Compaq acquired
> Tandem before taking on DEC.  Could Tandem
> be the original indigestable meal in the sequence?

Hmmm could be a factor - but I was working for DEC right up to the point of
the announced merger (I was contracted to work on an 'automated' manufacture
monitoring system for their PC manufacturing division) - more about that
later.


>
> As for those "multiple little fiefdoms", that had
> long been a _strength_ of HP and the fertile
> ground for its innovation.  Consolidation of
> the many business units at HP was one of
> Fiorina's big pushes.  Somehow, tho', such
> rationalist projects of shoving everything into
> one big lump rarely produce the synergies
> that were expected.  Instead, what all too
> often occurs is a 1 + 1 = 1 result, not the
> hoped for result of "3" or even a break-
> even result of two.

What happened at DEC was that the 'fiefdoms' simply became TOO insular
resulting in incredibly wastefull 're-inventions of the wheel' simply
because if one 'lab' had worked on a problem and solved it - that knowledge
wasn't being shared. Reasons for this may be varied from the egotistic 'not
invented here' syndrome to simply a case of a lack of meaningfull
communication between differeent 'labs'.
Forcing such insular depts. into an allegedly more 'consolidated' model
would not solve anything unless a highly selective pruning was carried out
to weed out those who had made their way by playing 'lab politics' rather
than by contributing via true innovation, in many cases this would probably
involve getting rid of many so-called 'project managers' whose main skill in
most cases seemed to derive from the stolen glory of much more junior
(management wise) but genuinely talented programmers.



>
>> What happened to Lord Hanson - that guy
>> wasn't sentimental or hampered by the infinitely
>> finessed finer details of fluffy human resource management. If a company
>> was bloated and
>> ineficient his cure wasn't to try and 'reform'
>> the incumbent 'business culture' - mass sackings
>> sometimes decimating HQ staff by 90% or more
>> and replacing them with far fewer but EFFECTIVE
>> replacements made that guy a packet!!!
>
> Well, Phil, what was Hanson's most high-tech
> acquisition?

I think you misunderstood my point - Hansons talent from my observations and
readings was that of having the uncanny 'knack' or skill in choosing the
right man for the job. I have no idea of what Hanson did or did not do in
the strictly high-tech arena - but I did have first hand experience of what
he did very shortly after he took over Consgold. At that time I was temping
(as a management accountant - shortly before launching into IT as a full
time carreer) for the aggregates and concrete division (of consgold) working
in their HQ  - of course IT played a major role and they did a even then
have a large IT department. Just weeks after the takeover he installed some
of his 'own people' and BANG 90%+ of the whole HQ staff were either given
their marching orders or a (lucky fewer) were relocated and given
reassignments - usually effectively demotions. Of course I haven't taken the
trouble to follow the fortunes of that division ALL the intervening years
since - but certainly I did over the first 5 or 6 years and the profits were
bumber indeed!

 While Carly Fiorina was whacking
> and sacking at HP labs, the top talent walked
> out the door and into waiting arms at IBM,
> Sun, and so forth.  (The mediocre folk hunker
> down and hope to ride out the shake up 'cause
> they don't expect they'll land as cushy a spot
> as the one they've already got.)  So, at the end
> of the purge the company management finds
> they've got a _lower_ average talent than
> before.  Silly me, I had supposed that Silicon
> Valley firms learned that lesson the hard way
> in the early 1980s but, now that I think on it
> I see the problem: In the 1980s, Fiorina was
> at stodgy ol' monopolistic AT&T, wasn't she?
>
> With HP in tatters and IBM exiting the PC
> business, Sun may have a chance to rise again.
> If that college drop out Michael Dell will let 'em.
> ;-)

As I said to Ian - IT companies that are formed by those who actually
understand what the technology is all about and are not bamboozled by all
the bullshit 'buzzspeak' will have the best chance, bloated corps. don't
have a chance unless they get someone in who really knows where to cut the
'fat' and that often means heads rolling in 'middle management' rather than
sacrificing the valuable 'grunts' that are most often the corps' major human
assests - IMHO of course. ;-o)

Phil
>
> --
>   The best man for the job -- is a man!
>




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