Is the Hewlett Packard Scandal a Test for Top Exec?

Hewlett-Packard officials have faced the fire over the past few weeks amid accusations of unethical and possibly illegal behavior. But is the scandal nothing more than a test for the company’s CEO?

In an article on the ComputerWorld website, Patrick Thibodeau says several corporate HP users say they continue to back Mark Hurd, HP’s CEO and now board chairman, for improving operational efficiency and customer support. But Thibodeau says some added caveats.

Steven Naylor, director of IT at FHLBank Topeka, a federal home loan bank in Kansas, told Thibodeau the scandal is a test of Hurd’s management ability. Hurd’s response could determine “whether he is the right person to lead HP,” Naylor said. “He is being challenged in areas that he has not been challenged before. The way he handles this will probably dictate the future of the company.”

Users should be paying attention to the scandal, Naylor added. “It’s on my radar because of the Enron investigation and the subsequent result of the need to be sensitive to these types of things,” he told Thibodeau.

“In one way, Hurd has gained from the scandal. He was named board chairman after Patricia Dunn’s departure and now joins the ranks of other corporate CEOs who are also chairmen, including Samuel Palmisano at IBM, and Jeffrey Immelt at General Electric Co.,” Thibodeau says. However, handing out both titles to one person runs counter to current trends in corporate governance.

To read the full article, click here: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=view