Walter Hewlett had a clear moral obligation to use some of the hundreds of
millions of dollars he inherited from his father to prevent what he and most of
the Packard family see as the destruction of their parent's lifetime
achievement: a unique corporate culture that valued people over everything else,
even at the expense of maximum profit margins.
HP CEO Carly Fiorina can argue all day that HP is a different company today
than the one David Packard and Bill Hewlett built and guided throughout the
1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s and most of the 90s. And she can argue that
today's business conditions are radically different, requiring radically
different approaches and solutions.
But she will never convince Walter Hewlett who felt HP is strong enough to
pull itself up by its bootstraps and remain a strong technology company with
high profit margins. A company that doesn't need to be merged with some huge
alien force in a desperate effort to catch up to IBM in gross annual sales.
But in the end, Hewlett lost the vote by a very slim margin, just as Al Gore
lost on a close vote to George Bush. Are we better off economically today under
Bush? Not in Silicon Valley we're not! But you have to respect the decision of
the majority, like it or not. And the HP shareholders who voted for the merger
and who are looking at years of problems that will keep the firm's stock price
depressed will have to live with their decision.
The only ones better off due to the HP-Compaq merger are the media who will
be feasting off years of HP-Compaq trials and tribulations as the integration of
the two mammoth companies struggles along. Can the merger succeed? No it can't!
It has never been done before and Fiorina is not the person to pull off a
miracle. And having made herself enemy #1 with a large portion of her own
workforce will definitely not help her overcome the otherwise insurmountable
challenges ahead.
But it will be interesting seeing her try.