The Status Quo Continues
Hewlett Packard announced that board chairperson Patricia Dunn will be relinquishing that role in January, but still remaining on the board of directors (
http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/12/news/companies/hp_dunn/index.htm?postversion=2006091217).
This is wrong, wrong, wrong. A crime has been committed, theCalifornia attorney general has concluded, and people both inside and outside of HP appear vulnerable to indictment. That crime was committed under the direction of Patricia Dunn, even though she was undoubtedly not the person who committed the actual crime. The same goes for the rest of the board. That seems to be the out that the HP board is counting on.
CEO Mark Hurd will take over, vowing that the probe's methods "have no place in HP."
Wrongo, Colleen. You can't prove that one by the phone records of the journalists that HP illegally obtained. There is a lot of blame here, and the HP board seems to be determined to take none of it. Once again we find corporate executives who see themselves as above the law. We just never thought we would see them at HP. This is the sort of behavior that would get anyone summarily fired, even if they were able to avoid prison time. Unless you are on the board of HP, apparently.
Hurd's message might well be that clearly these methods do have a place in HP, unless you are caught. Then we will blame the contractors and exonerate ourselves.
Perhaps justice will be done here. But the board has spoken, and I don't think so.
Patricia Dunn, you have no integrity.
HP, you still have a serious problem. And you don't seem to care.
Posted by Peter Varhol on 09/13/2006