Hewitt Packard - Ceo Fired Case Study

After Hewlett-Packard fired CEO Carly Fiorina, new CEO Mark Hurd found himself in charge of a struggling, dysfunctional corporation. The strategic vision Fiorina had been using to guide the company—"digital, virtual, mobile, personal"—was vague, and no one knew if it was being executed or not. A confusing matrix structure blurred accountability lines and slowed decision making, and the company reward system was so complex that no one knew how performance affected their bonuses. Talented executives were leaving, and H-P was having trouble attracting new ones.

If those troubles weren't enough, H-P was struggling financially. After acquiring Compaq Computers for $19 billion, it cost H-P another $10 billion to integrate the H-P and Compaq systems. The combined company was riddled with pervasive distrust. And when a board member leaked confidential information to the press, the subsequent scandal (involving spying and phone tapping) ended with Hurd having to testify before Congress regarding what he knew of the situation.

One of H-P's major problems was that it was under managed. Fiorina had been known as a broad visionary, who was highly visible in the press. Many inside H-P, however, felt she didn't provide enough direction. The board ultimately hired Hurd because of his focus on execution (management). Hurd began working with the lower divisional levels to make sure operations were running smoothly. Hurd said, "We need to temper the idea that this company needs to have some earthshaking event every 15 minutes...our job is to execute." After a review, Hurd asked divisional manager Nora Denzel how he could help improve her division. Denzel said, "I asked for three things. By the time I got back to my office, they were all done."

One of Hurd's first decisions was what to do with Fiorina's strategic vision. Hurd chose to keep the strategy but recast it into something more