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read moreBoard room antics and spying not the HP way
Stan Beer
Sunday, 10 September 2006 19:16
A key indoctrination philosophy when I was there that was drummed into employees when they entered the company was embodied in the company’s manifesto called The HP Way, which involved respect for the individual, work life balance, open doors and all that jazz.
After the antics of the past week have come to light, it’s pretty safe to say that any vestiges of The HP Way, as envisioned by the Silicon Valley company’s founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, have pretty much disappeared out of the boardroom window.
The press have generally had a pretty good relationship with HP in days gone by. A little bit of boardroom gossip here and there, some inside sources at senior management level were quite often obtainable. The company was never overly zealous about secrecy.
In my very short stint as a media relations person in Australia back in the late 1980s, I can remember letting slip an opinion to a media caller that I shouldn’t have. The next day when it appeared in the press, even though my name wasn’t mentioned, it was obvious that I was the source, so everybody gave me a good natured ribbing and told me to be more careful next time.
How different the reaction to a minor boardroom leak that resulted in a relatively harmless and non-damaging article in an online technology site. With almost fanatical zeal, the HP board, presided over by Chairperson Patricia Dunn, ordered an immediate investigation to find the offending tattler.
The fact that the source of the leak, George Keyworth, a former science adviser to President Ronald Reagan, has owned up and will lose his seat, and that his friend venture capitalist, Tom Perkins, has resigned in protest, is incidental to the whole affair.
What is disconcerting is the almost fanatical zeal with which HP pursued the incident. The company hired outside investigators, who may have illegally breached the privacy of not only board members but also journalists by gaining access to their phone records, through impersonation.
However, even if no laws are found to be broken, it would appear that something has gone seriously awry with the corporate culture at HP. Spying on and invading the privacy of senior and respected board members, not to mention journalists (not that we should complain about such things) over harmless story leaks is not the mark of the company that was founded in that famous garage at 367 Addison Avenue, Palo Alto in 1939.
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