You know why people spend so much time and money on tests like the Myers-Briggs and the DISC profile? Because what makes you successful today won’t necessarily make you successful tomorrow, and one way to hedge against that risk is to have a balanced team that complements each other..
Case in point – the freakish execution skills of Carli’s successor at HP, Mark Hurrd. In a crazy case of what have you done for me lately “what will you do for me once you’re done executing this plan like a freaking master”, people are already starting to wonder aloud if Hurd’s got the right innovation DNA to drive HP into new products and services once he’s done ringing the cash register across the current slate of printers and services.
More on the brass knuckles of Mark Hurd from earlier this year at the New York Times:
“So it took a true outsider, in Mark V. Hurd, to engineer H.P.’s resurrection and to create the world’s largest technology company. Mr. Hurd, hired four years ago in the wake of Carleton S. Fiorina’s tumultuous departure as chief executive, forced a steady, boring diet of performance benchmarks, heavy-handed cost-cutting and data-mining down H.P.’s corporate throat.
“Silicon Valley is not known for creating lean organizations, and he’s as good as we have ever seen,” said Michael S. Malone, a historian who wrote “Bill and Dave,” a book about the company’s renowned co-founders, William Hewlett and David Packard. “He’s taught a lesson in what big-time corporate management looks like.”
But with the most brutal cuts behind it, H.P. faces a fresh set of challenges as the second stage of Mr. Hurd’s tenure begins. Most pressing is widespread concern that Mr. Hurd has built an inflexible, solipsistic giant so obsessed with schematics and data-driven fiscal machinations that it has lost the ability to deliver that prized and perennial Silicon Valley trick: to surprise and astound.
Although H.P. is trying to expand its presence in businesses like personal computers and printers, some critics argue that those markets have little left to give. The company could also use more imaginative thinking to bolster its developing line of software products and services.
In short, what may be missing in the formidable intellectual and strategic artillery that Mr. Hurd brings to bear at H.P. is creative inspiration. Or, as Mr. Malone puts it, “I am not sure Mark has built an H.P. that can go through the natural changes that accompany the technology industry as the company has in the past.”
Only in the crazy culture that is the American Publicly Traded Company would such execution be seen as a potential weakness. So, let’s say Hurd’s DISC/Myers Briggs shows he’s a ruthless executor and nothing more. At some point, the board’s got to evaluate his direct reports and see if a #2 can emerge to complement the DNA that’s missing in Hurd.
Interesting is the fact that Hurd’s penchant for execution is usually the DNA that is seen in COO’s of publicly traded companies, leaving the vision thing for the CEO. Assuming HP’s COO isn’t the visionary type, you have to wonder aloud what type of organizational structure could emerge at HP that would allow Hurd to be himself and address the supposed innovation gap.
A Chief Innovation Officer, perhaps? Maybe Hurd could just change his image and start wearing a black mock turtleneck to change the perception.
Kris – yes, the worry-warts are out in full force. Love the comment about the black mock turtle. Silicon Valley has become brainwashed into thinking that success looks just like Steve Jobs. Hurd is actually a very good match for the HP engineering mindset. HP is much closer to IBM than Apple – and that’s not a bad thing.