It Seems To Me

Thoughts and Rants on Technology, Business and Politics

Now that the dust is beginning to settle on Carly's ouster from HP, it is interesting to see the analsys on where she went wrong. There are plenty of missteps and shortcomings to blame: from the missed earnings targets to the languishing stock price to the intense struggle with the Compaq merger.

But all of this critique begs the question of why Carly was hired into HP in the first place. Carly Fiorina was the first CEO of Hewlett Packard hired from outside the company. Her charge was to turn around the slumbering giant. But all leaders seek to drive change. Was Carly's selection for the top spot any different?

A recent commentary in Business Week reveals the extent to which she had a deep mandate from the board to transform the culture. Sam Ginn was the head of the HP Board CEO Search Committee at the time. According to Business Week, Ginn made it clear very early in the interview process that "The first thing we have to do is get rid of the HP Way."

The famous "HP Way" is deeply rooted and decades old. It is a casual, slow moving culture that some would say looks backwards rather than forward. Carly rose to the challenge of changing it. Waking this slumbering giant would not be easy and could not be undertaken half-heartedly. Incremental changes never have enough "escape velocity" to ensure that the changes won't evaporate back into the same old same old. Sometimes the best way to instigate a deep cultural change is through dramatic — even traumatic — events. The Compaq proxy fight and the massive reorganisations that she championed woke the giant. Carly's five years of confident, if not brash, leadership showed the employees of HP that there was another way to do business. Her smooth, articulate style got people looking forward rather than backwards.

In light of her goal to transform the culture at HP, her tenure there was always destined to be short. Leaders who effect dramatic change are always followed by ones who can restore operational stability. Rarely are these two leaders the same person, and Carly's weakness as an operational leader all but limited her long term role as the CEO.

As an outsider, I don't know that the culture has changed. My guess is that the culture today is not the same as it was 5 years ago. It is too soon to tell if any changes will snap back to pre-Carly norms. It seems to me that, if Carly's mission was to change the culture at HP, then she may have, in fact, succeeded.

I finally finished Bill Clinton's biography today. It took my over 6 months to get through this lengthy tome. It was a long, slow, haul but rich and satisfying all along the way. Clinton comes from roots similar to my own and shares my idealistic outlook on life in his passion to make the world a better place.

The highlight of the story comes in the final pages when Clinton explains his core beliefs about life and politics. With his interpretation of "a more perfect union" in the preamble to the US Constitution, he says that our fundamental mission is . . . 

to widen the circle of opportunity, deepen the meaning of freedom, and strengthen the bonds of our community.

One could argue whether this is the best definition of "a more perfect union." One could argue a lot of things but these ideas resonate with me. In many ways, much of my life has been in pursuit of the same ideals, albeit on a much smaller scale.

But it seems to me that the forces that have risen to power in America of late are antithetical to these principles. The circle of opportunity seems to be shrinking in America while the meaning of freedom is being challenged to its core. And the bonds of community, especially the global one, have been all but shattered. It will take more than a few field trips by Bush, Rumsfeld and Rice to repair them.

Over the last few years I have sold more than 35 items on eBay. In addition to being great fun, I have redeemed a few pennies on the dollar for some of the gadgets and toys that I have "repurposed."

My online reputation is extremely important to me and I have worked very hard to maintain an impeccable record on eBay. I answer all inquiries promptly and ship immediately, usually the same day. I only post items when I know I will have the time to respond to inquiries quickly and ship immediately after the close of the auction. I have returned payment to buyers in the past who reported that the product arrived defective. I always leave positive comments for buyers when appropriate and have received dozens of accolades in return.

Last summer I was clearing out a bunch of old DVDs. A customer bought a copy of Short Circuit for a lousy $3.75 (with $3.50 shipping). I shipped it immediately and was happy for the extra shelf space on my DVD rack.

Three months later she posts the following negative comment on eBay:

DVD does not play properly! Would not buy from this seller again!

This is news to me. If the DVD didn't play, why didn't she contact me? She had my email address. I would have refunded her money immediately. I even would have let her keep the damn thing since it isn't worth the trouble to return it. (I will still refund her money as soon as she confirms her email address to me.)

Some DVD players can be finicky and Short Circuit is not exactly a Criterion Collection disc. It is not unreasonable that it did not play on her machine. Instead of allowing me the benefit of the doubt and the opportunity to refund her money, she slammed me on eBay with a negative comment. Thanks!

My online reputation is precious to me and negative comments weigh heavily on people's perception of a seller. I know that a single comment is not going to ruin my career on eBay but I am astounded at the thoughtlessness of this petty buyer. With one click of the mouse she has tarnished my reputation without giving me the opportunity to make it right.

Go figure!

he advent of Tivo marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in the way that media is consumed. Sure, VCRs have been around for 30 years, but Tivo allowed for time shifting on a massive scale. People tried to explain the virtues of the personal video recorder in a myriad of ways: pause live TV, instant replay, never miss your favourite shows, etc.

For me it was simple: without Tivo there was about a 5% chance that, at any given moment, something would be on television that I wanted to watch. However, with Tivo, the odds changed dramatically. Now the odds are 100% that there is 100 hours of stuff that I know I want to watch. My shows . . . my time.

The iPod, and its numerous siblings, are now transforming the audible world in a similar fashion. Audible.com, online content, and podcasting have made it possible for me to preload hundreds of hours of content onto my iPod for listening on my time. The same basic formula applies: before the portable MP3 player, there was a 5% chance that anything would be on broadcast radio that I might want to listen to. With my iPod there is now a 100% chance that I have hundred's of hours of content waiting for me.

The media world is taking note. Dennis L. Haarsager captured the essence of the shift in a fantastic article called My Time:

We media professionals have always thought of ourselves in terms of functional divides — electronic vs. print, radio vs. television, local vs. national. Those dualities in turn govern how we organize ourselves, how we produce and distribute content and even how we think about our careers.

Out in the real world, however, a different sort of divide is emerging for media users — real time vs. non-real time. Broadcasters operate mostly in real time, but our listeners and viewers increasingly consume the programming on what might be called in ad copy, My Time — that is, whenever they choose.

It seems to me that the shift to My Time has passed the tipping point. USA Today reports that 10 million iPods have been sold to date, 8.2 million in 2004 alone, and nearly 5 million over the recent holiday season! Paul Saffo, research director of The Institute for the Future, says in the USA Today article, "This is all part of the shift from mass media to personalized media."

Indeed! The world is shifting from mass production and mass media to mass customisation and personalized media. It works for me.