We have witnessed an amazing couple weeks. From the radical changes announced by our company, HP, to Steve Job’s stepping down we are seeing fundamental shifts and evolution in our industry. Today’s discussion will focus specifically on HP and a call to action for employees both past and present, for investors and for key leaders in the Valley. As HP employees we look forward to walking around our headquarters as well as our other sites and again feeling a sense of purpose, passion and drive in a thriving company. Achieving this requires all of us to stand up.
To the HP leadership (Board and CEO staff):
You have lost your legitimacy. From uninspiring leadership, to fundamental, profound and incredibly fast strategy flip-flops, to the now likely biggest marketing fumble in modern business history with the touchpad and failure to establish a now proven achievable software platform & ecosystem with webos, to recklessly handling strategy communications, to completely unnecessarily destroying billions in shareholder wealth, to risking significant existing revenue and profit streams and jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs and jeopardizing an American and Silicon Valley icon in its entirety we, the employees, are tired of the failures in leadership.
While it is tempting to pen a dissertation as to the fundamentals we believe you have fumbled we believe the recent events speak for themselves and are indefensible for leaders at your level and receiving the level of compensation you are. One of you describes Billions in equity unnecessarily squandered as “water under the bridge” and for people who technically never need to work another day in their lives if they so choose that might be true. For thousands of average investors and employees who unnecessarily have lost significant amounts of wealth such out of touch with reality statements could not be further from the truth.
You additionally created large amounts of uncertainty and anxiety for hundreds of thousands of employees with spin-off and hostile acquisition rumors now running rampant. Under such circumstances it has taken you over a week to even show your actual faces live to your thousands of employees to directly explain, calm and attempt to rally the very people that make this company work day in and day out. That is not leadership. Leaders not only attempt to calm Wall Street but if needed would be up at 2am in the morning to also lead their employees live through such situations.
Armies of HP employees have not lost their soul. Our leadership has. HP needs inspired, savvy and strong leadership. We need our version of Steve Jobs to return and to double down on our history- and deliver contributions through R&D that make a difference and create true value. We are tired of serial leadership changes but it is once again unfortunately necessary. And it is necessary on a broad scale- not just one person.
To fellow HP employees:
We are 300,000 strong. We have a voice. We keep this company moving and we can make a difference in our employment prospects, the direction HP takes and what our customers see day in and day out. We are also shareholders.
However, we are at a cross roads. We cannot sit idly by any longer for various fears. If we do not ourselves take more active roles we could very well find all of us out of jobs and HP taken over and carved up. We need to stand up and speak out. We cannot all be fired. We need to demand accountability. We need to demand leadership and provide it where we can. And we need to work harder than we ever have before.
Don’t focus on the negatives- focus on obtaining new leadership and changing things we do not like. We are better than this. We can either be part of the solution or this time we risk losing everything. Let’s return HP to a true innovation and R&D driven company with respect once again at its core. This is our company as much as if not more than the executives and we can take it back. We have far more power than we collectively exercise.
To our HP customers:
We know the recent events have been worrisome but please remember who HP is at its heart. It is hundreds of thousands of employees and livelihoods all over the globe that do care about you and are working hard each and every day for you. While we acknowledge we have some leadership difficulties and challenges, HP is still at its core us and we still stand for something. We hope that you remember the hundreds of thousands of employees, the history of what HP has stood for and what its employees still stand for and stay with us as our company goes through this difficult phase. And we hope that you also will be voices demanding leadership, passion, clarity and meaningful innovation from HP’s leadership and from us as HP.
To people who believe in HP and what HP has historically stood for:
This list includes people like Tom Perkins, Steve Jobs, Bill Hewlett and leaders who knew Bill and Dave’s tough, honest and savvy leadership. Steve Jobs: do you remember the man you called when you were twelve years old who listened to you and helped you out? His spirit still lives in thousands of employees who are in need of help. Tom Perkins: remember the single biggest influence in your life and the legacy they left with HP? Bill Hewlett: even with the past disagreements, even with others mentioned hear, can we really all sit aside and watch this? HP has a deep engineering soul and an army of 300,000 people. Can you all sit by and watch, as you say Tom, corporate suicide being committed for such a company, such a history and with 300,000 employees hanging in the balance?
The above list of names is not all inclusive- incredibly far from it. There is an army of people out there given this company’s rich history who can help. And when a family member is sick the family puts aside past disagreements, current challenges and they pull together to help out. The HP family needs to do this now.
It is time for serious engineering and management talent to come home and reignite serious passion and discipline into an iconic company and marry that with serious software architecture thought leadership- and get this company inspired and working as hard as it ever has in its life. HP over its history has transformed itself and with the changes in the IT industry does indeed need to go through transformation but what we are seeing play out is not the way to do it.
The time to stand up, be a voice and for people to rally around this company is now.
The reignite HP employee community
