Bad Directors at HP: Like Guests Who Overstay?

Lest it be thought that Congress ignoring the business lobby would result in laws capable of reforming corporate governance in the U.S. in the interest of stockholders, even putting the “objectionable” stuff back into legislation may not be sufficient. In this essay, I look at the proposed elimination of plurality voting in the original Dodd-Frank bill from the perspective of the case of HP. Put simply, the question is whether it would have made any difference had the proposal been retained in the bill.


The full essay is at Institutional Conflicts of Interest, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.

Meg Whitman at HP: A Leader or Manager?

Referring to the appointment of Meg Whitman as CEO of HP, Ray Lane, chairman of the board, said, “We are at a critical moment and we need renewed leadership to successfully implement our strategy and take advantage of the market opportunities ahead.”[1] On both scores, Lane was actually referring to management rather than leadership. Even the setting of strategy is within the purview of management, as in strategic management; implementing a strategy is the epitome of management. Similarly, recognizing market opportunities is strategic in nature, and thus a function of managing a company as a whole.


Material from this essay has been incorporated into The Essence of Leadership: A Cross-Cultural Foundation, which is available in print and as an ebook at Amazon. 

1. “HP Names Meg Whitman as New CEO,” Reuters, September 22, 2011; “HP’s Whitman: I’ll Focus on Leadership,” The Bottom Line, msnbc.com., September 23, 2011.