What's Dunn is done.
Patricia Dunn, the
Vic Mackey of
Hewlett-Packard's legendarily dysfunctional board, has resigned not just as its chair but now she's
cut ties with the whole cabal entirely.
And that's supposed to make us feel a lot better. But do you really
feel better? I know I don't. In fact, the more this slow-motion train
wreck plays out, the more I fear for H-P's future.
First of all, Dunn should have resigned a week earlier, when it was clear
she unleashed private investigators to commit possibly illegal snooping
on board members and journalists. At best, the investigators went way
beyond her control. At worst, they did exactly what she wanted.
But Dunn didn't resign then. She held on until a report in
The New York Times suggested the investigators were contemplating
posing as janitors in newsrooms -- a self-effacing act of servitude if
there ever was one.
So, the message from H-P is clear: Flirt with lawlessness by
pretexting -- or fraudulently posing as another to gain phone records --
and your wrist is slapped. But
think about sending someone to
fish through reporters' trash cans, and you're history. I'll let the
case studies in MBA courses parse that one out, because it makes no
sense to me.
In an attempt to right things, H-P CEO Mark Hurd finally came forth
Friday to a) do his best Sergeant Schultz and say he knew nothing --
nothing! -- and b) apologize for something he admittedly knew
nothing about. It was that rarest of sights on Wall Street: the CEO as
naïve whipping boy.
Kevin Kelleher
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