CEO Succession in HP

CEO Succession in HP

Introduction

CEO succession basically refers to a process through which company's board of directors ensure that their organization is capable of sustaining excellence in CEO leadership over the time, with seamless transition from one leader to another. When company have to transit from one leader to another, that time is very critical for it. During this time companies need to transit smoothly in order to maintain the confidence of investors, customer and employees, business partners, and company should also provide the incoming CEO with a solid platform from where a company can move forward (Murphy & Board Service Practices, 2012). Thus, successful transition requires effective planning by the board of directors of the company. Unfortunately, Hewlett-Packard, one of the renowned technology companies, has been facing CEO succession crisis by having major leadership (CEO) changes in last few years. The company has been rocked by management turmoil since 1999. The board of the company selected Carleton S. Fiorina as its CEO, in mid 1999, but her merging efforts with the Compaq resulted in a fight of her with the children of one the founder of HP, which also brought her into a conflict with the board. All this led to her firing by the board in February 2005. After her, Mark Hurd became the CEO of HP in 2005, and led HP towards the success again. Under his leadership, the company rushed past IBM as the largest technology power with rapid increase in sales. The Wall Street surged the company's stock and the share price climbed highly. But unfortunately, the board of the company found out that Mr. Hurd had violated the code of conduct of HP that was related to the expense reports connected to his meeting with Jodie Fisher. So, he finally resigned in August 2010. After that Mr. Leo Apotheker was selected as the new CEO of HP, but he also resigned in September 2011, and was replaced by Ms. Whitman (former CEO of eBay) (New York Times, 2011). Thus, the company has seen drastic changes in leadership since last few years, which has impacted the business heavily.

Discussion

Is CEO Meg Whiteman an example of internal or external succession at Hewlett-Packard and why?

Answer: Seeing the strategies and steps taken by Meg Whitman, it can be stated that she may become the example of internal or external succession at HP. Whitman pointed out that the company needs to focus on internal development of its businesses, which was in contrast to the objectives of her two immediate predecessors (NYT, 2012). According to Ms. Whitman, she recognized the need of strategic realignment that was required to remove complexity from the business of HP. In order to fulfill this need Whitman combined PCs and printing under Todd Bradley, combined HP's two huge sales organizations under John Hinshaw, Global accounts sales were moved by her to Dave Donatelli, and unified communication and marketing in order to easing the selling, buying, and work doings at HP (Hesseldahl, ...