eBuzz - A Cautionary Tale

A Cautionary Tale

A cautionary tale in the news is that of Hewlett-Packard's reaction to the press leaks coming from its board of directors, which cast the whole question of ethics in a more business-oriented and somewhat ominous light as CEO Mark Hurd announced last week that he would assume the role of chairman after Patricia Dunn's resignation. Her resignation isn't surprising: corporate reactions to a scandal usually involve a human sacrifice followed by self-righteous relief at having got rid of the malfeasant.

Ethics aside, this simply makes no business sense.

Let's get back to the emails, which are at the heart of the criminal charges HP is now facing. Mark Hurd (yes, actually, that's the same Mark Hurd who is now chair after Patricia Dunn was scapegoated over the affair) approved of a company plan to send a fraudulent email to a reporter, supposedly from a senior-level whistleblower. The email contained a tracer enabling HP to track the email and thereby locate the source of the leak when the reporter - well, reported back to his source. Hurd claims that he can't remember whether or not he approved the tracer.

Stupidity aside, is anybody wondering how it can be that Mark Hurd, on whose watch these clearly criminal acts took place, has now been promoted and, essentially, rewarded, for his role in the affair? And how can all of the people involved - a fairly large group of individuals - have gone along with actions that must have, somewhere, rung some warning bells?

A leak in a board of directors is a problem, but that wasn't HP's real problem. Its problem arose when it decided to use the quickest and easiest route to uncovering that leak, and thereby lost its own moral compass.

And that's our take on the news today!

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