When Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) announced former SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) CEO Léo Apotheker was replacing Mark Hurd as the company’s CEO I was, ironically enough, at HP’s workstation headquarters in Fort Collins, Colo. When the news broke I think the reaction from both the international journalists and HP executives was “Really, Léo?” Certainty he wasn’t on any of the shortlists I’d seen. But then again, neither was Mark Hurd back in the day.
Apotheker is certainly good at the technology vision thing, and he’s a good software guy. If SAP’s future is indeed in its software business as many say, he’s a good choice to lead that charge and oversee any needed acquisitions. And if Hurd is gunning for his old company as Oracle’s new co-president, Apotheker certainly has no shortage of experience battling Oracle from his SAP days.
(Meet the Canadians that CDN felt should have been on HP’s CEO shortlist..)
What Apotheker isn’t, however, is a dynamic business leader. Some people just ooze that executive vibe. Hurd had it. Sam Palmisano of IBM and John Chambers of Cisco Systems have it. Apotheker has always struck me as more of a tech guy than a business guy. And I’m not sure that’s what HP needs right now.
SAP is a software company, but HP is a software, networking equipment, storage and server, PC and mobility company. It does business across many areas, and its differentiator (as most recently outlined at its partner conference this spring) is being able to tie the whole value-chain together, from the data centre to the endpoint, be it desktop, laptop or handheld. Apotheker needs to be a big-picture guy, not a head-down technologist. It’s very different than running SAP.
If he’s going to pull it off, he’ll need to rely on strong business unit leaders. And that’s where I see Apotheker’s first challenge because, while he has some very strong executives leading his business units, many of them were just passed-over for the CEO’s job, a job some of them may rightly feel they deserved.
On everyone’s short-list, and deservedly so, were names such as Ann Livermore, executive vice-president of the enterprise business unit; Todd Bradley, executive vice-president of the personal systems group; and Vyomesh Joshi, executive vice-president of the printing and imaging group.
All three were legitimate contenders to replace Hurd. They’re talented, ambitious executives that have been strong contributors to HP’s success and may be wondering, if their path for advancement has topped-out at HP, it might be time to consider opportunities elsewhere. In particular Livermore, who was a candidate for the CEO’s job when Hurd was hired. Livermore will be a CEO somewhere one day.
If Apotheker is going to be a success as HP’s CEO, he’ll need this trio that might have wanted his job to stay onboard, and soothing any bruised egos will be his first challenge. Will stock options and salary be enough to curb their ambition? Time will tell.
If not, Apotheker could be putting his own stamp on HP in more ways than one.
Follow Jeff Jedras on Twitter: @JeffJedrasCDN.