HP Still in search of excellence?

A few years ago we collaborated in a piece of work for NESTA on the extraordinary innovation that US companies formed in the Depression showed. It seems that being born and surviving in that cauldron gave them an extraordinary resilience. Hewlett Packard (HP) was one of them, and was mentioned (along with quite a few of the other Depression era companies) in the 1982 book In Search of Excellence. Sadly along with many others, inclusion in that book was a sort of death knell.

HP has had a tough last 15 years or so, and has had a succession of unfortunate CEO choices. Now its just been confirmed that Meg Whitman (ex eBay) is the new CEO - AllThingsD:

The board of HP, which has had its own series of blunders in recent years, is hoping Whitman can help turn that around, especially as its competitors — such as Oracle, IBM and others — increase the pressure.

Whitman herself will need a lot of help. She has had a successful career in the consumer Internet space, but has little experience in enterprise and hardware, which are at the heart of HP’s big businesses. Among the most immediate issues to deal with: Coming up with a clear strategic plan; reevaluating Apotheker’s move to spin off its consumer PC business and shutter its webOS device development; reassuring rattled employees and restoring morale; and, most of all, calming disgruntled shareholders and getting the stock moving in an upward direction.

Other than that, Mrs. Whitman…

Good luck....she will certainly need it! Will this end a run of unfortunate CE choices? I'm not particulalrly optimistic as apart from her (in)experience in this space, this is a long mismanagede company in a decining industry, to pull out of and it seems to me that the HP board - which surely must be seen by now as a major liability - is still in situ. Still, if a biscuit hustler* could pull IBM around, there is hope for HP.

*I haven't done any research on this, but I wonder if there is a higher success rate for bringing in CEOs from outsuide the industry - I have certainly found it works well at middle and senior management level.