Defending Dunn
Now Scoble is demanding that the entire HP board resign. I love how people are backtracking now that it looks like Perkins and the others stink a lot worse than Dunn.
Scoble is lamenting the death of the “HP way”. Was the “HP way” the completely irrational (and overtly offensive) way that the old boys tore into Fiorina, ignored her contributions, and ousted her at the expense of the company? Then, when the entire industry is finally realizing that Fiorina was good for HP, perpetrate some nonsense like this and try to pin it on the only woman left?
From what we can deduce so far, Perkins was up to his elbows in this. Valleywag reporting that Sonsini told Perkins pretexting was legal (it was; I challenge any of these oh-so-sanctimonious journalists to prove that they never used pretexting for any of their investigative journalism). The other things Perkins and others on the board were doing is just cheesy bad spy-novel stuff. Don’t think that every other Fortune 500 compant doesn’t have wanna-be spies doing the same stupid crap.
The way I see it, Perkins knew who the leaker was, and didn’t want his friend to fold. And he saw an opportunity to get rid of Dunn by advising her to force lie-detector tests down her peers’ throats. She was not stupid enough to shoot herself in the foot like that, and surprised him by revealing the traitor in an open meeting of the board. This made Perkins look really bad, but WTF was he doing trying to shield a friend and screw Dunn over anyway? (Note, this is pure speculation based on the record so far and the statements of Perkins and Dunn).
The only remarkable thing about all of this, IMO, is the way that Perkins chose to react. He was clearly beat at the point Dunn made her revelation to the board. He could have sat back down, decided to be a team player, and worked it out with the rest of the board. He could have insisted, as he had given his word as a man to do, that his friend resign. Instead, he said “no fair; I only agreed to follow the rules if I win!”. He pulled the trigger on his self-destruct vest and did the one thing that would almost certainly mean disaster for the whole board.
The crap about “it was unethical, it was my duty to be a whistleblower” is just putrid. The more you find out about what he DID know and was just fine with, the less you can understand how he would be freaked out about the perfectly legal hiring of a PI to do what these guys do hundreds of times every day. No, the truth is that Perkins was a poor sport and decided to destroy the entire HP board instead of admit defeat to a woman.
Of course, “kill the company rather than let a woman be boss” is exactly what we saw with Fiorina, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But I wouldn’t expect Scoble to be a fan of that “HP way”. And I would expect Scoble to be honest about his past errors in making broad brushstrokes regarding Dunn.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
I totally disagree with your characterization that I’m backtracking. Go back and look at what I said on day four (we’re on day 16 right now). I said the whole board smells. I’ve been VERY consistent on that point. http://scobleizer.wordpress.com/2006/09/09/hp-has-major-ethical-problem-day-4/
Yes, Patricia should be first. Why? Cause she’s the head. The head always goes first. It doesn’t matter if it’s her fault or not (and, nothing has made me believe this isn’t her fault).
Second, I know a ton of people who work at HP. I haven’t had ANYONE stick up for Carly. Where did that come from? She’s widely seen inside Silicon Valley as being a total disaster for HP. I think you’re out of touch on that one. Please back up where you’re getting that she was good for HP or good for Silicon Valley.
>Don’t think that every other Fortune 500 compant doesn’t have wanna-be spies doing the same stupid crap.
This is EXACTLY why this board needs to go. A message needs to be sent that this kind of behavior is NOT ACCEPTABLE. That if you’re in power you must be beyond reproach and make sure your company stays on the right side of the line when it comes to both the letter and spirit of the law.
It’s really unfortunate to see you sticking up for this board. The stench is just awful. There isn’t a single corporate governance expert who is sticking up for this behavior.
>the perfectly legal hiring of a PI to do what these guys do hundreds of times every day.
This is NOT legal in California. The Attorney General is about to file charges. Getting people to voluntarily submit for a lie detector IS legal. Pretexting (lying) to get access to people’s phone records is NOT. It’s very interesting that you don’t see the difference.
Patricia Dunn has got to go. So does the whole board. This whole thing stinks.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:20 am
My point is that everyone bought Perkins’ lies from day one, and crucified Dunn. He pulled this “I am an honorable man defending my brother from this vindictive and scheming woman” crap, and you bought it. Nobody seems to be asking why.
I’m not defending the pretexting. I’m just explaining that it can’t be the excuse for Perkins going public. He thought it was legal, and he was elbow-deep in shadier stuff. The legality of lie detector test isn’t the question; that is just retarded and political suicide. Only an enemy would recommend Dunn do that. And it was either malice or terribly poor judgment that made him go public without trying to clean things up internally first.
And I am clearly not sticking up for the board. But acting like this is about HP or Dunn is just silly. How many boards does Perkins still sit on? What about the rest of them? What does another rejiggering of the musical chairs do to fix the problems?
The comments regarding HP employees are telling. That’s where I get my opinions, too. I have heard incredibly piggish, sexist, obscene, and personal attacks against Carly from HP employees during her tenure. It is obvious that many old boys hated her; I never agreed that it was reasonable or rational. The kind of crap I heard was not even tolerated on Detroit factory floors. Now the business press has been admitting that she did good things (and it was a personal vendetta anyway; you cannot argue).
September 25th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
[...] Brier Dudley is a journalist for the Seattle Times. He blogged a reply to my “Defending Dunn” piece. [...]