2010: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

During the first 18 years of my HP career, I had the great pleasure of working with remarkable people and having incredible direct managers. Although there was some craziness at the HP CEO level during those years, I was close enough to the top to learn about major global company strategy but far enough away that my wings didn't get burned. My mentors were among the best and brightest in the history of HP and were renowned for technology innovation and business results.

Nothing lasts forever, and my HP situation would change in 2010. I faced the question, "Should I stay or should I go?" Of course, I ended up choosing to stay at HP for awhile, but my passion for the company and for my job were gone by the end of the year.

Patrick Scaglia took a different job at HP in May, and we were without a CTO for a few months. Things weren't all bad. Although I no longer had a strong manager, I was able to keep things moving forward in patents, banknote counterfeit deterrence, HP Tech Con, and our HP Labs relationship/technology transfer. Brasil R&D continued to grow stronger, and more and more teams wanted to partner with Brasil. I made four trips to Brasil in 2010 including one that involved stops in Recife, Fortaleza, Campinas, Sao Paulo, and Porto Alegre. I was in Frankfurt and Israel in the summer, and I made a speech at a European Central Bank meeting in Germany in December.

When VJ/Shane suddenly hired Mike Salfity to be our CTO and my new manager in the fall, I began to question my role at HP. Mike was hired without much diligence. In fact, his only interviews were with VJ and Shane for a total of less than 90 minutes. That told me a lot about the commitment that VJ and Shane had remaining - not much. Mike came to HP with a lot of enthusiasm. On paper, he looked good with a 25 year career at Xerox and then a year at a smaller company. But, as with people picked up through acquisitions, we really didn't get any fresh ideas - just recycled experience from a failing company (Xerox). I was unimpressed and was never inspired by Mike. This isn't to say that Mike was bad for HP - he just didn't fill the huge gap for me that had been left in the wake of Lee, Frank, and Patrick.

Next: 2011: One More Year