2011《财富》最愚蠢商业事件大盘点（上）

惠普抛售个人电脑打乱仗

    惠普（Hewlett-Packard）是全球最大的个人电脑制造商。今年8月份，惠普宣布公司计划抛售个人电脑业务，科技界一片哗然。公司称希望专注软件业务，而实际上到目前为止软件仅占惠普销售额的3%。行业分析人士一致惊呼：“什么？！”——不久，惠普董事会也做出了同样的反应。

    今年9月，惠普董事会将该计划的设计师、CEO李艾科扫地出门。一个月之后，惠普公司改变了立场，宣布将保留个人电脑业务。

    如果惠普董事会尽职尽责，或许原本能够避免类似的灾难。《纽约时报》近期披露，李艾科获聘CEO的时候，惠普董事会还有多名董事连他的面都没见过。

    惠普董事会之所以被认为是美国公司中最糟糕的董事会之一，这也是其中一个原因。正如智治基金（Ironfire Capital）创始人埃里克•杰克逊所说：“这帮家伙纯粹是一群小丑，无能程度仅次于雅虎（Yahoo）董事会。”——戴维•古德曼

HP: 'We're dumping PCs. No wait!'

    Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC maker, confounded the tech world in August by announcing that it planned to dump its PC business. The company instead wanted to focus on software, which currently accounts for just 3% of HP's sales. Industry analysts reacted with a collective "What!?" -- and, soon after, so did HP's board.

    In September, the board fired CEO Leo Apotheker, the plan's architect. One month later, HP reversed course and announced that it would keep its PC business after all.

    Perhaps the debacle could have been avoided if the board did its homework. It hired Apotheker after only a few of the company's directors even met him, the New York Times recently revealed.

    It's yet another reason why HP's board is widely considered one of the worst in corporate America. As Ironfire Capital founder Eric Jackson put it: "These guys are a bunch of clowns, surpassed in incompetence only by Yahoo's board." -- David Goldman