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Business Hewlett-Packard Board game
商業 惠普 董事會的游戲
More turmoil at the top of the world's biggest tech firm
世界最大的科技公司，陷入比以往更大的混亂之中
A FEW months after Léo Apotheker, the former boss of SAP, a German software firm, took over as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard (HP), he joked that he had learned to say "awesome" like a Californian following his move from Europe to Palo Alto. Unfortunately for Mr Apotheker, that is not an adjective that many of HP's investors and board members would apply to his leadership. Rightly or wrongly, they have become disillusioned with him. As The Economist went to press, speculation was swirling that he would soon be ousted as chief executive, less than a year after his arrival.
前德國軟件公司SAP老板，李艾科.阿波臺克在接任惠普首席執行官幾個月后開玩笑說,他從德國來到帕洛阿爾托后,已經學會像加利福尼佬那樣說"牛X"了。可不幸的是，對于阿波臺克來說, 許多惠普的投資人和董事會成員沒能適應他的領導,也不會用這詞兒形容他上臺以來所取得的成績。錯也好，對也好，他們已經對阿波臺克先生失望了。在本期《經濟學家》出版之際，阿波臺克即將被趕下首席運營官寶座的猜測已甚囂塵上。而這據他上任的時間還不到一年。
Whatever happens, the saga is another blow for a company that has lurched from one boardroom crisis to another. Mr Apotheker took the wheel at HP in November 2010 following the departure of Mark Hurd, who left abruptly amid stories of sexual indiscretions and problematic expense-reporting. Mr Hurd had taken over from Carly Fiorina, who was binned in 2005 after the firm's profits plunged. A year later Patricia Dunn, HP's then chairman, also departed after a scandal involving an investigation into suspected press leaks from HP directors.
不管發生什么，走馬燈式地換第三個CEO對一家把一個董事會危機轉嫁到另一個危機的公司來說，是又一打擊。阿波臺克先生在2010年11月掌舵惠普，接任突然離職的馬克?赫德，后者離職的原因是私人性生活不檢點外加花費報銷有問題。而赫德先生的前任是卡莉.菲奧莉女士，她在惠普利潤大幅下滑后，于2005年被趕走。轉過年來，時任惠普主席的帕特麗夏?鄧恩因卷入懷疑公司董事會成員向媒體泄密的調查，同樣下了課。
Repeated ructions at the top are harmful for any firm. But they have been devastating at HP, which faces brilliant competitors such as Apple in the hardware business and IBM in enterprise software and services. Mr Apotheker is partly to blame for the fact that the firm has been reluctant to follow his leadership. But so, too, is the board, which seems uncertain about what kind of leader HP needs.
高層之間反復不斷的爭吵指責對任何公司來說都是有害的。而對于惠普而言，則更為致命。它所面對的競爭對手各個業績彪炳，比如在硬件產業的競爭者蘋果，和軟件及服務業的競爭者IBM。阿波臺克先生被指責的部分原因是他無法駕馭惠普，這確屬事實。但惠普董事會也應被批判。他們似乎并不能確定惠普需要那種類型的領導。
A couple of things appear to have brought matters to a head. Since his arrival, Mr Apotheker has had to lower HP's revenue forecasts three times (see chart). In part, this reflects slower-than-expected growth in the personal-computer (PC) market, of which HP has a larger share than any other firm. HP's critics, however, claim that its boss has not done enough to arrest the sales slide, which has dented its share price.
幾件事情疊加在一起，使局面到了不可收拾的地步。自從阿波臺克上任以來，三次降低惠普收入預測(詳情看圖表)。從一方面說,這一舉措反映了惠普享有最大份額的個人電腦市場增長比預期緩慢。然而，惠普的批評者卻稱阿波臺克在遏制銷售業績下滑上做出的努力不夠，從而使惠普的股價一路下跌。
Some board members also believe Mr Apotheker has failed to win broad support within HP. One person familiar with the board's deliberations employs a medical analogy, likening Mr Apotheker to "a perfectly good organ" that simply has not worked when transplanted to a very different body. Asked for a response, HP refused to comment on speculation.
一些董事會成員同樣認為阿波臺克先生沒能在惠普內部贏得廣泛的支持。一位收悉惠普董事會研究思路的人士用器官移植來做比方。他把阿波臺克先生比喻成"一個運行完美的器官"，但這個器官被移植到一個非常復雜的肌體后卻無法做出簡單的活動。當被問及就此做出回復時，惠普拒絕對此推論給予評論。
It seems to be these issues, rather than any broad disagreement on strategy, that have caused friction between HP's chief executive and its board. Directors are said to support Mr Apotheker's public musing about whether or not to sell the company's PC business. They also approve, it is said, of his whopping $10.3 billion bid for Autonomy, a British firm whose software helps companies sift through mountains of e-mails and other data. Investors are less sure: HP's shares dropped 20% on the day the deal and a possible spin-off of its PC business were announced.
似乎正是這些問題，而不是其它在戰略構想上更廣泛的分歧造成了惠普首席執行官與董事會的摩擦。外界認為，惠普董事會員支持阿波臺克公開考慮是否出售公司的個人電腦業務。據說，他們同樣贊同其提出的花費大約103億美元收購英國軟件公司Autonomy。其擁有的軟件技術能幫助諸多公司篩選數量巨大的電子郵件和其它數據。投資者可不像惠普董事會那樣贊成這樣的計劃：在惠普宣布收購Autonomy并告知有可能剝離旗下個人電腦業務后，其股價當天就大跌20%
HP is unlikely to back out of buying Autonomy now, whatever happens to Mr Apotheker, not least because it is determined to grow in high-margin software businesses. More than two-fifths of Autonomy's shareholders have already accepted HP's bid and British rules would make it hard to pull out of the deal.
不管阿波臺克先生是否離任,惠普現在想撤銷并購Autonomy是不可能了。更何況惠普已經決定要在高盈利的軟件產業加大投資。超過五分之二的Autonomy股東已經接受惠普的報價，想要不再收購，英國的法規也不會輕易答應。
Either a weakened Mr Apotheker will have to do a better job of selling these moves to the market, or that job will fall to his successor. If the board does push for his departure, one possible candidate for his job could be Meg Whitman, the former boss of eBay and an HP director. Ms Whitman is also an adviser to Kleiner Perkins, a venture firm where Ray Lane, HP's chairman, is a partner.
在未來，要么地位不穩的阿波臺克先生盡更大的努力把這些計劃在市場中付諸實踐，要么就是他的繼任者來做這些事情。如果惠普董事會確實要趕他走，繼承他職位的可能人選之一是前eBay老板，在惠普擔任過董事的梅格?惠特曼。她同時還是一家風險企業Kleiner Perkins的顧問之一。而這家公司的合伙人之一就是雷?蘭恩，惠普公司董事長。
Investors seem to think that an Apotheker-less HP would be better off: the company's share price rose almost 7% on September 21st after news of a potential defenestration leaked out. But it is not clear that someone such as Ms Whitman, who comes from a consumer-internet background, would be an ideal successor at a company that does a lot of its business with other corporations.
投資者似乎認為帶有較少阿波臺克德印記的惠普會更好。當他要卷鋪蓋走人的消息不徑而飛后，惠普的股價在9月21日上漲了幾乎7個百分點。向惠特曼女士這樣，雖有為消費者提供網絡服務的背景，但是否就是惠普的理想繼承者，對此前景并不明朗。畢竟惠普的商業運作對象主要是企業用戶。
Whatever happens, Mr Lane and the rest of HP's board will find themselves under the spotlight. "Is Léo the problem, or is he just a symptom of an underlying problem?" muses Chris Whitmore, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. HP's shareholders should perhaps be asking themselves the same question.
不管發生什么， 雷先生及董事會的其它成員將發現自己會暴露在聚光燈下。"是李艾科有問題，還是李艾科只是個深層問題的表象？"德意志銀行的分析師克瑞斯.魏特摩爾對此旋入了沉思。惠普公司的股東應該或許也會問自己同樣的問題。
