Candidate for President George W. Bush, MBA, was supposed to “usher in an era of responsibility” in 2000, and many touted his business experience as providing the necessary model. Never mind Bush was a business failure throughout his life, gaining access through family connections and, never much of a success, being bailed out by wealthy family friends. Has his Administration brought responsibility (or a related word “accountability”) to the White House? The Bush Administration has never been very responsive or accountable. From the prolonged departure, under a cloud of scandal, of Army Secretary Thomas White to the prolonged departure, despite damning intelligence failures, of CIA Director George Tenet to failures at the Pentagon, in intelligence and in upholding U.S. and international law, that go unaccounted for in the person of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, nobody ever seems to be responsible for the problem or accountable for the results.
Contrast this with what Carleton S. Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett Packard, did the other day. Finding out that her company would fall short of its expected quarterly numbers for Wall Street, she had financial analysts called at 4 AM to announce a 5 AM conference call about the numbers. There she promised “immediate management changes” due to “unacceptable performance.” Later that morning three top Vice Presidents of the company were replaced in the units that had done poorly. Why were they fired? According to Fiorina, the business units not meeting expectations were where “execution issues cost us, and we are therefore making immediate management changes.”
I pass no judgment on Hewlett Packard or the three Vice Presidents fired. Certainly industry-wide problems, the economy and other issues do not make this an easy case of assigning blame. That said, the Hewlett Packard example of action is in stark contrast with the Bush Administration’s examples of inaction. Maybe Carly Fiorina knows something about responsibility and accountability that George Bush doesn’t. Maybe its something George should know.
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