The Power of Understated Greatness

Today, from 2 - 3 PM in a small classroom at Hankamer with no more than forty or fifty people, I had the singular privilege of engaging in a Q&A with Mark Hurd, the CEO of Hewllet-Packard.


The 1979 Baylor graduate responded to every question with direct, simple, impassioned answers that provided manageable perspective to the surreal concept of running a company with $104 billion in annual revenue, $11 million in hourly in expenses, and upwards of 200,000 employees.

An academic discussion of business ethics and leadership is good; hearing the story of a CEO who had to fire 15,000 people with families at the start of his reign in order to make HP the industry leader is better. So much better, in fact, I find the experience hard to put in words.

After only one hour with Mr. Hurd, I can easily say he is a new role model and I'm not surprised he was named 2007's Business Man of the Year.