The appointment of the ousted HP chief by rival Oracle raises some fundamental questions about the state of business today. Not only does it reek of sheer opportunism on the part of Oracle, it also sends a message that American businesses have become far too tolerant of dishonesty in the high ranks. The latter should not be surprising given what the powers that be at Lehman and AIG did for their investors and consequently to the world economy. It is all right to manipulate rules as long as you are delivering short-term profit and create a perception of value for the shortsighted share traders (note, not Shareholders).
At another level It also raises a disturbing suspicion that there just might be a growing shortage of qualified senior personnel in America. If Oracle was to pass on Michael Hurd, how many other suitable candidates does it really have? So if you are a senior executive with fifteen years of relevant experience, you can be pretty sure that you will be in demand and therefore enjoy a certain amount of freedom in your behavior while in the office.
All this only stresses the need for Americans to shape up and prepare more young talent to take over corporations and uphold people to a higher standard of ethics.
