AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Business Week

Mark Hurd, chief executive officer of the world’s largest technology company, doesn’t chase the public limelight. He doesn’t go to high-profile international business conferences like the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He doesn’t flaunt a personal flair or high-flying style. All of Hurd’s energy, it seems, is trained completely on one and only one task: leading Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

That laser focus is paying off. For the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, sales rose 13.7% to $104.3 billion, and earnings jumped 17% to $7.3 billion. Those numbers have translated into sharp gains for investors too: For calendar-year 2007, the Palo Alto (Calif.) company’s shares rose 23% to $51.36, compared with a 13% gain for IBM (IBM) and a 2% decline for Dell (DELL). “Businesses at HP that were problematic have been cleaned up,” says Roger Kay, president of market researcher Endpoint Technologies Associates. “It shows the whole company is doing well.”

No wonder BusinessWeek editors and readers have selected Hurd 2007 Businessperson of the Year.

…read more…