In a fascinating column in the New York Times, Joe Nocera reveals the real reason Hewlett-Packard's ex-CEO Mark Hurd was fired. It had nothing to do with sex or expense account abuse. He was, according to Nocera, distrusted by the Board and widely hated not just by rank and file HP employees but by his management team as well.
His brutal cost-cutting culture, which shed 15,000 jobs, stole the future of the company by cutting R&D, while at the same time personally enriching him for generating short-term profits. For all the gory details, read the full article. (More Hewlett Packard stories.)