Exodus of execs from EDS

(By Richard Holway 11.00pm 23rd Apr 09) The New York Times reports Top EDS executives leave HP. Currently the list is all US. “Mike Koehler, the head of the Americas region for E.D.S.; Tom Haubenstricker, the head of finance; and Mike Paolucci, the head of human resources, all plan to call it quits at H.P. by the end of May. And Bobby Grisham, the head of sales, will retire at the end of June.”

All these executives are being replaced by either HP execs or execs from products companies. The NYT muses “There is, however, a school of thought that says HP is underestimating some of the nuances behind the services business. The services types spend years building relationships with customers. It’s part of a world with far more layers of back-scratching and schmoozing than moving PCs and servers.
Perhaps making wholesale changes on this scale is short-term thinking?”

Of course we couldn’t agree more. Been beating that drum for several decades. Execs schooled in product – be it hardware or telecommunications products – just don’t get IT services.

How long before EDS EMEA and UK lose all its EDS talent? Built up over three decades. Not long I would suggest.