One of the most amazing Autism stories you'll watch...

I saw this when it first came out, it's truly amazing...!

Ford Raptor Outcome

Ford Raptor in Satin Black...

Ford came through which is probably a good thing since they not only saved us from buying from a competitor, but the final result seems to be generating some excitement in various truck enthusiast communities. Yes, is such a thing, there are people who are super passionate about this stuff, people just love their trucks!

I normally wouldn't blog about this, but I wanted to follow up on the previous blog about our experience with Ford. Not only did they save a customer, but they retained a fan in me --- and they are generating a bunch of free viral marketing from various forums in the process.

We spent a week or so planning on the final design of the truck, and here is the finished product. The following people deserve props for helping us get to the final outcome;

• Jim Walen of Ford of Kirkland
• Craig Daitch & Scott Monty of Ford Corporation
• Micah Adams from Addictive Desert Designs
• Bill Mann from Manns Hitch & Trailer
• Blake Siebe from Northwest Auto Salon (check their blog here on the wrap)
  

I'm also working on plans for an Xbox entertainment system, but I'm not there yet, I need to find some good displays that don't get in the way.

...and here it is!

...and a little video I created...

RIP Steve Jobs

We lost a great innovator today, one of the greatest innovators of our time. Steve Jobs inspired many, and his work helped to create a ripple effect that will last generations. RIP Steve Jobs, you'll be missed!

Voodoo Lego

My good friend Mark send me his portfolio of Voodoo products. I love this lego stuff, I wanted to share it with you all. I think he's pretty awesome -

Check out some of his work here!

XBIT Labs Interview

Xbit Labs did an interview with me the other day. It was a pretty deep Q&A about Voodoo, HP, Palm, webOS, etc.

Rahul Sood: Computing Devices of the New Era Need a Soul

by Anton Shilov

HP's plan to spin off its personal systems group caught everyone by surprise and results of such a move are hard to overestimate. Today we are talking to Rahul Sood, a co-founder of the legendary VoodooPC boutique PC maker and a former employee of HP. We will discuss Voodoo, HP in the past and now as well as the personal computer industry in general.

Our today's interlocutor - Rahul Sood - is a pretty legendary man from the PC industry. Mr. Sood founded VoodooPC, one of the first boutique PC brands in the world, back in 1991, years before many of today's companies that produce high-end hardware or PCs were established.

VoodooPC focused on creation of ultra high-end desktops for gaming or working, but eventually the company started to offer more affordable systems for multimedia to increase its footprint. The firm got acquired back in 2006 by Hewlett-Packard with the aim to leverage the DNA of high-quality Voodoo-branded products onto a wide range of PCs and peripherals.

Unfortunately, not everything went as planned, VoodooPC got dissolved in HP and Mr. Sood decided to leave the company to become a Microsoft employee. But, apparently, HP not only "managed" to absorb Voodoo without leaving a trace, but is also looking forward spinning off its personal systems group (PSG) as a whole. So, today we decided to talk to Rahul Sood to find out, what went wrong with VoodooPC within HP, what problems do PC makers face today and what should a PC company of the new era be like.

Click here for the rest!

Really great article in the WSJ on HP

I read this great article in the Wall Street Journal, I thought it was worth saving. The situation is truly sad --- but I suppose it's not as sad as a massive Tsunami or natural disaster. Point being, there are more important things in life than money.

"Let's say you were given a year to kill Hewlett-Packard. Here's how you do it:

Fire well-performing CEO Mark Hurd over expense-report irregularities and a juicy sexual-harassment claim that you admit has no merit. Fire four board members, as publicly as possible. Foment a mass exodus of key executives who actually know how to run the giant computer company.

Hire new a CEO from German competitor, SAP, which sells business software, not consumer products. Tell the new CEO, Leo Apotheker, that Mr. Hurd "left H-P in great shape."

Draw public criticism from a major corporate-governance advisory firm, alleging Mr. Apotheker filled board openings with cronies."

click here for the rest...

Former HP Global Gaming Head Rahul Sood Talks About Acquisitions, Brands, And Palm

This interview was published in TechCrunch today.

Curious to find out the possible thinking behind HP’s recent actions, we began to look at the parallels in past behavior by tech giant HP. The most interesting example comes from VoodooPC, one of the first high-end gaming PCs for the mass market. Led by Rahul Sood, HP bought VoodooPC in 2006 and the last product to come out of that branch was launched in 2009.

In short, we wanted to know if HP really was where good ideas go to die.

Mr. Sood was kind enough to answer a few questions.

My Thoughts on HP Part 1

When you think of Apple think of the first person that comes to mind. For me it’s Steve Jobs, or perhaps even Jony Ive.

When I think of Microsoft I think of Bill Gates & Steve Ballmer.

When I think of Starbucks, the name Howard Schultz comes to mind.

Amazon, Jeff Bezos…Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg… Ford, Allan Mulally… Dell, Michael Dell…. Google, Larry Page & Sergey Brin…. Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban.... KFC, Col. Sanders... McDonalds, Ronald.... you get the idea.

You can talk about strategy and brand all you want, but unless there is a visible face to the company it’ll be hard to find your soul and establish a vision that everyone can rally around.

Sure not all companies with “faces” are on the right track, but in this day and age having a face is one of the most important ingredients to building any successful business. This is why all the new start-ups you see are all about people, being social, and being open.

Before I left HP I asked myself this question. Who is the face of HP? Is it William Hewlett and David Packard? Yes. …but they’re not here anymore. Who is left representing their ideals?

I remember Mark Hurd put it well when he said “HP is really their company (Bill & Dave’s) and I’ve been put here to run it for a while.”

Mark made a point of removing all the pictures of Carly Fiorina from the lobby of each building and left Bill & Dave’s up there. He did not hang his own picture up, which was a sign of humility that many of us appreciated. In fact, I remember Mark discouraged any stories about him in the press at the beginning.

Instead Mark embraced the idea that we could tune HP and live up to the ideals that Bill & Dave believed in. Unfortunately it felt like we got lost somewhere along the way. The “HP Way”, which is a book I read cover to cover, was nowhere to be seen after a few years of cost cutting and restructuring. …but I had to believe that Mark was planning on bringing it back at some point, perhaps it was almost too late.

Whatever the case, no matter how he went down, Mark Hurd believed that Hewlett-Packard needed to remain Hewlett-Packard as one company and should not be broken up. Mark saw the symbiotic connections between the businesses, and believed if we were to optimize them we would ultimately be successful.

HP treated me with the utmost respect, I love the company. There are good people there with good ideas. However, there were times I felt frustrated. HP was a place where if you weren't careful, good ideas would get killed quickly. Ideas that could have changed the company for the better died because of a lack of patience and a lack of vision...and a lack of patience. Did I mention a lack of patience? It got to a point where I felt I was becoming unproductive.

I remember going to an executive retreat, a motivational event, where I stood up and asked a question about brand and experiences --- basically challenging the notion that the HP brand had enough brand elasticity to be all things to everyone. Our leader got up out of his chair, walked on stage, grabbed the microphone from the person I was questioning and he said “you Voodoo guys are too obsessed about brand and experiences. I’ll sell millions of PCs this month regardless of brand…” There were gasps in the room --- and some embarrassing stares afterwards. Totally the wrong venue for this type of question, my bad I guess --- I basically got shot down in public by the man! Oops.

It was then that I realized this might not be the right place for me. I was sort of humiliated, but when I think back I realize – he was 100% right. I was obsessed about brand and experiences. I still am… Of course brand is just a piece of it -- but you need a clear vision that people can rally around, a great product, a sound business model... and the rest will come... and it’s truly unfortunate that they haven’t figured out such fundamental challenges at HP.

Everyone on the outside is bashing Leo and the board for the most recent move. Though I’m not sure it was an easy decision for them. I understand that sometimes to fix a disease you need to cut off a limb. Unfortunately I think they’re cutting off more than one limb, and they are missing the synergies required to successfully operate a profitable enterprise + consumer model. Though HP has separate divisions, the company is very much dependent on each other.

You can’t simply cut off one head and grow another, you’ll bleed out.

You can absolutely fix dysfunctional organizations without breaking them apart. Such a move requires strong leadership (empowered leaders), a believable vision, and a strategy that resonates.

I’m going to write a follow up article on the idea of a spinoff, what it means. I’ll also share what I believe HP needs to do to bring back the soul that Bill & Dave created, bring back real innovation, and command the respect they once had. Lest we forget that HP was an icon in the valley, they still are. Bill & Dave were like royalty back in the day!

I will close by saying this… It’s 2011… If I was running PSG I’d check my suit and tie at the door – and roll up my sleeves. PSG desperately needs to empower vision at the top. They should think about installing creative design principles and Big D design thinking into the organization. There’s plenty of vision at HP, they just need to pull it together in a way that doesn’t solely involve rows and columns.

HP still has a chance to transform the organization into something great again.I really wish them well as they attempt to figure out this incredibly complex problem.

Ford Customer Service is Awesome...

A few days ago I wrote a blog on my weird experience buying a truck.

I went to Ford's website and configured the truck I wanted and printed the config with the MSRP. I then proceeded to call a couple of dealers since I have zero time to go shopping for cars. Well the rest of the story is here, needless to say I wasn't happy with the outcome.

In any case, after Twittering that I offered to buy a Ford at MSRP and the dealer declined I received a number of messages from multiple people from Ford. They all seemed genuinely concerned, and they immediately put together a plan of action to help me.

Ford put me in touch with the person in charge of the Northwest, and followed up along the way. They asked for a couple of days before I made any decisions and I agreed. In the meantime a GM dealer in my area contacted me with an offer on a really nice GM truck.

I received an email from Jim Walen, owner of Ford of Kirkland, followed by a personal phone call last night. He's a great guy, and he spent a good hour going over the differences between the GM and the Ford. He offered to get back to me in the morning with a couple of options.

Today he called after sending the email with the details and I was just about to go to the GM dealer to check out their truck, and he convinced me otherwise. I got a Ford Raptor exactly as I wanted.

So the bottom line is Ford came through. Craig Daitch, Scott Monty, and Christie Chornoma all from Ford corporate went way beyond my expectations to help out. Jim Walen and Raleigh Fouch from Ford of Kirkland were quick to respond and very reasonable.

Funny enough the dealer who offered to sell me the car at 5k over MSRP texted me this morning and offered to sell me one at MSRP. I'm not sure where that came from, but it was too late - and really too bad. A solvable error could lead to someone going to a completely different brand.

So yes I'm happy -- and very pleased that Ford and Ford of Kirkland came through. I hope to see the truck in 3-5 weeks, crossing my fingers. Thank you all!

Fumbling the Football

Abercrombe & Sitch

There is an art to public relations. Abercrombe & Fitch demonstrated what you shouldn't do in PR this week when they apparently paid "The Situation" from the show "Jersey Shore" to NOT wear their clothes since they felt it didn't align with their brand image. Abercrombe put out a press release that seemed like they were laughing and pointing their fingers at the cast of Jersey Shore, almost bragging that they offered a "substantial amount of money" to the cast to just not wear their brand on the show.

Talk about a "situation", the stock dropped approximately 20% in the past two days, roughly 1 billion of market cap! Whoever made that decision just cost their shareholders and staff 1 billion dollars all over the Jersey Shore.

HP's Big Day of Mixed Emotions

So let's talk about the HP press release today. My phone has been ringing off the hook -- and I'm somewhat beside myself over the whole thing.

• I appreciate the potential of webOS and the idea of licensing it to a company who has good relationships with major carriers makes sense... so good on them if they are actually thinking about it, however if they wanted to license webOS, why didn't they wait until they had a deal in place before announcing the cancellation of their hardware?
  
  
• They totally risk alienating the loyal webOS community and even their team. They need to address this quickly, the messaging was poorly developed -- and you can bet that the sharks are swimming looking for some talent to poach.
  
  
• They drop a bombshell that they're looking to spin off the PC business or sell it. Now this is amazing to me. It's completely counter to what HP is all about, certainly not something Mark Hurd wanted. I don't quite understand this decision, not sure I can see the positive here.
  
  
• They acquired a 10 billion dollar software company that "no one" has heard of in a shaky economy - they are paying 10X sales! Clearly a move towards the enterprise and away from the consumer?
  
  
• Just an observation: HP's stock was $46.30 the day before Mark Hurd left, the next day it went down on massive volume -- the largest volume day in the last year was the day after Hurd left. In fairness over the last year the stock climbed back up slowly and has fluctuated, however today it hit $26.61 after hours, which is near the 2009 crash lows.

I really love HP. The company is an icon in the Valley, and has been one of the most respected technology companies for decades. People like Steve Wozniak started their careers at HP, and Bill & Dave put Palo Alto & Cupertino on the map. This content of the conference call seems poorly timed & scripted.

I don't believe the intent is to kill webOS software, but it "feels" like it is.

I don't know what to say about the spin-off of the PC business. Seems like a missed opportunity. I can't say it's a "tap-out" because the company is very competitive overall, but maybe there's a lack of vision.

I hope they think about the messaging and the broader impact that it has on their people, the community, the market, etc. It feels like it was taken lightly.

Is "The HP Way" gone for good?

Bill & Dave are probably wondering what the heck is going on with their company. I know I'm disappointed... and as a living founder of a brand that was once considered a major part of the company - I feel their pain.

So back to the topic of PR

I think HP could have done a better job of messaging this;

1. wait until they had a deal to license webOS on the table
2. announce the deal in fabulous fashion, while quietly mentioning they killed webOS hardware.
3. as far as the rest goes, who knows, the acquisition and the pc spin-off thing have my head rumbling.

Good Luck HP!

I wish all my friends and ex-colleagues nothing but the best.... you know I have mad love for you --- and what's meant to be is meant to be. HP will still be here for a very long time, it'll just be a different HP, and one that we all hope comes back stronger and better than ever.

I really hope this is the case.