In an unprovoked "smack-down" issued by IBM's Sam Palmisano on Hewlett Packard in an article titled, "IBM's Chief Thumps H-P" within today's Wall Street Journal Marketplace section, my faith in the executive leadership ranks and their understanding of the need for disciplined growth and innovation was rekindled.  Yes...I can be easily placated....

Quotes from the article:

• "In a rare public broadside, IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano said he doesn't worry about companies such as H-P, which he said has slashed investments in core technologies and had to make expensive acquisitions to keep up."
• "'H-P used to be a very inventive company.' Mr. Palmisano said."
• "Palmisano added, 'Hurd cut out all the research and development.'"
• "Mr. Hurd cut H-P's research and development budget to $2.8B or 2.5% of revenue, from $3.5B or 4% of revenue...Under Mr. Palmisano, IBM has continued to invest about 6% of its revenue in R&D, including $5.8B last year."
• "The executive said he worries about software giant Oracle and believes it will become the biggest threat to IBM over the long term.  'Oracle invests,' said Mr. Palmisano, who praised Oracle CEO Larry Ellison."

This is just awesome!  Unprovoked?  Yes.  A little brash and crass?  Sure.  Honest as hell?  You bet!

As the light at the end of the recessionary tunnel begins to get brighter, organizations that spent their "time in the tunnel" cutting costs, shedding key staff, slashing R&D resources and focusing only on the present are finding themselves holding an empty or sparse new product/service bag.  In contrast some organizations saw their "time in the tunnel" as a rare opportunity to re-define their opportunties, cherry pick some of the best people who were released to the marketplace and fill their new product/service development pipelines.  The former are now spending billions buying up the quick, the smart and the innovative in an attempt to catch up quickly.  The latter are already bringing their new products/services to market. 

Sam Palmisano knows that innovation takes risk.  Sometimes that risk has a nice reward.