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How to Recognize Failure Patterns: How HP Quit and Apple Won

A partner named exactly how HP would lose, four years early. HP quit. Apple didn't. Here are the four failure patterns behind both calls.

How to Recognize Failure Patterns: How HP Quit and Apple Won

HP Needs to Stop Before It Can Grow

A response to Mark Vena's "HP Needs More Than a New CEO," and my second letter to HP's board.

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The Customers Who Walked Away

Forty-two killer questions that survived years of testing, and the three places to aim them.

AI generated image of a customer walking out of a consumer electronics store

Retirement 3.0

My third retirement is different. On Jan 1, 2027 I retire as CableLabs CEO and hand the reins to Mark Bridges. Why now, and what's next?

Image of Phil McKinney announcing his retirement from CableLabs

Ideas Aren’t Getting Harder to Find. They’re Getting Harder to Approve

Every research-driven industry looks like it’s running out of ideas. It isn’t. It’s turning them down.

Ideas Aren’t Getting Harder to Find. They’re Getting Harder to Approve

What I Saw McKinsey Get Wrong at HP And Couldn’t Stop

Mindjacking doesn’t always come from outside. Sometimes you watch it happen in real time and still can’t stop it.

A man looking in from the outside watching a meeting making decisions - mindjacking

R&D Spending Is the Most Misleading Number in Business

The government collects the real R&D split from every public company. It's locked away by federal law. Here's how to estimate it anyway.

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The Innovation Metric Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard Used

HP used this R&D benchmark for decades and still managed to forget it. Most companies never found it.

Image of Bill Hewlett and David Packard sharing a secret

The R&D Metric Mark Hurd and HP Got Wrong

How one flawed benchmark drove years of R&D decisions and quietly drained HP's innovation pipeline.

The R&D Metric Mark Hurd and HP Got Wrong

You Knew Before I Did

I built a brand for twenty years. Then I searched for it.

An image that represent the concept of my avoiding the answer from looking at myself. A mirror.