The Atlanta Journal-Constitution business press column.(Column)

Byline: Tom Walker

Feb. 20--HP SPYING CASE HURT HIGH-PROFILE FEMALE EXECS: No matter where they met or how tight the security, it seemed information from the meetings of Hewlett-Packard's directors and top executives always ended up on CNet or other news outlets.

Ultimately, efforts by that high-profile California computer products maker to find the source of the leaks and stop them led to wiretaps and illegal surveillance of the press and of Hewlett-Packard executives. Author/journalist James Stewart relates the story in The New Yorker (Feb. 19, 26).

Casualties of this corporate episode, which eventually led to federal and California criminal investigations, included Carly Fiorina, the country's most visible female CEO, and Chairwoman Patricia Dunn, who was charged with four felonies.

One covert practice used by HP was "pretexting," or lying to obtain reporters' phone numbers and other private information. It's also the story of cliquish behavior by old-line directors undermining newcomers, especially women.

After a wholesale turnover at the top, Stewart writes, "Hewlett-Packard is now thriving financially," and its new board gave current CEO Mark Hurd $8.6 million in cash bonus and options on 500,000 shares of stock.

PAY ISSUE FESTERS: No topic inflames the passions of business leaders and shareholders like executive pay, BusinessWeek (Feb. 26) reports. "Companies and compensation consultants argue that, in a free market, they'd be foolish not to pay the going rate for top talent. Investors demand that compensation be tied to performance and complain loudly when pay rises while share prices don't," the magazine says. At any rate, the perennial battle is about to reach a new level of contentiousness.

The proxy season, just getting started, will be the first under new Securities and Exchange Commission reporting rules that force companies to disclose more about executive pay than ever before -- from the hundreds of millions some executives stand to gain in severance, pensions and deferred pay to any perk worth more than $10,000.

"Golden parachutes and sybaritic benefits such as club memberships and personal use of company jets won't score many points against a backdrop of the options-backdating scandal and increasingly empowered activist investors," BusinessWeek says.

REINVENTING OUTDOOR ADS: An unexpected renaissance has occurred during the new-media Internet advertising era -- in the decidedly old-media outdoor advertising. "Spending in this segment of the industry approached $7 billion in 2006 and is on track to grow by 8 percent this year," Inc. (February) reports. At the same time, network TV, radio and newspaper advertising are expected to remain flat. Some outdoor ads can be uncommonly clever, such as New York City's manhole covers that were repainted to look like the tops of steaming cups of Folger's coffee. The only problem, according to the New York Post, is the "unjava-like aroma" of the street-level covers.

MISPLACED PRIORITIES: Considering how important a company's reputation is with the public, it's surprising how badly most companies manage their reputations, Harvard Business Review (February) reports. "Companies with strong positive reputations attract better talent and are perceived as providing more value in their products and services, which often allows them to charge a premium [for their products or services]." Their stock price also is relatively higher.

"Most companies, however, do an inadequate job of managing their reputations in general and the risks to their reputations in particular," HBR reports. They tend to focus on threats that have already occurred, rather than anticipating risks for the future.

That's not risk management, HBR says, it's crisis management -- a reactive approach aimed at limiting already existing damage.

REDOING THE OFFICE: Modern office design can be summed up in two words: cubicle and foosball, Fortune (Feb. 26) says. The former signifies "a soulless salaryman maze, the latter dot-com froth," and both concepts have taken their knocks.

"Thankfully, we're entering a new era where office design, a field once dismissed by serious architects, has become both a brand builder and a key piece of the worker productivity puzzle," the magazine says.

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