Two big challenges -- mobile and tech services -- remain unresolved, but HP's management depth gives hope that the tech giant will not stall How important was Mark Hurd’s five years at the helm of Hewlett-Packard? In the most basic sense, that’s easy to answer: The company’s stock-market value more than doubled, rising from $44.6 billion, rising to $108.1 billion, since Hurd become CEO on April 1, 2005.What’s unclear is how important he is today, and whether his sudden departure from HP on Friday after a probe of alleged sexual harassment will cause confusion and stasis just as HP has been regaining its strength in the marketplace or if he’s laid sufficient groundwork that the company can continue without him with minimal disruption.[ Stay ahead of the key tech business news with InfoWorld’s Today’s Headlines: First Look newsletter. | Read Bill Snyder’s Tech’s Bottom Line blog for what the key business trends mean to you. ] What Hurd’s departure means for HP and its customers Losing a popular CEO is certain to cause some stumbles in the stock market, and employees will probably feel a bit distracted for a time. But HP has a very deep bench of experienced managers who could take Hurd’s place or provide stability during the transition should an outsider be tapped.What’s more, Hurd’s shelf life may have been expiring: “Every top manager has a limited amount of time when his ideas are really fresh. Hurd may have beer reaching the end of that period,” says Rick Sturm, CEO of EMA, an analyst firm.Although HP has been doing well in the desktop space, regaining marketshare from Dell, which has suffered a string of product quality woes, Hurd leaves with two big challenges unresolved: HP just bought Palm and is figuring out its mobile strategy: what to do with WebOS for handhelds, tablets, printers, and more, and how these relate to its PC and peripherals businesses.And although it’s been two years since HP acquired technology services provider EDS, “the jury is still out” on that gargantuan effort, Sturn says. “At the very least, there’s a good deal of integration left to accomplish.”What Hurd has done for HP When he joined HP five years ago, Hurd took command at a time when morale at the computer giant was in shambles following the controversial tenure of Carly Fiorina, who steered the acquisition of Compaq and subsequently laid off more than 12,000 employees. He joined a company that was losing ground in the personal computer market to Dell and slipping versus IBM in services and enterprise computing. “He cleaned up the Carly era and then gave the company a new sense of direction,” says Sturm. “He squeezed out costs and then took the money and used it to make strategic acquisitions.”Hurd made HP stable, profitable, and disciplined. Revenue soared from $80 billion to $114.6 billion, and each of the company’s business units turned a profit. Although he had to pick up the pieces after the misguided takeover of Compaq, Hurd did not shy away from acquisitions.The purchases not only added bulk to HP, but technological breadth, ranging from computer services to mobile computing. He saw value in troubled companies, buying testing software maker Mercury Interactive, his first takeover, at a time when its management was embroiled in a scandal related to improper use of stock options. Most recently he paid $1.2 billion for foundering Palm and its WebOS mobile phone operating system. Along the way, he bought EDS for $13 billion, making HP the world’s second-largest provider of technology services after IBM. And he bought 3Com for $2.7 billion last year, a move aimed at extending HP’s reach into networking hardware.Not everything he touched was golden, however. Until today, his worst moment came when the company admitted that it had been spying on journalists. Although the order apparently came from former chairwoman Patricia Dunn, Hurd admitted to Congress in 2006 that he had signed off on the tactics.I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Post them here so that all our readers can share them, or reach me at bill.snyder@sbcglobal.net. This article, “What Hurd’s sudden departure means for HP,” was originally published by InfoWorld.com. Read more of Bill Snyder’s Tech’s Bottom Line blog and follow the latest technology business developments at InfoWorld.com. Technology Industry