Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman Admits She is a Failure at HP?

Meg Whitman was head of eBay Inc. while it became a billion dollar company, but some critics would say that eBay's growth was more organic that the result of astute leadership from Whitman. Then she retired. ...and eBay didn't crumble to pieces due to her absence.

Then came her 2010 gubernatorial bid in California. She failed as badly at that as she did at being retired. Then she signed on as CEO at HP, the world's largest PC maker. Now she's admitted that she can't run HP as well as a dead Steve Jobs can run apple by saying that Apple will overtake HP in 2012 as the world's biggest maker of PC's, especially if you include tablets.

Whitman said, “I think it’s possible if you integrate tablets. Apple does a great job. We need to improve our game and our products to take over the leadership position. Apple could go past HP in 2012. We will try to become the champion in 2013. It will take time for the products that I have influence on to make it to the market.”

So Whitman is saying that she has no responsibility over the course of the company or their sales, because she is dealing with products that she didn't "influence?" And also that in two years the products that she has influence over will suddenly be cooler than Apple stuff? Two years is forever in the tech world. How will she be able to get HP to regain a lost top spot on the PC list, if she couldn't keep it from losing the spot in the first place?

And how is she going to use her influence to get her engineers to produce products that people want more than Apple?

Shouldn't, perhaps, she be focused on influencing areas of HP where good decisions might lead to HP remaining at the top? ie. marketing, branding, product image, etc.

This appears to be another case of Whitman being hired to run an already successful company that will ultimately go the course it would have gone without her. eBay grew. HP will decline. There are millions of unemployed workers out there that could head HP and lose market share, and do it for millions of dollars less in salary....(more)