Year One of ‘the anti-Carly’

They call Mark Hurd ‘the anti-Carly’ within HP, says company board member Tom Perkins — Carly, of course, being former HP CEO Carly Fiorina. Hurd succeeded Fiorina at the helm one year ago today and has brought a good measure of stability and optimism to a vendor that had long lacked both, according to a story this morning in the San Jose Mercury News.

One money quote from the piece: “Right now he’s getting credit because he’s doing what he can, which is cutting cost,” said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research. “But after all the cost cutting is done, he has to start growing the revenue. That’s the main reason why I have a hold on the stock. The top-line growth is not that impressive.”

A year sounds about right for a honeymoon period for a CEO who inherited a mess on the scale that Hurd found on his desk. The challenges in Year Two won’t be any easier … and the reviews are bound to become less charitable.