Is there a bottom to this story? If so, we’re not close to reaching it. Spy vs Spy at H-P escalated to the public humiliation phase when chagrined and seemingly clueless corp execs are shamed by Senators who are usually subjected to this kind of scrutiny by their constituents. All that pent up Senatorial rage.

Characters are clearly drawn now. Dunn, or Duh!, the Chairwoman, claims she did not know what was going on, takes no responsibility, and thought you can get someone elses phone records merely by asking. Huh? Hurd, or Heard!, is the CEO, the guy who has pleased shareholders by taking control of an organization rife with destructive, internecine battles. He has increased shareholder value (the mantra), and, most important, he says that spying in news rooms and obtaining records under false pretenses is clearly wrong and it will never happen again and he will restore trust at H – P. He was coached well.

You have the scapegoat and you have the hero, and it is clear which is which. For desired outcomes, this is the optimum stance. You want the CEO, going forward, to fix a serious problem and stabilize the company that was doing well before all this.  You really don’t care about a disgraced Chair, who is no longer part of the company. Dunn’s greatest mistake to me from a public relations perspective is that she does not show remorse or offer insight into what occured. Simply being appalled would help.

In corporate drama there are heros and villains, winners and losers. Ms. Dunn may be correct in all her assertions, and Hurd, for all I know, knows much more than is evident and was more culpable than we can see.  In the end, when the stories are written in the newspapers,  filmed for television, and spread through blogs and Internet news sources , we are left with impressions, sound bites, and a storyline.   Mark Rose, New York

I was furious when Dell announced its huge recall of notebook batteries that had the potential to explode. I was angry because the web site url the company gave for recall info was non-functioning and the phone number supposedly set-up to handle complaints was disconnected. There was nothing, not a word, of the recall on the Dell web site. Could they be so clueless and not to have a communication mechanism for what was billed as the largest consumer tech recall ever?

Turns out Dell was not clueless, far from it. They had been scooped by a small tech news source – The Inquirer – news, reviews, fact and friction – and their well laid communication plans were shot to pieces.

Dell thought they had this news under wraps until Tuesday, Aug. 15, but Sunday, August 13 The Inquirer piece ran. That soon caught the attention of a couple of enterprising Wall Street Journal reporters who posted an item on the exploding notebooks Monday afternoon. Soon after The New York Times posted a story on its home page that was later accompanied with a picture of a man looking inside the cab of his pickup truck that was incinerated by an exploding Dell notebook computer battery (manufactured by Sony). Take a look at the picture. It’s gruesome.

I am not an innocent bystander in this story. I recently bought a Dell notebook and I wanted to know if I had to call in the SWAT team to mismantle my computer before I took it on a plane trip to Seattle.

I have bought Dell computers, servers and peripherals for 20 years and I am a fan of the company, despite its marginalization of the consumer through increasingly inferior, on-the-cheap customer service. The day the recall was announced Neville Hobson hit it with a post: Dell’s Reputation Tipping Point queried if exploding laptops would sink the company. I weighed in with my thoughts, and my fury, and “Richard” from Dell answered.

He said that Dell was spending $100 million (widely reported) to beef up customer service and their blog, Direct2Dell was helping people get through the recall. The blog was indeed helpful, especially since Digital Media Manager Lionel Menchaca was moderating and reaching out to others in Dell to get answers.

I had some more give and take with “Richard” from Dell on Neville’s blog and was impressed that the company was smart enough to have bloggers proactively reach out with the company story and to put a name and face behind the story (There were photos of actual people on Direct2Dell).

I am writing this on a Dell Inspiron notebook. It hasn’t blown up … yet. Mark Rose in New York. 

New York Next? The Chicago city council will vote today to raise minimum wages for workers at big box stores like Target and Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart has ambitious expansion plans in Chicago, and they want to move into New York City). Current wages at Chicago stores such as Wal-Mart and Target start at about $7.25 an hour (source – Financial Times). The bill, expected to pass, would mandate $9.25 per hour in 2007, rising to $10 in 2010 for work in “big box” stores, and an additional $1.50 benefits supplement.

Wal-Mart is sparking legislation all over the nation that is doing more to raise workers benefits than any union campaign. By aggressively fighting local governments that want their constituents to have fair wages and benefits Wal-Mart sets itself up as the invading behemoth that is intent on subservience and fealty to the retail machine. Wal-Mart mistakenly believes that these skirmishes are merely “site fights.” There is a larger pattern here they need to recognize, because it permanently alters their operations and bottom line. Put the money they waste on “site fights” into education, job training, infrastructure improvement in the communities where they do business and site fight issues will fade away.  Mark Rose in New York