NYT: What about customers? What questions do they ask?
McKinney: By and large, they've been supportive. At the strategic level, they get it. The second thing you hear from them is, "Boy, I wish I knew what the road maps were. I'd really like to know what your product transitions are going to be so I can plan my business." Once the merger closes, we'll be on their doorstep with all the plans fully defined.
The advice I'm getting is, "Make sure you don't take your eyes off the ball" relative to customers during the transition. It's a time that requires even more communication than normal. If you look at the results of our fourth quarter, we did very well. So on balance, I think customers are very supportive of the merger. Obviously our competitors would like to make our customers believe otherwise, but so far they don't seem very successful.
NYT: How do you explain to employees that you failed to convince Walter Hewlett, David Packard and other descendants of [H-P's founders] that the merger makes sense?
McKinney: What I do is acknowledge that all the press and outside speculation because of the comments of Walter and David Woodley are a distraction. And then I basically talk to them about why the merger does make sense and how we are managing the integration to make sure we are successful.
I don't try to put Walter's points up and prove them wrong. I just acknowledge that what he is saying creates a level of concern and anxiety, and I know that's out there. And then I reinforce the message that we've had from day one as to why we believe and are confident that this merger would build a great, strong company in the future.
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