I still can vividly see the scared look on the face of my wife when I told her that I was laid off from HP 3 years ago. Her only response was: " We're going to be fine.", and she hugged me. I can't remember how many times I woke up in the middle of the night and caught her crying - trying to hide that away from me... Well... She was right. Everything eventually went to be fine. Yesterday, I had the final decision to award a business of 17 Physical ESX Hosts with Windows, VCenter two Cisco 7 slot chassis; and a CON-SNTP-C14507RE... Everything with a 10 years maintenance contract. That would have included the engagement of NetENG, DSE & Data Center teams... The quote was so ridiculously bad (even after reviewing the specs with them several times), that they simply disqualified themselves... Needless to say, the business was awarded to a major competitor. What I saw was a terrible execution/coordination on their side. Their competitors (especially "D") really blew them away in all aspects. If that is happening at all contract levels, HPE is in big, big trouble...
When we started the process, I told my boss that I would probably be biased, and asked to be removed from the selection team due to a potential conflict of interest. She told me that she trusted my judgement 100%, and thanked me for letting her know. When I went to bed last night, I was thinking how ironic life is... I wondered to what level of extent the dozens and dozens of thousands of employees that have been laid off will have at some point an important decision-making budget over HP/HPE as customers... And not only experiences like mine, but the volume impact of simple decisions like buying personal hardware equipment. When I got laid off, my then-boss told me Stephen... You know... Business is business... (he was laid off as well a few weeks later)... He was right... He was definitively right... Business is business... And people have the choice who do they do business with... HP & HPE were once an incredible Company. The fate of both is pretty clear at this point, and it's just a matter of time. HP & HPE... Listen to me... Come close, and listen to me well... I tell you today, 9/1/16... Business is business... You are fired.