FUDBuster: Can New CEO Solve All of HP's Problems?

FUDBust: Hurd may be less flashy than the globe-trotting Fiorina, but he ain't in Kansas (or Dayton, Ohio) anymore. The $80 billion HP is far larger and more sprawling than the $6 billion NCR. It also faces stiffer competition. NCR dominates a relative few high-margin market niches, but HP is up against the technology titans in almost every cutthroat IT market.

Although the 48-year-old Hurd gets high marks as a cost-cutter-- he turned NCR around during his two-year stint as CEO--it's unclear whether he has the vision to steer HP and its legions of innovators into the Next Big (and Profitable) Things. Hurd has been hailed as an operations czar, but Fiorina had already cut billions of dollars in costs as part of the consolidation with Compaq. HP's problems are less operational than strategic.