Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions

Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions

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Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions
Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions
I Convinced HP's Board to Buy Palm for $1.2B. Then I Watched Them Kill It in 49 Days

I Convinced HP's Board to Buy Palm for $1.2B. Then I Watched Them Kill It in 49 Days

The systematic thinking errors that kill breakthrough technology and the decision framework that prevents these disasters

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Phil McKinney
Jun 09, 2025
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Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions
Phil McKinney's Studio Notes: Innovation Decisions
I Convinced HP's Board to Buy Palm for $1.2B. Then I Watched Them Kill It in 49 Days
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I've never shared this story publicly before—how I convinced HP's board to acquire Palm for $1.2 billion, then watched as they destroyed it while I was confined to bed recovering from surgery.

This isn't just another tech failure analysis. I was the HP Chief Technology Officer who led the technical due diligence on Palm. I presented to Mark Hurd and the …

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