It's rarely big news when a large company shuffles an executive from one corner office to another. But that changes when the promotions and demotions say something significant about the company's strategy -- and the benefits of this simple move could be huge.
That's the case with Hewlett-Packard
In his new role, Rubinstein will help HP "to provide a seamless, secure, context-aware experience across HP’s product portfolio, and to deliver innovation at unmatched scale." That's a perfect assignment for a man formerly responsible for hardware development and industrial design at Apple
Of course, Rubinstein was also CEO of the failed Palm business, so letting him move on to more creative work while replacing him with a proven business mogul is probably a good idea. So HP is basically swapping his duties with those of former Personal Systems chief Stephen DeWitt, responsible for making HP the leading maker of computer systems in the world ahead of Dell
Under DeWitt's leadership, HP-branded phones could make a splash in the crowded smartphone market. If I ran Nokia
So HP does a quick shuffle move that seems to improve the business prospects of its former Palm division as well as the consumer-pleasing powers of its PCs. What's not to love? After all, the tech titan could use some fresh thinking these days.