500,000 CEOs: The winner! 58
by Derek Kessler
Thu, 20 Oct 2011 3:17 pm EDT
Thu, 20 Oct 2011 3:17 pm EDT 
The moment you’ve all been waiting for is here. After narrowing it down to five finalists, the community voted and we now have our winner for the 500,000 CEOs contest. This messenger to HP will receive a brand new 32GB HP TouchPad with a bluetooth keyboard and folio case, plus all the fame and adulation webOS can buy. With nearly a third of the over one thousand votes cast, the winner of the 500,000 CEOs contest is… after the break.
Second runner-up: Brian Hutchison’s Letter to HP
First runner-up: Rennat’s From the WebOS Community
The number one finisher, the best vote getter, the 500,00 CEOs contest winner: Christopher Thomas’ Proposal
Our thanks to everybody that submitted entries and congratulations to Christopher! Here’s hoping HP sees your message, gets it, and maybe even takes you up on that employment offer!
58 Comments
good choice
He got my vote...good for him! Hope HP gives him a job too ;-)
He formulated some really good ideas, especially the part about plastic and metal sounds reasonable and easy to comprehend. I really would like to see nice shaped, fresh colored PCs in the Office, too, although the design is a little too "fruity" for my Taste. Look what happened to Samsung in Europe.
But honestly, a guy with clear vision working for a bunch of castrated brainless morons? That's not very nice of you.
So the winning message is that HP should become an Apple and he is the new Jony Ive complete with black T shirt and Aussie accent? The only thing missing was a redesigned HP logo which is a silhouette of a garage with a bite out of it.
The problem with suggesting this strategy is that Steve Jobs built and grew Apple around these ideas from day one. HP is almost the other end of the consumer technology spectrum. What's the point of creating all of these new designs when they show up in the catalog or WalMart next to your gray boxes? HP has tons of consumer products but can you imagine what an HP store would look like?
Considering how poorly Apple is doing, yeah, that sounds like a bad message.
They already tried copying Apple on numerous fronts. Didn't work.
define "try" bc I didnt see much of an effort. Touchpad launch for what maybe 4-6 weeks? one phone launch (veer)? Helluva an effort. Apple was on the brink way back in the day remember...it didnt happen overnight and you have to have conviction to stick with a plan for more than weeks.
Apple emulation across all of their products:
HP Movie Store?
HP Envy?
Touchpad being the only other 9.7-inch 1024x768 tablet on the market?
I always hear people bring up Apple's turnaround when Steve Jobs came back onboard as reason for HP to "never give up", but I wonder if people realize what that means. Steve Jobs didn't turn Apple around by unleashing the iMac...he did it by revolutionizing the form factors and user experience of the "beige box" industry at that time.
Christopher's advice to HP is to make iMac-versions of existing HP products. Old hat. Nobody would care.
.
Actually .... Microsoft turned it around for Apple by investing 150 million into the company and making the Office software suite - Mac compatible. The wolves (Anti-trust Regulators) were at MS's doors, investigating predatory practices (lol).
If not for this, Apple might've been what webOS looks headed for.
.
I think the iMac might have had a smidgen more to go with their rebirth.
If MS hadn't invested, Apple would have gone bust.
Not really: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/stop-the-lies-the-day-that-microsoft-sav...
Apple would certainly have gone bankrupt. There is an important distinction to make though. Microsoft's money only gave Apple the capital needed to give them a chance to turn it around. It was Steve Jobs who did the actual turning around by what he did with it.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Elevation Partners gave Palm the capital to turn it around but what Ruby did with that capital caused Palm to go under.
Aha. So having good design is the same as copying Apple? Brilliant.
now if only we could get a response video from meg... that would be nice... to know where she's taking this platform and such.
Would have been better without the music and a lavalier mic. Nice points about construction/design (metal SHOULD BE metal, plastic SHOULD BE plastic). Mostly everything else he mentioned is common sense that no one at HP seems to have a grasp on.
Yeah, I totally agree with this. I found it ironic that he was calling for design and marketing changes, yet his video was incredibly unpolished, with poor picture, poor sound and with him obviously reading.
I liked his ideas, but the result seemed thrown together in a rush. Ironic.
he's a single human being, not a corporation that assigns and divides labor to thousands of people.
Yeah, sort of like HP. Oh wait..
What does that have to do with anything? Not a really nice comment. Of course the video's of poor quality, it's home made! Why don't you comment on his choice of clothes, or his taste in interior decoration? Come on!
What's up with that music? Way too loud and I had trouble focusing on his voice while mentally blocking out that "foreground" music on my headset. Otherwise, very good arguments. All valid points that hopefully, HP and Meg with have the patience to watch and learn.
so happy for this! That was the best video, message and scripted response of all...
Which was sort of sad. But not surprising.
Contest should have been called 12 CEOs
*Sigh, I guess I can't complain if I didn't get my vote in (or my video). Props to those who did.
On a side, would it have been possible to post these videos in the same format or host from the same site, or was the limitation due to where the user uploaded the video? i.e. I can't see YouTube videos due to firewall at work, so I got on my Pre (which can now see YouTube videos), but unfortunately I cannot see the selected (Vimeo) winner on my Pre. However, I can go back to my workstation and watch the (Vimeo) winner because the firewall does support that traffic. *sigh again
too long - just like a 3 page CV - sorry to be brutal but both will end up in the CEO's bin - too full of technological mumbo jumbo - Meg will watch 30 secs then delete it...
needs to be a 1 page CV that catches her attention like 2 of the other finalists...
she ain't gonna listen to some geek rambling on for 6 minutes....
Especially not one who plugs his own abilities. That's what made me not vote for this. Blah blah blah, "hire me plx". ****
Yeah, but you know what though? CEOs don't become CEOs by getting all their information from 30-second blurbs. That's what the rest of us underlings do. They attain the powerful status they have by digesting all pertinent information and making informed decisions.
This guy makes excellent and valid points. We don't want to pin our hopes on the 'quick sell' here. There's too much at stake to do that.
I loved the polish of a couple of the other ads (and that's what they were really...ads). But this one's got real substance. It doesn't just point out the problems and failures of HP's handling of the launch, hardware, software, etc. It gives viable solutions to correct the wrongs.
I loved the piece set to "We Didn't Start The Fire" too. But again, no solutions were offered there.
If all we do, in the piece sent to Meg, is 8itch and moan about what is 'wrong' without offering ways to fix it, then we're going to just get ignored. And even if we offer ways to fix while still 8itching and moaning, we will get ignored.
This piece hits the target perfectly. I'll openly admit that this is the first time I had even watched it. Initially I passed right by this one because I figured from looking at the video still, "Ahh, this is just some guy on his basement..." I passed on it without even watching it. Now i'm glad it won. Because even though I gave it no play before, it has the best content - by far.
And if Meg is half the CEO she should be, she won't gloss over the fact that there is no polish on this presentation. She will watch and listen to the content.
Gotta say I'm surprised. Winner's ideas are good ones, and very well-presented, but 6 minutes of static, direct-address-to-camera advice really isn't that compelling. This certainly doesn't have the heart or emotional resonance that some of the other entries did. It also lacks the brevity.
That aside, it's all very valid, and hey - the community has spoken. So congrats to Christopher Thomas.
I liked the video.. put it would be nice to give it a more polished look before being sent over.. the **** video quality and messy background when the camera is on him distracts from the message..
but i did vote for him because it was the best message/advice..
Wow...unique color-coded computers that could be bought in "school colors" among other things is the big design idea that's going to elevate HP computers and WebOS products, eh? So odd that it's not working for Dell.
Oh, and then we should rush a 7-inch Touchpad into production which can be sold at $249 for a "minimal profit" (read: loss), but will somehow sell like hotcakes when someone can get a TEN-inch 32GB Touchpad for the same price off eBay or Craigslist. Maybe less. Definitely less for a 16GB one.
Well, at least they followed his advice about rushing another Touchpad update out. Seems to be messing up games and other graphics heavy apps, but you can't win 'em all.
Yep, it can't get any worse here. Well, i suppose it can as soon as Tim posts something else.
What a ripoff. The best one was easily HP Start The Fire.
Rather unfortunate freeze-frame for the winner. In all those 6+ minutes, Vimeo had to grab one in mid-blink.
I, too, feel that "HP Start the Fire" is a worthy write-in candidate to send along as well. I find it equally compelling.
So the best solution is to spend a lot of money to get webOS going again, rush new webOS products out to market as soon as possible and accept razor thin margins to keep the prices really low…
Why am I not surprised that a lot of people around here think this is a good idea?
-Suntan
Good observation. People here seem to think that webOS is a significant part of HP's long term strategy for some reason. Obviously, it wasn't that important because they weren't willing to shovel cash into it for more than a few months. It's the same kind of fantasy that led people to believe that HP would put out a "super phone", pay for a "flood of apps", launch a spectacular marketing campaign, blanket "all carriers" with their devices, relaunch webOS, maintain the platform even though they aren't doing any more hardware. It's laughable.
What?!? The winning video is in a format I can't watch on my Palm...errr HP phone? Fitting.
I liked it, but in retrospect, I agree that it is a long video. As for not being able to watch the video from your *Palm* phone - watch it from you HP Touchpad like I did. Looks great from the browser.
good job all!
Well done and designed :) Congrats
Block me off a copy!!1
Good choice for the winner! The runners up were good, too!
Oh yeahhhhhh!!!!!
Excellent choice and well done. Congrats and Kudos to the winner.
blablabla
I agree that it's ironic I can't even watch it on a Pre 3.
Congrats, hope it does some good. I wouldn't count on it.
well all I know is that its Oct.20th and we still have a coming soon tor Oct. Issue of pivot. Its already been reported that HP may be working on windows 8 tablets to release in 2012...... Webos is dead folks......
Most of the sweet features from WebOS have been stolen and HP was never worth saving. This video was a bunch of goo. Incentivize is not a word so you are not worth hiring... Meg could give two sticks what you all think too. We backed a loser and the dream is dead. I am sorry for all the time I wasted keeping up on this failed platform. See you all in another life brothers! Ice Cream sandwich anyone?
BRAVO CHRIS!
HP, give this guy a job and make us all proud by implementing his suggestions.
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Still liked Start the fire. Confused as to how it did not become a finalist.
I think the guy who tattooed the Palm Pre on arm should have come back and made a video plea to Meg Whitman to keep his left arm relevant. That would have been a shoe-in for a repeat!
Here's the video of his original commitment to Palm hardware:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvSnuHnVseY
I love Christopher's video. I love the new Touchpad renderings, I wish I could own one right now! He offers great advice, but what do I know about corporate strategies? I just want webOS to thrive as all of us here know it can. We want to see its potential realized and utilized. WebOS will blow someday and I'm going to be proud to have been here since the beginning. We have this feeling of democracy in the webOS community. We express our concerns and critiques in the forums as well as our desires. Soon the community satisfies curiosity by breaking barriers and giving us greater power and flexibility in our devices. Just as our devices synergize so do we with them. Meg Whitman may seek to take advantage of this culture while the ball is still in play.
If you want to gain some more exposure, you could create an app with this video in it, and submit it to the HP catalog. The app approver might think it's interesting and forward it on to his/her boss, who may do the same, etc. It might even reach the CEO! Oh, and e-mail Richard Kerris, he's pretty good with responding to the community.
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HP could really run with this. They could hire this guy, make a commercial about listening to the customer and also get a ton of free advertisement, because everybody would do a story on this.
omg that (winning) video was _amazing_!