Survey Says: Next H.P. CEO to Come From H.P. or I.B.M.

The C-Suite has spoken and called for a Hewlett-Packard or I.B.M. executive to end up as H.P.’s next chief executive.

Cook Associates, an executive search firm, surveyed 500 top executives from the technology sector and financial community to discover their thoughts on H.P.’s future. About 43 percent of the respondents felt the most qualified replacement for Mark Hurd would come from H.P. or I.B.M., said Jeff Leopold, a managing director at Cook. (The survey will be published Monday).

In fact, Todd Bradley, the current head of H.P.’s PC business, tied with Steve Mills, the head of software at I.B.M., as the individuals best suited to follow Mr. Hurd.

In a confirmation that the C-Suite has a sense of humor, the respondents had Mr. Hurd tied with H.P.’s corporate technology chief, Ann Livermore, in the second spot. But, short of some shareholder revolt, it’s hard to see Mr. Hurd coming back anytime soon.

All in all, the C-level executives demonstrated a profound lack of creativity. They clearly skewed toward H.P. and I.B.M. candidates – the obvious choices – and produced suggestions originating from only six of the 20 largest companies. Just 11 percent of the respondents suggested that a woman replace Mr. Hurd, and no one offered up a candidate with a European or Asian background, even though many of the executives surveyed have worked abroad.

“The wisdom of the crowds suggest that H.P.’s current strategy is quite sound and that an internal executive is probably most able to keep the company on its path,” Mr. Leopold said.

About 25 percent of the respondents added that an internal executive or member of the H.P. board would be best.

“That eclipsed all of the other things,” Mr. Leopold said. “That is a very strong statement.”

With stints at General Electric, FedEx, Palm and Gateway, Mr. Bradley has the diverse experience one tends to want to see in a chief executive of a large company, Mr. Leopold said. In addition, Mr. Bradley already heads up a $42 billion business, making him equipped to deal with serious scale. H.P., the world’s biggest tech company in terms of revenue, did $115 billion worth of business last year.Mr. Mills could provide H.P. with some much need software expertise. Despite numerous acquisitions, H.P.’s software business has failed to keep up with the rest of the company.

Executives from Apple, Boeing, Dell, EMC, Motorola and Oracle were also mentioned in the survey.

Few people have suggested that H.P. hire someone from the telecommunications market, although this could be an interesting move. The company needs to inject life into its mobile business and give the Palm products a boost.