HP's Mark Hurd, the Next Jack Welch?

Over the years, thousands of executives have turned to the wisdom of GE's legendary former CEO, Jack Welch. However, his principles appear to be for another generation. In fact, a recent article in Fortune does a deep dive on this.

The problem is that there is no clear replacement. However, in light of the big comeback in Hewlett Packard, the company's CEO, Mark Hurd, just might be the next management guru.

When he came on board last year, there was lots of skepticism. How can you move a sprawling organization like HP? Not doubt, several high-powered executives tried.

Well, so far, Hurd is proving that it can be done. And, we got lots of evidence of this yesterday, when the company posted its blow-out results.

Net income surged to $1.5 billion (excluding non-cash items), up from last year's $73 million. The number beat the Street estimate (this has been the case for the past five quarters).

Hurd has been aggressive on several fronts. There has been lots of cost-cutting and streamlining of operations. However, he has also moved into the higher-margin/higher growth software space. This has been through acquisitions, such as of Mercury Interactive Corp.

But, somehow, Hurd is improving the value proposition of its products. For example, HP is making headway against tough competitors like Dell.

The stock has surged since Hurd joined the company. In fact, HP's market cap is $101 billion. No doubt, he wants to overtake the #1 spot from IBM, which has a market cap of $120 billion.

Then again, Hurd's prior gig was the CEO of NCR. He had the daunting challenge of turning that company around. So, in a way, it was a warm-up for the challenges at HP.

With the success of Hurd, I'm sure there will be an emerging market of books, tapes and articles on the "Hurd Way." Actually, Hurd wrote a book a couple years ago that may get much more interest (The Value Factor: How Global Leaders Use Information for Growth and Competitive Advantage).

It's still early to see if Hurd can take the Welch mantel. But so far, so good.

Tom Taulli is the author of a variety of books, such as the Complete M&A Handbook (Random House) and operates InvestorOffering.com