Wow. What is it about power and success that sends people off kilter? Perhaps the exceptional qualities required to make it to the top also come with some attendant exceptional flaws.

The Tiger Woods meltdown is the most eye-popping and cringe-inducing recent example of this particular art, but Mark Hurd's abrupt exit from HP over the weekend must be right up there in any notional league table of similar infractions.

Now there's a vacancy at the head of this 300,000 employee, $115bn turnover print behemoth, which seems to have suffered from more than its fair share of executive turmoil and boardroom scandal in recent years. Reading some of the coverage this morning (3,792 stories and counting), there's more than a hint that further revelations are likely, so it remains to be seen whether the board's actions in firing Hurd in short order will successfully put a lid on the affair.

What an ignominious exit. As HP's hiring committee begins the search for a replacement (I vote for Hartmut Mehdorn, would be fun to have him back), I'm imagining that candidates will need to demonstrate that they have the moral compass of Mother Theresa.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a Californian mansion, Hurd must be ruing the day he forgot this HP business tenet: "Before I make a decision, I consider how it would look in a news story."