The comparison between the current woes of beleaguered PC giant Compaq and the near-death-throes of formerly-beleaguered Apple may or may not continue in the mainstream press, but if you ask us, some of the similarities are pretty startling. Well, okay, there really aren't that many similarities. Still, you've got a big computer manufacturer whose performance is tumbling lower than expectations, and you've got a CEO getting canned and another high-ranking executive (CFO in this particular case) leaving for greener pastures on the same day. And now the carnage continues, as still another suit departs: according to a ZDNet article, Michael Heil, Compaq's "senior vice president and general manager of worldwide sales and marketing," has resigned to become CEO of another company. (We bet he took the new post as much to shorten his ridiculously long job title as to avoid getting Compaq blood all over his curriculum vitae.)

Interestingly enough, Heil's hasty retreat happens just as Compaq's "interim Office of the CEO" (hmmm, an interim CEO... that sounds strangely familiar) consolidates Heil's six sales and marketing regions into a leaner, meaner, "three geographic groups," and eliminating the separate worldwide sales and marketing organization entirely. So if the timing of Heil's decision to leave strikes you as just a coincidence, somebody's been spiking your orange juice with Essence of Naïve; the higher-ups apparently felt he could have been handling things differently. Meaning, better. So what does that mean for the remaining thirteen executive managers? It means they're living in the shadow of a big, nasty axe.

Now, we don't pretend to know how bad Compaq's problems are. In fact, we strongly doubt that they're anywhere near to losing a billion dollars a year. But the buzz among the analysts seems to be that Compaq desperately needs a "broad restructuring" to avoid becoming irrelevant, and that's not at all a simple task. Sounds like they need a charismatic and proven turnaround artist to walk in and start kicking some butt. A man that can take stock of what's wrong and set things right. A man that's not afraid to take drastic and unpopular action for the good of the company. Anyone got Gil Amelio's number?