“In January 2002, when I was still Editor of the technology business magazine Red Herring, I conceived an open letter from the editors of that magazine to Carly Fiorina, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. It’s first line: ‘Dear Ms. Fiorina, Please Resign.’ Wednesday’s announcement that Fiorina had been pushed from the executive suite provided only the grimmest of pleasures. I was gratified to be proven right. But the company will probably never be what it once was. That’s as close to a tragedy as business offers,” Brad King and Michelle Delio write for TechnologyReview.com.
“The letter was written during the contentious debate over whether HP should purchase the ailing computer manufacturer, Compaq. I felt sure the merger was a terrible idea. But my beef with Fiorina went beyond the Compaq merger. She represented all that was wrong with celebrity CEOs and their fixation on Wall Street. More, her management style was horribly incongruous with the traditions of HP,” King and Delio write. “I love Hewlett-Packard because the company founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard was egalitarian, technologically minded, and geeky. For decades, HP was the ideal of Silicon Valley entrepreneurialism to which all other companies aspired.”
“Just after the official announcement came down that CEO Carly Fiorina would be sacked, corks were popped and bottles were opened. There was little time for empathy. No pangs of sadness. Inside the company, workers openly celebrated their liberation from “Her Royal Horribleness,” a nickname bestowed upon Fiorina for her abrasive treatment of line workers. There was little love lost between the CEO and the 151,000 HP workers who have, almost consistently since 1999, made hating their boss a very personal, full-time mission. ‘When the news was officially announced this morning, people were dancing — literally dancing — around their cubicles,’ an employee in the business division writes in an email,” King and Delio write.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Hewlett-Packard ousts CEO Carly Fiorina, and what was with that ‘Apple iPod by HP’ deal anyway? – February 09, 2005
They can blame all of their troubles on Carly, but the same ugly monsters will still be there when they come back to work.
There may be some who dance, but Carly has also had many supporters inside HP. Myself included, a nineteen year HP’er. I personally find the company much strong now then it was six years ago directly attributable to Carly’s tough, driving leadership at the top.
Many (‘most’) men have a problem with females running the show. This sort of overreaction is typical.
I don’t care how many points you can list against her, you’re still a misogynist.
Many (‘most’) men have a problem with females running the show. This sort of overreaction is typical.
I don’t care how many points you can list against her, you’re still a misogynist.
Unfortunately, women have to be more aggressive than men to get anywhere in corporate society. Then they get labeled as b–chs for stuff that men can get away with.
Sexism is still rampant in corporate America.
Well, even though I don’t think it is necessary for Apple, I hope this doesn’t chill the hPod deal. The more Apple can continue to establish themselves as the standard, the better.
Day #1 CEO of HP gets ousted.
Day #2 MDN sings and dances about it, stabbing a ally of Apple in the back.
Day #3 New CEO of HP makes a successful hostile bid for Apple.
Day #4 MDN is now HPDN berates Steve Jobs
SPEW VILE, IT BECOMES YOU
Women generally only need to be JUST AS aggressive as men.
But men are allowed to be–women are punished and hated for IDENTICAL behavior.
A women is a b**** for doing the same thing that makes a man an assertive leader. 51% of the population needs no reminder of that.
There’s no question that SOME of that is going on with Carly–or any female exec. It may or may not be the only reason she didn’t get along with the board–but a woman standing up to a male-dominated board will NOT get the same reaction as a man doing the same.
All of this hullaballoo over Fiorina seems a little unpleasant to be honest, especially when it’s coming from people whose only reason to dislike her is the fact that she was CEO of a competitor to Apple.
People talk about the merger with Compaq as being over-expensive, but fail to realise that the alternative would have been to gift the business market completely to Dell: Neither HP servers, nor HP desktops had any credibility in the real enterprise space before the merger. Conversely, Compaq had no concept of how to market itself in the consumer space.
As someone who preaches the Joy of Macintosh, but recognises the pragmatic realities of where we are today, I’d still rather deal with a ProLiant server and SmartStart CDs than the Dell alternative – and I’m none too fussed whether it says HP on the fron or Compaq.
The real problem with the merger is that it took so long to convince a sceptical shareholder community, that both HP and Compaq took their eye off the ball from a product development point of view, which led to several product lines falling behind the curve.
The simple reality is that – from an IT product POV – HP without Compaq was becoming irrelevant (unless you owned a printer), and Compaq without HP was going to die the death of a thousand cuts. She probably saved more than she’s given credit for, and she shouldn’t be blamed for the fact that the computing market has been in the dumps since 9/11.
What would people have preferred that she do? Turn HP into another Dell?
All I can say is be very careful what you wish for , lest your wish be granted.
I somehow doubt that HP will suddenly become a more successful company as a result. Fact is they have long been living in the past and Fiorina was trying to change the stagnating corporate style to make it more competitive heading towards a very different future. Whether you agree with her decisions or not you can’t argue with her attitude that HP needed a new vision, it had gotten into a rut.
Get the decisions wrong and indeed you may have a quicker death, be it either instigator or company (at least in terms of being significant in the tech world) but it doesnt mean that the need to change is any less necessary. Apple took similar decisions when SJ returned and those decisions too were roundly criticised by many (some still do) but where would the company be if those risks had not been taken. If the former cosyness returns HP will simply decline albeit slowly.
No comments on Fiorina’s management style and who did or did not like her, but I think its amazing that the article’s argument was that a focus on innovation and NOT Wall Street would have been more beneficial to HP. Traditionally speaking, Wall Street is all about Wall Street, and so is the tech industry. Look at how Apple’s stock price were punished for years for not focusing on getting more, and more money, but on innovation and creating great products. Apple’s stock is doing great now, but let’s face it, typically Wall Street prefers companies whose focus is on profits at all cost—including Christmas layoffs, slashed research budgets, and mediocre products.
Then they get labeled as b–chs for stuff that men can get away with.
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Oh stuff like.. uh.. BEING MEN?!
Yes that’s usually the case.. and when guys listen to Clay Aiken or the Backstreet Boys, they get labeled as wussies, or homos..
Aw, shucks.. what an unfair world we live in…
Why do women feel they have to be CEO’s?
Well, the reason is that a female version of POWER and SUCCESS, goes ignored in today’s society.
Since the feminist movement started rolling back in the, er, 1800’s(?) women have decided that while they see no shame in being housewives, their husbands most certainly DO.
So men, we created these women: aggressive, ambitious, competitive, vigilant, brilliant, inspiring.
But sexy? Not on your life.
You can whine all you want about the double standard… IF YOU CEASE TO ACT LIKE A FEMALE, it’s not a double standard because you’re barely female anymore.
Just because you have the equipment, doesn’t mean you’re a woman.
To put things in perspective, think about a man being the successor to Martha Stewart’s company, or the successor to Oprah. Is that man, with all his sensibilities, attractive?
Well Mike, way to make my point. You’ve done a wonderful job of showing the sexism that exists in corporate America. So apparently, aggressiveness is a male trait? And women who are aggressive and ambitious are being male?
Whatever, I’m not going to bother to respond to your stereotypical comments. There’s just so much idiocy, and I have better things to do.
So apparently, aggressiveness is a male trait? And women who are aggressive and ambitious are being male?
—-
Yup. And now you’re insulted? Man.. that sucks. Who says that has to be an insult? That’s the real question.
By the way, since you’re such an aggressive girl.. don’t suppose you were glued to the Superbowl on Sunday and wanna recap the game for me huh?
PS, The ‘you proved my point’ response is so childish, especially since you refuse to defend yourself. Calling me an idiot because I have a point of view that is, well, Darwinian and logical.. just shows you don’t wanna do anything but yell “SEXISM!” then run away.
Merges like Compaq-HP happen because of the danger of one of them going under and the other having nothing but bad news to declare. Take AOL-T/W for instance … Case’s timing was impeccable — just before the tech crash.
In Carly’s case, one should look at her pay-out. No doubt she’s laughing all the way to the bank and looking forward to a long stress-free holiday. The people dancing around the cubicles are like laughing in the face of danger/tragedy.
V-Train has it right!
Sexism is still rampant in corporate America!
mike wrote: “To put things in perspective, think about a man being the successor to Martha Stewart’s company, or the successor to Oprah. Is that man, with all his sensibilities, attractive?”
I didn’t realize that the goal of a CEO was to be “attractive.” Besides, many women (and some men) *would* find that successor to be attractive. You’re just bringing your own bias against strong women into the argument.
And please don’t sully the name of Darwin with your small-minded claptrap.
I’m with MCCFR on this one. When I ordered new computers for our small non-profit, I got an Apple for myself and HP’s the rest of the way around. They were the best deal I found. Our outside consultant came in to set things up and he had rarely dealt with HP’s (and never Apple). He wasn’t very excited about it, but once he opened up the Proliant server, he was impressed. The SmartStart cd’s did the same thing. He felt like we got very good products from HP (and I know I got a good product from Apple!). I don’t know a whole lot about HP, but I know we got good hardware at a good price. The bashing of Carly has had the air of discrimination from the beginning. It’s like the big pile of crap in the middle of the room that people are afraid of talking about.
Better news to read would be Steve Ballmer ousted from Microsoft.
Now that would be news!
And then the new CEO would embrace the iPod music format as a show that it wants to work with others….
Who is this “Darwin” you guys are talking about? No mention of him(?) in any of my textbooks.
Sexism was not the issue except in the realm of Monday morning quarterbacking. Carly was not the right leader for a company in the condition that HP was in. Her solution? Take Compaq. Many CEO’s with a financial bent somehow find it necessary to make things bigger. It diverts attention from the more recalcitrant problems a company often has. Others find a solution in breaking a company up. I think Carly’s strategy reflected her ego. Different time, different company, this might have worked. Not with HP, a company founded on a egalitarian work ethic. Although some members of the board were not on her side with the Compaq deal, she got her way. Was it a brilliant strategy? Well, if she measures leadership by performance (ie., quantitatively speaking) she fails by her own measure. But a different women with a different style might have found enormous success. Hey, there were a lot of men standing shoulder to shoulder with Carly. Their “maleness” did not help HP succeed. It was the wrong person, wrong time, result. Happens all too frequently in the business world.
Hey, ‘Vagina-Train’ and ‘Ruth’:
What’s with all the misogynist talk? Can’t you see that men don’t want to be neutered by the women they sleep with? No, I keed. But seriously, come on over to my place, you silly bitches. I’ll be more than happy to show you what Carly did wrong! Yessss! Yessss, that’s it. You know you’ve been bad girls. Come on, you know you want it.
BTW, to look at alternate strategies, look at what IBM is doing with their PC business. Long before Carly, HP made it their mission to be a top player in the PC business. Carly just carried through on that. The Compaq merger allowed them to briefly fulfill that mission. But, because of MS and Dell, it turned out to be a dead end. If Carly had been a great CEO she would have realized that the mission she inherited was just wrong. I have to say I admire IBM. Most companies fear such bold moves, even when they have no choice.
And buying Compaq was a bold move. Just the wrong one. So, Carly, in the time frame in which she is being assessed, got it wrong and now she is gone. And so it goes…
Wow. There’s a whole lot of misperceptions and perpetuation of myth flying around here on topics ranging from gender differences to corporate politics to the reasons why Carly was unsuccessful. Ricki seems to be the one who really nailed it.