“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
“Dancing in the cubicles”
Those misogynistic bastards.
‘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.
Does it saysmen were dancing? Why do men get the blames and get accused of being misogynists all the time? Can’t people have a legitimate reason to despise a CEO’s leadership unless the CEO is a man? Suppose Darl McBride got fired and people rejoiced, will we hear this “misogynistic” talks? For those who believe in equality, why can’t women be as bad as men at being executives?
Look, I am not saying that there aren’t men who hate executives just because they are female. But jumping to conclusion and broadly accuse all of misogynism is going too far. This is the problem with today’s PC America and Europe. People can’t have unpopular opinions without being branded racists, fascists, sexists, misogynists, chauvinists. We must tolerate everything including intolerance as not to offend a minority group (yes, I am a part of a minority group).
“What would people have preferred that she do? Turn HP into another Dell?”
No, people (read: shareholders), would have preferred that she liberate the highly profitable printer business by spinning it off into its own company. THEN the remainder of the business could have pursued a merger with Compaq.
No one’s arguing that it wasn’t desperation time on the PC side of the business. The problem is that, by merging the whole company, she essentially devalued the printer business.
Read the full-length Fortune article, if you can. (Someone posted an account number to read the article about Steve Jobs and it works for that article as well.)
How many feminist cliches can you whiny idiots recite in one thread? You know what? Equality isn’t confined to only the good stuff. It also means that when you screw up, EVEN IF YOU ARE A WOMAN, there are ramifications. Okay? Got it? Fiorina screwed up, from a purely, objective, analytical point of view. She doesn’t get the kid glove treatment just because she is a woman. She’s not the only one that matters in all this. There are many, many people that depend on HP for their livelihood, and they matter at least as much as Fiorina.
Look, men get fired all the time. Everyday in fact, men are fired, and no one sheds a tear. But when it happens to a woman, in every single case, every idiot on the face of the planet comes out of the woodwork and begins that familiar whine. Women want equality? That means they too can get fired if they’re not up to the task or if they screw up. SHE SCREWED UP? Do you realize how ridiculous it sounds to say that she’s the victim of sexism when in fact she was given the position of CEO of a major tech company in the first place? Why didn’t all of that rampant sexism keep her from getting the job at all?
Are we all obliged to hold women to a different standard, a lower standard, and treat them differently than men, treat them better than men? What part of that sounds like equality? Every time something like this happens, I NEVER hear these whiny feminist types say, “Yes, she deserved to be fired. She was incompetent.” Or, “Yes, Martha Stewart got what she deserved. She broke the law after all”. No, it’s always, “They’re picking on the women again, Boo hoo hoo, whaaaaaa” (suck thumb and pout).
Are women perfect? Are women always good? No, on both counts. Does it really not enter your thinking that women should have to play by the same rules as the men do? Again, equality doesn’t only apply to the good stuff, as in, being made CEO of a major company. It also applies to the other stuff, like getting fired when you screw up. Can you get your small minds around that?
And by the way, the days are over when feminists can throw around tired and over-used words like “misogynist” and look anything other than pathetic. You don’t win arguments by trotting out your pet words, as if they are the argumentative equivalent of a nuclear bomb. I know, I know, it’s just not fair. You should be able to call someone a misogynist with no proof whatsoever and everyone within earshot needs to run and crawl in their hole to escape the accusation. Well, it’s a new world, and the old ways don’t work anymore. Grow up and get over yourselves! Understand?
The feminist mantra: Give us everything we want, when we want it, and how we want it. Apply lower standards to us than you would apply to men. Hire us, but never ever fire us. And if you don’t, we’re going to whine and cry like spoiled little girls.
Carol Bartz of Autodesk needs to go. She needed to go 10 years ago. She too is abrasive of the workers. She has squandered many opportunities, and has surrounded herself with cronies. I am so glad to be away from Autodesk, but feel sorry for those who are still there. Carol is like Carly, but in a much smaller world.
And it has nothing to do with Carol being a woman. Meg Whitman of eBay does a great job.
Get back to your garden, Carol Bartz. You’ve overstayed your welcome.
Mac content: It was Carol that killed the Mac and Unix versions of AutoCAD.
Ruth wrote:
Sexism is still rampant in corporate America!
**********
And what objectively verifiable evidence have you of this, Ruth? Wait, let me guess. Woman’s intuition, right?
Al wrote:
“Dancing in the cubicles”
Those misogynistic bastards.
******************************
Al, I’d be interested to know exactly what clairvoyant powers you possess that would enable you to look into the hearts and minds of those people dancing in their cubicles and assess their exact motivation for doing so. Please explain, or else admit that you’re a dumb ass. And no, there’s not a third option.
I find it amazing that whenever a publication says something negative about Apple, we flay around citing bias and ignorance. But when a publication says something negative about another company or CEO, it immediately becomes an arbiter of truth and wisdom.
Let’s take an analogy: I know another business (Company X) where a simple, easy-to-understand product is effectively defining the performance of Company X, both in pure financial terms and as an investment, over the traditional and more complex products that X has normally sold.
Selling off the highly profitable division will either a) generate a huge amount of working capital for Company X or (more likely for tax reasons) b) a return to the shareholders. In both scenarios, Company X returns to the mire of being a marginal supplier in its traditional marketplace.
So the question for all those who think that HP should have spun out the inkjet business is…
Should Apple spin out its iPod/iTMS operations?
BTW, there is a right answer and a wrong answer.
Agression, power at any cost, cruelty, sadism, cheating, lying, greed – whilst not exclusively male traits, men have certainly cornered the market.
Afterall, how many wars have been started by women?
None.
The world would be a better place if we left women to sort things out.
Stuart wrote:
The world would be a better place if we left women to sort things out.
********************
Man, have you been neutered or what? And by the way, are you not the slightest bit embarassed at having uttered YET ANOTHER TIRED CLICHE that we’ve all heard over the years ad nauseum. And what’s more, you say it like you’re the first one to have ever said it. You’re a disgustingly stupid human being. Do you know that?
You want women running the world and yet they can’t even handle one of their own being fired without whining like little girls. And as long as your counting all the wars that have been started by men, let’s count the good things also, shall we?
Here’s your assignment:
In one column list all of the great male inventors, great male thinkers, great male artists, great male scientists, and great male composers, poets, and playwrights. Then, in the other column, list all of the great female thinkers, great female scientists, great female artists, great female inventors, and great female composers, poets, and playwrights. Go on, don’t be scared, be intellectually honest and do it. Now, which one of those columns is extraordinarily longer than the other. Which column dwarfs the other, as if to make it nearly nonexistent. Huh? Which one, dumb ass?. And no, you don’t get to fall back on any tired cliches like, “Oh, well men have always kept women from doing these things”. No, quit the blame game and quite the excuses. If we’re going to count bad stuff done by men, then we’re also going to count the good stuff done by men.
So, are you still having fun counting what one sex has done and the other hasn’t? My guess would be, no, you’re not. Now why don’t you go to the feminist crowd and get down on your knees and beg them to let you have your balls back.
Potato
P-O-T-A-T-O-E, potato.
Afterall, how many wars have been started by women?
depends on if you define “caused by” as “started”
^_^
Women and men, although equal, generally have different strengths and different weaknesses. They even learn differently. There’s no shame in that. If that weren’t the case, then what would we need each for? It’d be boring to be with someone who was exactly like you.
Let them eat cake.
Shove it!
To each, according to his needs, from each according to his ability.
It takes a village.
we will smoke them out of their holes.
I voted FOR the $85 billion before I voted AGAINST it.
These documents may have been fake, but we believe their content to be true.
It depends on what the meaning of “is” is.
Let’s not over-hype this election. (Said on the day of the recent Iraqi establishment of a democratic government.)
Oops,
I’m sorry but I don’t think your argument has much validity.
Regarding your assignment given to Stuart…
The fact is, throughout history women have been handicapped in just about every aspect of life except for making babies. Only in recent times have women been allowed to more fully explore their ambitions and potential. The lack of opportunities can make it very hard to reach make a name for oneself. You might as well have asked Stuart to name all the famous black baseball players in 1900. I can’t think of any, and why not do you suppose?
Additionally, you put too much faith in history books. You apparently don’t realize that history is written by people with power. And very few women had power.
The truth of the matter is that this world has been shaped equally by men and women. To blind oneself to the impact that women have on the world or to reduce their abilities to something low enough that it won’t threaten your ego is plain foolishness.
Not that this has anything to do with the HP situation. In fact, I even agree with your statement that women should be held just as accountable as a man. But your basic attitude that women are inferior to men and that any man that doesn’t agree with you has lost sight of his manhood is complete idiocy. That kind of attitude is why “Sexism is still rampant in corporate America!” and I’m sorry but I do not have a specific link that points to “objectively verifiable evidence” but then again, all of your information is based on biased history lessons or relative perceptions.
Remember, the first computer programmers were women, but I’m sure no one is ever going to remember their names. Society remembers what they want to remember (or what reinforces their perception on life).
Whether or not her ouster had anything to her sex, the fact remains, men and women alike in the company are dancing in the aisles. Personally, I think women are the greatest creation ever, but they are not usually (not always) good leaders. My wife even says she’s much rather work with men than women and have a man boss because of all the aggression she sees from women. Women are the best, just not the best at everything.
H-P is a printer cartridge company.
Fiorina was a failure.
The rest is just noise.
King Alvarez,
Sorry to get your panties in a bind, but I’m afraid I have some disappointing news for you. I’ve heard all of that tired horse shit many times before. The blame games, the excuses, the historical revisionism, the armchair Freudian analysis crapola, and all the rest. Yes, yes, I don’t hold to the politically correct positions that have been decided by others and therefore my “ego is threatened” blah blah blah, ad nauseum ad infinitum. (Or you can insert “maculinity” for the word “ego” just to vary things a bit.)
Your problem is that you want me to think women are just as capable of higher thinking and higher creativity as men are without having a shred of evidence to back it up. I can’t just think something because the politically correct crowd thinks that I should. I need a better reason than that. If that makes you want to call me a misogynist, then go ahead and do that, but I can assure you that I am incapable of being manipulated by such fallaciousness. I don’t believe things to be true just because some people think they OUGHT to be true. Have you ever seen the test results gauging the comparative spatial skills of men and women? If you haven’t, then I would recommend sitting down before you ever do, because it’s going to knock you on your ass. And no, again I have to say, you can’t just keep making up excuses.
You can’t just rewrite history because history is inconvenient to the cause. Look, it is what it is. You’re going to have to face that. There aren’t any secret great female composers, nor has there been any conspiracy to keep them from trying.
Furthermore, you didn’t even get the real reason why I posted what I posted. It was a response to the selective history lesson that we were all blessed with by Stuart. The blaming of the ills of the world on men. If it’s fair to make a negative comparison, then it’s ALSO fair to make a positive one – like the one that I made. Sorry to tell you that equality is not ALWAYS convenient. You seem to think I’m obligated to let ridiculous statements like the one made by Stuart stand without question. Well, I’m not going to do that.
Additionally, it has apparently escaped your grasp that I was speaking in general terms. I make no assessment of the potential of anyone on an individual basis. And I never said or implied that women were inferior. You’re just hearing what you want to hear. You’re pigeon-holing my main point into one of those preset defaults that are the favorite of every politically correct drone.
As for your black baseball player analogy; well, it falls apart quite readily. You’re talking about organized team sports. I was talking about intellectual disciplines and accomplishments that lie entirely within the realm of individual achievement. And again, I realize that people like you have an excuse to explain away every inconvenient fact, but at the end of the day, an excuse is still just an excuse.
You, and people like you are going to have to accept that reality may just be at odds with your politically correct mindset. Reality makes no apologies and asks for no permission. It is what it is. In short, you’re not general manager of the universe.
Now. if you and some others don’t like the tone of all this, bear in mind that it could have been easily avoided if only the feminist crowd could have resisted their usual urge to whine when equality jumps up and bites them on the ass.