Comments

"I think the dot-com boom and bust represented the end of the beginning. The industry is more mature today." --Fiorina, Sept. 23, 2004.
"Urgency and speed are...things that everyone agrees" on Hewlett-Packard needs. --Fiorina, July 19, 1999.
"Although we are satisfied with our performance in personal systems, imaging and printing, software, and services, these solid results were overshadowed by unacceptable execution in enterprise servers and storage. We therefore are making immediate management changes. We are also accelerating our margin improvement plans in this business." --Fiorina, Aug. 12, 2004

..'nuff quoated !! :)-

Posted by /pd at February 10, 2005 12:12 PM

"Carly Fiorina probably had a tough time trying to get the behemoth of an organization to become nimble and innovative."

I don't want to sound smug, but that was her job. I was a manager with GE when Neutron Jack Welch took the helm in the mid 80s, and it was a much bigger behemoth than HP. Welch made the unpopular decisions - and he became unpopular because of them - and turned GE into one of the world's most well respected companies. Perhaps Carly was more concerned with popularity than performance.

Posted by Tom Asacker at February 10, 2005 1:50 PM

If the organization's antibodies rejected Carly, that's her problem, not HP's. HP grew to where it is without her and still turns out great products. Starting a booardroom war is generally not in the interet of speed.

Prior to HP she was a top executive at Lucent. They were "nimble & innovative" too - especially when it came to financing their sales to customers with poor credit. She got out of there just in time to join HP. Makes me wonder what here true "legacy" to HP will be.

Posted by Derek Scruggs at February 10, 2005 1:57 PM

Tom, great comment. BUT ... HP was/is soft compared to GE. I'm a big Jack fan, but the enterprise he inherited in 80/81 had a long-time "maverick" culture--despite the "culture" of bureauracracy that had built up pre-Jack. So Carly had a steeper hill than Jack. On the other hand I think it is fair to compare CF with LG (Lou Gerstner); Lou inherited a soft., low-accountability culture at IBM ... and turned it around. Lou (more than Jack) is my CEO of the Century. Comment??

Posted by tom peters at February 10, 2005 3:08 PM

So true TP !

The leadership challenge faced even today within GE --is Bureaucracy. With IBM it was both Accountablity and bureacuracy.

However the culture change within HP is non resonating. Primary within the Corporation and then slowly Permeate's into the external envoirnment. The Compaq merger just, prolonged the demise of value added propositions. Before the merger, HP had 86% of the printer markets. After the merger, it went down to 56% of the markets. Actually market share was driven down, but tangible wealth assest leverage went up.

Then again, that was all a cock and bull story .. as we all know now..correct ?

Posted by /pd at February 10, 2005 3:21 PM

Great point Tom. Thanks. And I'd love to see the actual numbers - i.e. major management changes, firings, etc. - comparing all three: Carly/HP, Jack/GE, Gerstner/IBM during their first 100 days. Most great leaders start by getting the team right. Note: A good friend of mine was "displaced" from GE, made the rounds as an executive with a few other Fortune 100 high tech companies and landed a few years back as a VP with HP. I think I'll reach out for his view on this whole thing.

Posted by Tom Asacker at February 10, 2005 4:57 PM

Capitalism needs increased competition in order not to degenerate. Mergers usually go against the natural law of competition.

Posted by felix gerena at February 10, 2005 6:14 PM

Competition isn't a natural "law" though - flexibility and speed prevail - especially using temporary partners in a cohesive team atmosphere, ala the Patriots' Superbowl success.

Posted by John at February 10, 2005 7:17 PM

Do you folks feel HP can maintain its current position without drastic changes? If not, how would you folks approach this if you're the new CEO?

Posted by Fred Kuu at February 11, 2005 3:04 AM

First, I'd make a PC compatible printer that didn't guzzle toner like a college student during Spring break guzzles suds.

Then, I'd figure out how to move toward the Next Big Thing, which I'm revealing here for the first time: PCs that impact the external world.

Beyond blogs and "communications" lies the realm of interacting not with just users, but with the external world.

A negative example, to my mind, is virtual hunting, where you can actually shoot and kill a deer from the comfort of your own home at your PC.

I just bought, re-bought I should say, THRIVING ON CHAOS yesterday. Amazing how prophetic that book is.

Many CEOs are passionate about salary, perks, privileges, private jets, bonuses, but not about the product and its users. They deserve to fail and they are failing.

"...differentiate and create new and unexpected niches through the unending accumulation of small advantages." THRIVING ON CHAOS, p.72

Like W. Edwards Deming's principle of Continual Improvement via Profound Knowledge.

Posted by Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate at February 11, 2005 3:38 AM

I highly recommend a movie called "The Tao of Steve". Its a wonderful indy-budget film... should be easy to find on video. Basically its about an overweight Buddhist-Taoist slacker and his incredibly successful strategy for dating, which he calls "The Tao of Steve".

The three tenents of The Tao of Steve are:
1. Be desireless
2. Be excellent
3. Be gone

I'm not a womanizer... so I don't recommend the strategy for dating. However, I do think its an excellent strategy for work.. for those regretable times when we must resort to employment-- whether job searching or actually working.

So step one is to be desireless. This means you eliminate all Craving & Need for the job. The best method is to drastically simplify life to the point that you can get by without the job. Another key strategy is to save money as fast as possible (again by living very simply)... until enough is in savings to fund at least 6 months of unemployment.

Step Two: Be excellent. The second aspect of this is that while stuck at the fucking job... excel. By this I do NOT mean kiss ass or follow rules. Being excellent requires audacity and defiance.

Finally, there is step 3-- Be gone. The Tao of Steve explains it this way, "We pursue that which retreats". When both desireless and excellent-- you don't have to stick around long. Be ready and willing to bolt at any moment. Investigate other opportunities constantly. Always be "job searching"...

The Tao of Steve eventually leads to a situation in which you are no longer pursuing employers... they are pursuing you. The more desireless and excellent you are... and the more you retreat; the more they will run after you.

See the movie.

Posted by AJ Hoge at February 11, 2005 12:11 PM