Comments

Tom, I honestly believe that we are only discussing CF because she is one of a small handful of women in positions of power. I mentioned it last week - There isn't anything that fascinating to delve into in her case, other than our fixation with women who fall.

Thanks for the distraction. :-)

Posted by Aleah at February 15, 2005 12:12 PM

I believe the arbs are saying that HP's printer division alone is worth about as much as the entire company, thus the logic for dismembering the company. But isn't that eerily similar with what they were saying about IBM when Gerstner first took over? One of my earliest thoughts while reading of the HP/Fiorina saga was that perhaps the only hope for HP remaining intact and viable would be to somehow induce Gerstner to accept one more mission. And my very next thought was: Why in the world would he ever want to?

Posted by Doug Smith at February 15, 2005 12:41 PM

Spot on, Tom! Fiorina isn't the first CEO to face an insular culture and be forced to evolve it and push it into the future. However, I'm with Collins here: the really great companies are rarely led by an outside CEO who tries to change the corporate culture -- and dilute its brand -- by remaking it in his/her image. I'm thinking of Pitney-Bowes, for example, a company that had to completely reinvent itself when it lost its monopoly relationship with the US Postal Service, and DID!

Lou handled the reinvention of IBM much better than Carly did Hewlett-Packard. The acquisition of Compaq and all that came with it (Digital, etc) was a tremendous mistake and was the heart of the argument with Walter Hewlett.

And, in my opinion, the continued hubbub about Fiorina's exit package and performance at HP are much more about a well-loved company being in trouble than about Fiorina being female. Outside of some misinformed bloggers, I haven't seen any credible sources even hint that the HP debacle was because Fiorina was female, not male.

Finally, with all due respect to Sun's Jonathan Schwartz, PD, don't you think that the head of a company with its shares heading towards the pink sheet has better things to do with his time than try to pick a fight with IBM's executive team? :-)

Posted by Dave Taylor at February 15, 2005 1:55 PM

I disagree with Aleah. I think sexism figures here not at all, or at least not very much. There are other female CEOs -- Ann Mulcahy at Xerox, Meg Whitman at eBay, Carol Bartz at AutoDesk -- who don't get the kind of flack Carly gets... because they're doing a good job. (It's also sexism to criticize criticizing a woman who deserves the criticism, IMHO.)

More to the point: Lawrence Fisher's "'End of a hatchet woman" in the NY Times, excerpted on my blog: http://radio.weblogs.com/0109157/

Posted by Gil Friend at February 15, 2005 5:10 PM

Dave: "don't you think that the head of a company with its shares heading towards the pink sheet has better things to do " -- Do you have collateral to support his statement ?? take a look at this link with 'Close price adjusted for dividends and splits.'
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=SUNW

Yes.. the price movement is on FTSE !! :)- go figure the players.. heheheheh !!

Solaris-Candidate10 has been the top download in the history of Unix platfom strategy's !!

Posted by /pd at February 15, 2005 7:47 PM

Just to quickly respond to Dave and Gil, I am not suggesting sexism - I am simply pointing out our obvious fascination with those who fall from grace, so to speak, particularly if they are unique in some regard (either do to gender or affiliation, etc.). I think the conversation should be more about HP and the reconstruction of their corporate culture and financial future, rather than on CF.

Posted by Aleah at February 16, 2005 11:15 AM

Tom, yes you are absolutely right about what Lou Gerstner accomplished with IBM. Big Blue is mightiest than ever. The only company to my knowledge that is able to carry out fundamental research on intricate aspects of modern physics, as well as applied research on software engineering and excellent application of infotech in today's world. I am a BIG FAN of Big Blue and have complete and utter admiration for Gerstner's turnaround... When he was around I often used to pay visits to Lou's page on IBM's web site. Crystal clear vision and an incredible drive to execute...

Lou was everything Carly never managed to become. Still they are both known by their first names, which is typical of a Brand You world. Only one of them is a lovemark and the other a strange attractor of bashing these days!

Thanks for acknowledging the great deeds of Lou at Big Blue!

Posted by alex at February 20, 2005 8:37 AM