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Title: Perfect Enough: Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett-Packard by George Anders ISBN: 1-59184-003-1 Publisher: Portfolio Pub. Date: 23 January, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.83 (23 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Sympathetic but insightful
Comment: There are two sides to every merger and in the case of Hewlett Packard and Compaq Computer, the competing sides weren't just the companies. They include the historians documenting it.
For Perfect Enough, George Anders gained access to HP CEO Carly Fiorina and her fellow board members and executives. It provides a full picture of the genesis of the computing deal. Explaining the frustration board members felt at the company's inability to keep up with competitors benefiting from the Internet boom such as Dell Computer Corp. or release a killer new product since the laser printer in the early 1980s, Anders stresses that the board members - and not just Fiorina- were seeking a radical makeover for HP.
Peter Burrows' competing book about the merger, Backfire, paints Carly Fiorina as a brilliant marketer and communicator who stumbled into HP after one of the worst executive search jobs of all time by Christian Timbers. Her first two years was good idea after good idea followed by poor execution after poorer execution. The Business Week journalist implies the Compaq merger was primarily a way to deflect attention away from her inability to turn the company around after her first two years there.
Anders' more sympathetic account is fascinating at times such as its description of the complex relationship between Fiorina and David Packard's daughter Susan Packard-Orr. But, Burrows' book - unencumbered by any sense of loyalty to Fiorina, who snubbed the author - digs deeper into Fiorina's past by interviewing her ex-husband and childhood friends, thereby providing a much fuller picture of the executive, if not the entire organization.
Taken together, the two books complement each other nicely. It remains to be seen if the same can be said for the merger.
Rating: 2
Summary: An HP CEO not focused on HP business
Comment: This book falls into an interesting category, those books that are irresponsible by omission. George Anders' primary irresponsibility was his failure to point out that Carly Fiorina has never been focused on solving key HP business problems. This was clear in the Compaq merger debate this book reviews where she failed to answer the issues that Walter Hewlett and other critics raised in a substantive way.
It is even more true today -- it is clear from her recent activities that Carly Fiorina has essentially given up on HP and HP business problems and instead is focusing completely on personal interests. In reviewing the topics of her last 10 business speeches, only one (her Oracleworld keynote) promotes HP business interests. The other 90% focus on a variety of personal interests - her desire to be viewed as a great humanitarian, gender celebrations, etc. At the very minimum, HP shareholders, who have suffered a loss of 49% in the value of their shares during the Fiorina administration, deserve to have her focus her efforts on HP business. Surely this huge investment of her time in marketing herself as a great humanitarian etc can wait until she leaves HP. It only demeans HP to have a CEO (who HP has paid over 100 million dollars in cash, stocks and options) cost its shareholders 49% plus the time value of money of their investment and add insult to injury by public demonstrating to all her lack of interest in her job.
Anders' book could have been a valuable contribution if it had simply emphasized Fiorina's lack of interest in the true duties of her job.
Rating: 1
Summary: Bad judgement and bad taste characterize Carly Fiorina
Comment: I was disappointed in this book. The author does not challenge the often bad judgement and bad taste of Fiorina. For example, she was reported by CNET to have hired the cast of a television gangster family to serve drinks at LinuxWorld. This is not a proper use of corporate funds, a key issue for a CEO. It would not be appropriate for taste reasons even if these high-priced actors worked for free. HP under Fiorina is clearly out-of-control, but we would never know this from this book.
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Title: Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard by Peter Burrows ISBN: 0471267651 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 15 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The HP Way : How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard ISBN: 0887308171 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 05 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. ISBN: 0060523794 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry by Michael Dell, Catherine Fredman ISBN: 0887309151 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft by David Bank ISBN: 0743203151 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 13 August, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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