HP CEO Carly Fiorina to Step Down

ewwhite was the first of a tidal wave of readers to submit links telling us that HP Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina will step down, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Robert Wayman will be interim CEO, Hewlett-Packard said in a Business Wire statement today. Patricia Dunn will be chairwoman. Not much else in the story.

Comments

more info

[ack154]

From CBS Marketwatch:

"While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said in a statement.

Re:more info

[null etc.]

She was worth negative $7 billion to HPQ's value.

It's easy to see why. I really wish I had the link on hand to share with you, but not even 10 minutes of Googling helped me find a hilarious interview with Carly I read a year ago. It went something like this:

Interviewer: So what is this "Adaptive Enterprise" you're talking about?

Carly: It means that technology is used to fulfill business requirements, and it adapts to changes in business needs.

Interviewer: Isn't that what all technology does?

Carly: No. Today, business needs are forced to adapt to technology, not the other way around.

Interviewer: Are you sure about that? I think IBM and Accenture make alot of money adapting technology to business needs.

Carly: Uhm, yeah I'm sure, today the technology doesn't adapt to business needs. Adaptive Enterprise is all about having technology adapt to business needs.

Interviewer: So, what does that mean exactly? Can you give us some specifics?

Carly: Like, it means if your business needs aren't being met by technology, and you have Adaptive Enterprise, Adaptive Enterprise will adapt to your business needs.

Interviewer: Isn't that what consulting companies like IBM and Accenture do?

Carly: No, because Adaptive Enterprise is like a faucet that you can turn on or off if you need more or less computer power.

Interviewer: So what does that mean, exactly? How can you turn technology on or off like a faucet?

Carly: Adaptive Enterprise is when technology adjusts to meet the demands of business needs.

Anyways, suffice to say, the interview was totally hilarious and played Carly off as a real idiot.

adios

[Alien Being]

My work here is done.

She was forced out

[fishdan]

According to the Business Standard she was forced out.

"While I regret the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said a statement. "HP is a great company, and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future."

There have been other shakeups in personel at HP leading to speculation that there is something wrong. You have to wonder if all the animosity she accrued while making the HP/Compaq merger happen has finally been returned.

Re:NPR dancing a jig?

[http101]

Honestly, having seen the inside operations of how HP is run, I can tell you, they're happy simply because Carly is gone. She's cut corners like you wouldn't believe. Did you know that their consumers have better computers than what's in their tech support centers in the Houston RDC?

Carly has taken it on herself to ensure techs are NOT able to do their jobs by implementing stupid tools like "ATM" or the Automated Technology Manager to replace the MMC snap-ins for Active Directory. VPN support for employees is utilized only through a "signed" proprietary program which is a pain in the ass to support because it either breaks or totally f*cks up a person's NT account. Their financial center is run completely on VMS and locks out users repeatedly. As for pager/cellphone support, the company gives you one, but you have to pay for the services. If you don't want a pager or cell, they give you a Blackberry which is linked to their own Blackberry service towers running Blackberry Server v1.0 while the rest of the world has upgraded their software 10-fold. I only say this as an example of how she's neglected certain aspects of the company's functionality just to put a couple more nickels in her purse.

I don't know about you, but when I get home, there's a beer with my name on it!

Re:That's too bad

[SiO2]

How about Meg Whitman of eBay?

SiO2

Re:That's too bad

[YrWrstNtmr]

eBay
Mary Kay
Oprah
Avon
Hearst Magazines
Playboy

Recent Speculation

[null etc.]

The following is an excerpt from the article entitled, "HP: We're not changing Fiorina's job", posted Jan 24, 2005 on CNet news.com.

http://news.com.com/HP+Were+not+changing+Fiorinas+ job/2100-7341_3-5547456.html

Company representatives labeled stories of a pending management reorganization as unfounded and disputed a Wall Street Journal report that said HP's directors were considering a shift that would delegate some of Fiorina's duties to other executives.

...

"Boards discuss a wide range of topics consistent with their fiduciary responsibilities, and any speculation about these discussions is just that--pure speculation," [HP spokesman Robert] Sherbin said. "While the board did discuss structural changes at its recent meeting, there are no other senior changes due in the near future."

Guess two weeks isn't considered the "near future", huh.

"You don't know; the news last week could have been the first shoe to drop in a larger movement to recalculate leadership at HP, but executive ability didn't seem to be the issue with that move, so much as responding to market conditions," [IDC analyst Roger] Kay said. "Some people have been calling for (Fiorina's ouster) since before the Compaq deal, but I don't see why making such a move right now would necessarily be helpful to the company."

How much money do you make, Roger? I hope you're being paid for something useful.

So it seems that rumors and whispers are often a much more useful prediction of stock performance than industry spokesmen and analysts.

Re:When your CEO quits

[LaCosaNostradamus]

That's a good question. The partial answer is that for the 2 years after she was hired in July 1999, HP's share price climbed. Of course, this was part of the general market "irrational exuberance", but as far as the executive class was concerned, they were being rewarded by the market. After 2001, of course, the stock entered an era of decline that continues today.

The other part of the full answer is that Fiorina should have been fired by late 2002 or early 2003. She had had more than enough time after the general market crash to "show her stuff" and demonstrate that HP can innovate itself out of a general market malaise. She failed. And we can then firmly blame the BoD for not removing their highly non-performing CEO at that time.

Fiorina's departure in early 2005 -- FOUR YEARS INTO THE ERA OF TROUBLE -- only demonstrates the sheer incompetence of HP's BoD. If the stockholders have any real balls, they will replace the entire Board, invite Packard back, rebuild a Board around him for lean times, and then give the general order to go head-chopping through the HP-Compaq executive class (since there's another class of non-performers).

Do HP's stockholders have the minerals for it? I'm betting "no".