Even your standard right-wing Carly fan has to accept one thing, they are going to spend the next 6+ weeks trying to defend the record of a failed CEO. Over the flip you’ll find a long listing of remarks, mostly from right-wing business types about just how bad she really was. I’ll skip past much of the list of ranking her in the top 10 or top 20 worst CEOs of all time, to something said in a book by Steve Forbes
“Examples of business leaders who rise to the heights of corporate power only to be brought down by their egos include Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco, and Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett-Packard.” – Steve Forbes and John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory, Crown Business, 2009, page 7
This is a CEO who, in the words of another right-wing Republican in the form of a former GOP presidential candidate, was too ego-driven to successfully run a company. She was a great self-promoter, but not so much on the actually getting the job done at HP thing. The board hated her, after all she was spying on some of them. The employees hated her, she laid off thousands of them, so no surprise there. And, oh yeah, the stock value of HP halved while she was the CEO.
Certainly we can agree that the last thing California needs is somebody too concerned about their own ego to focus on the very real problems we have to deal with today.
And this ad by Senator Boxer does nothing other than turning a mirror on Carly Fiorina’s career. She’s running as the former CEO of HP, so she has to face those facts. She was fired as CEO, and as David W. Packard, a son of one of the founders of HP, said, nobody has hired her since.
Let’s not let Carly Fiorina use the Senate as a rebound gig.
“Let’s not forget that the HP board fired Fiorina early in 2005, and no company has hired her since.” – David W. Packard, former HP board member and son of HP founder Dave Packard (San Jose Mercury News, “Opinion: Neither of HP’s founders would have endorsed Fiorina,” April 22, 2010)
“…Carly Fiorina was a failure at Hewlett-Packard.” – Michael S. Malone, ABCNews.com columnist and former Hewlett-Packard employee (ABC News/Money, “Carly Fiorina’s HP Legacy,” October 10, 2006)
“Fiorina’s reign at H-P…makes a great case study of exactly what not to do.” – TheStreet.com, “The Nation’s Worst CEOs,” June 10, 2004
“[H-P’s board members] lost faith in Carly…It is difficult to find anyone involved with H-P today — board member, shareholder, employee, customer, analyst — who isn’t happy that Ms. Fiorina is gone…” – Wall Street Journal, “H-P lost faith in Carly, but not in merger,” May 24, 2006
“Fiorina was bad. Everyone seems to agree on this now… All in all, our judges seem to think Fiorina should win [the ‘Worst Tech CEO’ title].” – USA Today, “Can Fiorina trump competition for ‘worst tech CEO’ title?” February 16, 2005
“[Fiorina is] the worst because of her ruthless attack on the essence of this great company. She destroyed half the wealth of her investors and yet still earned almost $100 million in total payments for this destructive reign of terror.” – Jeffrey Sonnenfeld of Yale University (USA Today, “Can Fiorina trump competition for ‘worst tech CEO’ title?” February 16, 2005)
“Mass layoffs were announced at a time when we began to hear tales of lavish corporate jets and personal grooming assistants, and engineers were rumbling that they were being pushed out of decision making. And then came Compaq…Finally the board had enough. The value of the company had halved, staff were demoralized and sales were still not up to scratch. Fiorina refused to resign so they gave her the boot, with a suitably huge payout.” – V3.co.uk, “Top 10 worst chief executives,” November 22, 2008
“A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered.” – CNBC Portfolio.com, “The Worst American CEOs of All Time,” April 30, 2009
“Examples of business leaders who rise to the heights of corporate power only to be brought down by their egos include Dennis Kozlowski, the former CEO of Tyco, and Carly Fiorina, former head of Hewlett-Packard.” – Steve Forbes and John Prevas, Power Ambition Glory, Crown Business, 2009, page 7
Is the inability to see yourself that way. Everybody I’ve talked to who worked at HP when Fiorina was there would agree with these assessments.
But it’s pretty clear Carly doesn’t see herself this way. If she did, she wouldn’t keep citing her tenure at HP as the reason we should hire her for a more important job.
She clearly thinks the board was stupid not to see how good she was. The McCain campaign was dumb for not using her speaking skills more. And that she deserves a promotion.
To the rest of us, this is obviously delusional. But it clearly isn’t to Carly.