Carly Fiornia Speaks Out 

From the New York Times: To read the full article, go to the New York Times web site.  

Her book, “Tough Choices” (Portfolio Hardcover), which is embargoed for release on Tuesday and has been made available to reviewers only if they sign a nondisclosure agreement, was purchased at a bookstore yesterday by a reporter for The New York Times.

In it, Ms. Fiorina reveals a good deal of resentment over her firing. She writes that after the board’s final meeting on her fate, all but two members refused to confront her. And she indicates that she had little respect for some Hewlett-Packard directors, whom she described as amateurish and immature.

The timing of the book is coincidental to last month’s disclosures of two leak investigations that took place after Ms. Fiorina’s departure. She has not commented on the boardroom spying scandal that has rocked the company and resulted in felony charges and firings.

It was known that the company was concerned about boardroom leaks even before Ms. Fiorina’s departure, but it was not known that she had authorized the initial investigation.

That investigation, Ms. Fiorina writes, was conducted directly by the company’s outside legal counsel, Larry W. Sonsini, after an article in The Wall Street Journal detailed an impending corporate reorganization.

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My thoughts: Personally, I don't trust her. When I was at HP, we worked according to the "HP Way", which was much more than a set of guidelines. The HP Way was a way of being that involved kindness and an incredibly high ethical standard. We were genuinely friends, and did our best at the job because we believed in the company and what we were doing.

From almost the instant Fiorina took over, the company began to change. She was an outsider, didn't understand the HP Way, and from our perspective thought that the HP Way "got in the way" of what she might call tough business decisions. Yet, the HP Way was precisely what made HP so successful.

In a few short years, HP went from being one of the most highly regarded, respected, and well-liked companies to a company on the verge of failure. Sales were down. Morale was at an all-time low. Everyone looked over their shoulders instead of ahead. Nobody knew when the "Carly Axe" would fall again, leaving yet one more round of valued employees without jobs. 

I'm no longer with HP, but from where I sit (I still gather with about 40 of my closest HP friends every Christmas), HP is inching back towards the company it once was. It will never be the same, partly because times have changed. But, Google has proven that you can have a great culture and be successful. My hope is that HP returns to the HP Way and simply lets Fiorina choke in her own lack of accountability to the mess she created.