Grading Carly Fiorina's tenure at HP

[KamaAina]

http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_28666894/grading-carly-fiorinas-tenure-at-hp

Whenever I think about Carly Fiorina running for president, I get a stomach ache. Oddly, this has little to do with her pronouncements on the campaign trail. I applauded her for going after Donald Trump. I'm talking about a real stomach ache, rooted in memory.

Back in 2003, I was a business columnist when Fiorina, then the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, was pushing hard to complete the acquisition of Compaq Computer. I was a critic of the deal. In a moment of bravado, I vowed to eat my words if she got it done.

Through heavy-handed tactics -- more on this later -- Fiorina did get the shareholder votes to complete the deal. So as promised, I brought in a coffee grinder, ground up a couple of columns of newsprint, and spooned them down with the help of buttermilk. Fiorina sent a photographer to memorialize the moment....

Now I know that Fiorina had a strong performance among the also-rans in the first Republican debate. But does this business record sound like someone who should be president? I get a pain in my gut when I think about it.

[HFRN]

1. Fiorina did an excellent job of uniting stockholders and tech labor at HP

in their conclusion that Fiorina was a complete disaster for both

(she destroyed Lucent (the iconic Bell Labs) too

[hifiguy]

2. She implemented the prototypical Repuke/tenth-percenter business model.

Crater the company, annihilate morale but get paid $42 million to just go the hell away.

Fuck up on an epic enough scale and you will live like the Ottoman Sultans did for the rest of your life.