Carly Nearly Destroyed HP"Business falls out of love with Carly, but not her methods"

Good article in the AZ Republic about how Carly's failure.

"Business falls out of love with Carly, but not her methods"

"You've
come a long way, baby. Whatever else can be said of Carly Fiorina's 15
minutes of fame, she struck a blow for equality. She proved that a
woman could wallow in the trough of corporate malpractice just as well
as a man."

"Not to be outdone by the likes of airline killer
Frank Lorenzo, Fiorina took over one of America's premier companies,
Hewlett-Packard, and ran it into the ground. Instead of the boring work
of fixing ailing business lines and investing in research and
development, Fiorina went after a big merger. These types of deals
rarely work, partly because the companies end up spending months, even
years, distracted from their business. The huge job cuts necessary to
make the numbers work help cripple the combination. The Compaq merger
was no exception."

"Arrogance? Fiorina can take on Michael
Eisner any time. A computer industry novice when she became HP's chief
executive in 1999, Fiorina ignored HP veterans who warned against a
merger. She bulldozed opposition to the Compaq deal by Walter Hewlett,
son of co-founder William Hewlett and HP's largest shareholder. As HP
cratered last year, she ignored repeated warnings from her board, and
she was reportedly surprised by her firing."

"'Chainsaw Al'
Dunlap has nothing on Carly. She presided over HP's first-ever layoffs.
The body count from the combined companies approached 30,000. Other
jobs were sent overseas. Houston lost a major corporate headquarters
and community leader in Compaq. The survivors got pay cuts, less
vacation and more work. And did any of that really matter, with her
fine features gracing the cover of every business magazine?......"

[Article]