Perspective: Fiorina's fuzzy vision

(continued from previous page)

of feudalism in the Northern Hemisphere. (Ironically, Fiorina majored in medieval history.) The company ran on a rigid hierarchy. Competitive battles were won through financial heft and strength, and a lot of energy was dedicated toward internal company battles.

By contrast, the HP of the time seemed to be run from the bottom up. The founders used to eat in the cafeteria. Engineers were continually reminded about their importance to the company. The complaint heard most from executives and analysts was that HP moved slowly because decisions were made by consensus.

So when HP started increasing the number of corporate jets, and rumors surfaced about how Fiorina traveled with a security detail and hairdressers, conflicts between management and the rest of the company began to emerge. And the lack of consistent performance certainly wasn't going to silence the grumbling.

I obtained an insight into Fiorina's management style on the November 2002 day former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas resigned. We all sat at a small, circular table. We asked Capellas why he resigned. "I can answer that," she said, speaking for him.

We asked former Compaq CEO Michael Capellas why he resigned. "I can answer that," Fiorina said, speaking for him.

On the other hand, HP could have been a lot worse off. Without the Compaq acquisition, HP wouldn't have the server market share it has now. Fiorina had to have something to do with the fact that it went much smoother than most other acquisitions.

She also had to balance the insistence of Wall Street and the public that HP distinguish itself from competitors with the painful reality that somebody has to be No. 2. For five and a half years, she kept the company from getting too depressed about that fact.

Fiorina also brought a celebrity quality to HP. She could carry an audience in keynote speeches and was always a great person to interview, although she was occasionally vague. "Before Fiorina, HP was two steps ahead of Burroughs," said one executive this morning, referring to the faded business machines giant.

Finding a new CEO is never easy, either. At about the same time that Fiorina became HP's CEO, Gateway had put its future in Jeff Weitzen's hands. Then again, Hector Ruiz turned Advanced Micro Devices from being a one-man show with a history of hiccups into a consistent performer.

In further analysis, Fiorina's record will have to stand on tangible accomplishments, not on whether she helped HP avoid potentially bigger problems that never occurred. And the tangible record is somewhat sparse.

Biography
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas. He has worked as an attorney, travel writer and sidewalk hawker for a time share resort, among other occupations.

More Perspectives

[jay lueckel]

interesting article on fiona

it seems to me that hp has let their printers slip - epson has
captured the high ground on the digital photography scene for
home (amateur or entry professional). i've got my second (both
under $100 - and they outperform the hps i've got. the r200 is
great - prints beautifully, resists water, has separate color print
cartridges - these are all things consumers want. what
happened to hp in this area?

maybe she missed the entertainment aspect of the pc - she
should have read mcluhan -

they put out new models all the time judging from the bestbuy
and circuit city circulars in my sunday paper, but i dont think
they are moving while epson and even canon are.

jay lueckel
[e-mail]

[landlines]

Model Proliferation: A sign of mismanagement

Under Carly's reign, there has been an unprecedented explosion of printer models introduced by HP. It is amazing to discover how few people at HP can actually explain the difference between two or even three, four or five members of the same product family.

This is a sign that Product Management has almost completely broken down at HP. Model proliferation costs the company tens of millions in extra costs and huge resource redundancies in each product line.

The next HP CEO can have a major financial impact by simply fixing this one problem. Doing away with model proliferation may even buy time for HP to come up with a new, coherent corporate theme (or to re-adopt the old Hewlett-Packard one).

[Stating]

re: Model Proliferation: A sign of mismanagement

Boy, you are right about this one. Carly must have though that selling technology was like selling cars.

Something else you will notice is that HP effectively drops support for a given model after about a year. They don't rev the drivers anymore. If there's a bug, that too bad.

There's also way too many models of laptops and IPAQs. And what are they doing with the pricing of the IPAQs? They are much more expensive than Dell Axims but I don't see any reason why.

Keith
www.techcando.com

[raylopez]

Model Proliferation is legally good

I once heard there is an advantage to having lots of models from a lawyer: there's something called the (let me Google this first) Robinson-Patman Act (RPA) that basically says you cannot sell something for different prices (like one price for the consumer and one for Walmart) unless you are selling different models. So some OEM sell slightly different (but essentially the same) models to avoid the RPA. In fact, I read once where a tire company (being sued in FL right now) has a model that is "for Walmart only" and has minor differences in tread, etc from the 'retail' model. Don't know if this applies to HP however, since they seem to sell directly to stores.

Sidebar reference is in error

FYI: The sidebar references HP as the dysfunctional organization
- in reality, it is correctly identified as Lucent Technologies in
the body - that Fiorina came from....