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2010-06-10 Home Front: Politix

Carly Fiorina Ready to Run on Her Record at HP

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Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2010-06-10 00:44|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 I had a lot of dealings with HP when Fiorina was CEO and they sold second rate products with second rate staff. Even now I refuse to buy HP products.

But having said that, Fiorina's strategy was the right one and proved succesful. Go for the volume business of second rate products, undifferentiated from your competitors at a reasonably competitive price.

Posted by phil_b 2010-06-10 02:03|| 2010-06-10 02:03|| Front Page Top

#2 She also destroyed the culture of a unique and once great company. She is a locust, vermin, a parasite. But my mind could be changed.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-06-10 06:59|| 2010-06-10 06:59|| Front Page Top

#3 As a CEO, she was completely worthless and destroyed the brand of HP. Only now is it getting back to a somewhat reasonable level of respect.

However, the ironic thing is I think that her methods would work really well in the public state government sector. Go cheap is the motto.

Posted by DarthVader 2010-06-10 07:47|| 2010-06-10 07:47|| Front Page Top

#4 Fiorina's strategy was the right one and proved succesful. Go for the volume business of second rate products, undifferentiated from your competitors at a reasonably competitive price

Disagree. HP is no longer viewed as a commercial product. It's only advantage is the good cartridge system that permits remanufacture and shaving of costs of operation.

Worse, HP screwed the pooch this last year, cancelling contracts with the factories.

I won't elaborate here, but HP is about to have its heaviest competition ever come forward with a new product line...I don't think HP will fare well and will react by producing more cheap crap.

Seriously defective upper management thinking...

Posted by logi_cal 2010-06-10 07:52|| 2010-06-10 07:52|| Front Page Top

#5 Funny, I read that comment as sarcasm.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2010-06-10 09:01|| 2010-06-10 09:01|| Front Page Top

#6 Someone will have to teach me on this. Do companies always grow? Do they never lay off employees or move manufacturing for profit? Are there any still in business?

Posted by Cyber Sarge 2010-06-10 10:14|| 2010-06-10 10:14|| Front Page Top

#7 The criticisms of Fiorina as CEO go too far. Her plan was the right one, even if the fruits of it took longer than expected to realize. The company's stock has soared under Mark Hurd, her successor, who has done nothing more than execute the customer-centric (as opposed to product-centric) reorganization that Carly pushed for. Had HP not made this painful shift, it very likely would have gone the way of other aging tech giants like Sun Microsystems.

Her record here is a lot more mixed than her detractors will admit.

Posted by lex 2010-06-10 12:09|| 2010-06-10 12:09|| Front Page Top

#8 Carly tried to get HP to buy EDS in 2000 but was blocked by the Shareholders. Guess which EDS HP purchased in 2008?

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2010-06-10 13:36|| 2010-06-10 13:36|| Front Page Top

#9 You guys are nuts. Carly killed a lot of sacred cows at HP but she transformed that company into the largest computer company in the world. Her reorganization resulted in HP being the largest computer maker on the planet by 2006 when HP surpassed IBM.

In the middle of the tech bust, Carly jettisoned a lot of the old lines of gear and bought Compaq (which had bought Tandem and DEC). She focused the company on the Intel platform.

There is a HUGE amount of sour grapes from a large number of people in the more traditional lines that were cut loose. Her troubles started with the proxy fight to buy Compaq. It turned out she was 100% correct.

That woman has vision. What she did wasn't popular at the time but HP has profited nicely from it. Had she not done so, HP would be suffering the same fate as Sun Microsystems instead of being larger than IBM today.

A lot of people repeat that sour grape crap but don't know what they are talking about. She turned HP around, had she listened to Walter Hewlett, the company would be dead right now because the kinds of products Hewlett wanted to preserve and now located at the Silicon Valley Computer Museum.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-06-10 13:42|| 2010-06-10 13:42|| Front Page Top

#10 "the kinds of products Hewlett wanted to preserve and now located at the Silicon Valley Computer Museum."

Should be "are located".

And if HP had bought EDS, they would be even larger. There was a lot of resistance to her goring those sacred cows but it was the right thing to do. Those people would be out of a job now anyway as nobody makes that kind of hardware anymore.

Posted by crosspatch 2010-06-10 13:44|| 2010-06-10 13:44|| Front Page Top

#11 There was a lot of resistance to her goring those sacred cows but it was the right thing to do

Exactly what Sacramento needs now. CA govt = Old HP dinosaurs. Jerry Brown = Walter Hewlett.

Posted by lex 2010-06-10 14:24|| 2010-06-10 14:24|| Front Page Top

#12 If she was the worst thing that ever happened to HP, she'd still be 'way better in the Senate than six more years of Barbara ~~Blockhead~~ ~~Boxturtle~~ Boxer.

Posted by Mike 2010-06-10 14:57|| 2010-06-10 14:57|| Front Page Top

#13 I understand that corporations must downsize from time to time. But it seems anti-competitive to me when corporations buy their competition the way HP bought Compaq instead of at least making some kind of an effort to figure out how to do it better.

As for HP being the largest computer company in the world, I find it very disturbing that so many of the computers they sell these days are Made in China. I know, all the companies are doing it, and that makes it all the more disturbing.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-06-10 16:29|| 2010-06-10 16:29|| Front Page Top

#14 Gee, I wonder where Apple makes their hardware?

Posted by GolfBravoUSMC 2010-06-10 21:17|| 2010-06-10 21:17|| Front Page Top

#15 She is a locust, vermin, a parasite. But my mind could be changed

Not mine. Fiorina is scum. On the other hand, Boxer might if she's very lucky, work her way up to scum.

Posted by DMFD 2010-06-10 22:19|| 2010-06-10 22:19|| Front Page Top

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