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Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard
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Author: Peter Burrows
List Price: $27.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0471267651
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (15 February, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Average Customer Rating: 3.86 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 4 out of 5
Insightful!
Peter Burrows offers insights into high level business, where personality matters more than economics, as he explores the mammoth HP-Compaq merger. Most mergers fail to make money or to produce the promised "synergies" so, he asks, why - other than ego - do CEOs pursue them? Though stylistically somewhat trite, this book successfully explores the HP Board's decision to approve the merger, with Walter B. Hewlett's vote in favor, and his subsequent lonely, ultimately quixotic battle against it. The most contentious issues in contemporary business are all here: shareholder rights and value vs. CEO power; employee-oriented cultures vs. "re-engineering;" corporate integrity vs. sharp practice; and the interesting spectacle of a ruthless, hard-headed female CEO pitted against a sensitive, cello-playing man. The author says Hewlett-Packard executives were told not to speak with him after he quoted merger critics in Business Week, so there is an inevitable Walter Hewlett bias. We found this to be a very good read, even a must read, for corporate warriors.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Hard-hitting portrait of HP's CEO
There are two sides to every merger and in the case of HP and Compaq Computer Corp., the competing sides weren't just the companies. They include the historians documenting it. Peter Burrows' Backfire paints Carly Fiorina as a brilliant marketer and communicator who stumbled into HP after one of the worst executive search jobs of all time by Christian Timbers. Her first two years was good idea after good idea followed by poor execution after poorer execution. The Business Week journalist implies the Compaq merger was primarily a way to deflect attention away from her inability to turn the company around after her first two years there. And then there is George Anders' competing book about the merger, Perfect Enough. With access to Carly Fiorina and her fellow board members and executives, it provides a fuller picture of the genesis of the computing deal. Explaining the frustration board members felt at the company's inability to keep up with competitors benefiting from the Internet boom such as Dell Computer Corp. or release a killer new product since the laser printer in the early 1980s, Anders stresses that the board members - and not just Fiorina-were seeking a radical makeover. Anders' more sympathetic account is fascinating at times such as its description of the complex relationship between Fiorina and David Packard's daughter Susan Packard-Orr. But, Burrows' book - unencumbered by any sense of loyalty to Fiorina, who snubbed the author - digs deeper into Fiorina's past by interviewing her ex-husband and childhood friends, thereby providing a much fuller picture of the executive, if not the entire organization. Taken together, the two books complement each other nicely. It remains to be seen if the same can be said for the merger.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Values Vs Valuation
The merger of HP and Compaq has been the most controversial and reported business story in recent times. Built on the core ethical and business values of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, from the humble beginnings at the garage in 1938, HP over the decades had grown up to a reputation of being one of the most admired and respected companies. The company provided an informal work environment where innovation became a way of life. Customers and employees had a strong emotional bond with this company and profits were a by-product of this long term relationship and trust. If I were to visit just one place in the United States, it would be 329, Addison Avenue. Enter 2001 and suddenly, a new CEO, a merger and a pitched battle between the Board and Walter Hewlett, the conscience keeper of the old guard.Not many companies have been spared by the mass mania of the dot com and internet boom of the 90's. Unfortunately, HP has also had its share of infection. Revenue growth, aggressiveness and a sales orientation became the new mantra in the rat race for achieving higher market valuation, as perceived by the analysts on Wall Street. We have witnessed scores of CEOs falling in line with and an easy prey to this myopic quarter chasing disease, that to call it a rat race might be defamatory of rats. This book is an excellent narration of HP's sad and painful transition in this era. I would not like to comment upon or take sides in the corporate battle and its outcome at HP. Today it is history and only of academic interest. The historian and the academic would know it better. But what would be interesting is to watch the direction for the new HP from now on. The book tends to give a feeling that the HP way is no longer relevant and the new leadership has shaken up the company and its culture. The concept of lifetime employment and entitlements for benefits is out. Compensation has been linked closely with performance and the new HP is ready to take off. As of now only one engine is "printing" enough power. Other engines are struggling to "compute". Good Luck HP. You are "Built to last". You should be forewarned that you might not be able to put down this book easily till you have reached the last page.
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