Carly Fiorina and Carleton University

carleton s. fiorina (carly)

The world is evolving at a rapid pace and this is probably due to the rapid advancements developed by the it industry. Since Information Technology sets the pace at which the society evolves, it is only natural for it to employ the best and highest skilled professionals in both it as well as business, administration and management. But these specialists are humans, meaning as such that they can make mistakes that impact not only the organization, but the micro and macro environments as well. An example of such a highly skilled, yet flawed, employee is Carly Fiorina.

Carleton 'Carly' Sneed Fiorina was born on the 6th of September 1954 and she is currently one of the most successful American business women. In 1998 even, the Fortune Magazine listed her as the number one most powerful woman in American business. Her nomination as leader of the chart came as a surprise to the business community, moreover when Fiorina was rather unknown. Also, those who did know her from college and other previous positions had reasons to doubt her skills and commitment. "To anyone with a sense of traditional career paths, Carly Fiorina's chance of becoming the most powerful woman in American business would have seemed about as good as, well, a guy's. In college, where she majored in medieval history and philosophy, she was impractical and unfocused. In law school she was restless, and she dropped out her first year. Job to job -- receptionist, teacher -- she floated. And when she finally went to at&T as a sales rep in 1980, she refused to join the savings plan because, she said, no way would she stay past two years" (Sellers, 1998).

In 1999, Carly Fiorina accepted the chief executive position within telecommunication giant Hewlett-Packard and her stay there was crowned with numerous successes. Basing her strategies on the internal and external environments affecting HP's operations and results, Carly managed to identify, develop and implement the most appropriate strategic approaches.

First of all, in terms of strategy, she understood that despite its leading position in the printing sector, HP was considerably behind in the sector of personal computers. However the PC was registering steady growth, the internet had almost been forgotten. As a result of this understanding then, Fiorina supported the implementation of the E-services Net strategy. "This pulls together technologies so corporations can quickly add new services on the fly. HP has begun to sell online and intends to grow its services business as a way of boosting box sales" (Business Week, 1999). The idea was extremely useful in the meaning that it adapted the organization to the needs of the external environment. However, in terms of internal features, Fiorina overlooked the fact that the organization's capabilities and expertise in the field of internet applications was rather reduced. Foremost, it was 3 years behind its major competitors, IBM and Sun.

Another major contribution that Fiorina has had revolves around the management at Hewlett-Packard and materializes in the direction she set. In this instance, previous HP chief executive officer had often been blamed for a running the organization without having implemented a clear direction. As a result, Fiorina set a goal to "drive synergies in the remaining printer and computing units. Fiorina is the charismatic, brand-conscious leader that Platt wasn't. She learned at Lucent how to turn a stodgy business into a Net Age one" (Business Week, 1999). In the future, she would be blamed that she failed to manage the direction she herself had set.

In terms of innovation, the printer manufacturer had begun to lose its competitive edge. In this order of ideas, they have not come with an entirely innovative printer since 1984 and most of their energies had been channelled towards the PC sector. In this industry however, their primary goal was to achieve significant cost reductions, rather than implement elements of novelty. Fiorina indented to speed up technologies, but failed to understand the real risks of the new ventures.

Relative to the organization as a structure, Fiorina decided to offer increased power to four managers in an attempt to unify the corporate departments. This did not retrieve the desired results as an integration within an overall Net strategy had been delayed.

Carleton Fiorina has had an impact upon Hewlett-Packard's marketing operations. Prior to her arrival, the printer organization had used traditional marketing techniques, which presented one product or service at a time. Fiorina however revealed that in the age of the internet, the corporation had to market various products and services and present how they relate to each other to form a unified whole. In this desire, she implemented integrated and interactive marketing techniques and managed to attract larger numbers of customers.

In terms of human resource, HP prided on one of the lowest employee turnover rates. Insiders however commented that the company was retaining the wrong people. To attract the best skilled ones, Fiorina set the goal of modernizing the compensation plans and also adding the possibility for employees to purchase stock options (Business Week, 1999). This would ensure that the individual goals of the employees became united with the overall goals of the organization. Otherwise put, by allowing staff members to participate to profit sharing, the management would also stimulate them to increase their performances and sustain the company in achieving sustainable growth and development.

However the strategies implemented by Fiorina retrieved desired results in the beginnings, they soon backfired and in 2005, the Board at Hewlett-Packard fired her. "The move came after she was unable to build Hewlett into a reliable profit machine with the broad heft to challenge I.B.M. At the top of the industry. Hewlett's board forced Ms. Fiorina to resign after she and the directors disagreed on how to carry out corporate strategy as the contentious $19 billion purchase of Compaq Computer in 2002 has failed to deliver the results she had promised" (Rivlin, 2005). The most relevant accusations that had been brought to her revolved around Fiorina's aggressive approach and the negligence she had revealed in implementing the hands-on management required to achieve her stated vision. Foremost, throughout her leadership, Hewlett-Packard had registered a 50% decrease in their stock price. The fall was explained by slow industry performances, but the argument had not been a strong one even more so when the decreases in the competitors' stock prices were less dramatic.