Fiorina Comments On Public Firing

Tells Lesley Stahl She Never Saw It Coming

(CBS) 

The board backed the deal 100 percent. But merging with the more trendy, edgy Compaq was seen by some insiders as an attempt to kill off the old “HP way.” It didn’t help that she had made herself the face of the company or that she had starred in a commercial in front of the old sacred garage.

Thinking about the commercials, Fiorina says, "I mean, if I had it to do over, I probably wouldn't have gone into those commercials because I think it made me perhaps even more of a target."

It couldn’t have helped with the founding families, the Hewletts and the Packards. They turned against the merger with Compaq, and against her.

"The families took out an ad at one point and they said that you were incompetent, unethical, unfit," Stahl remarks.

"Oh look. I think the fight got very ugly. Very ugly things were said about me," Fiorina says. "And my job was to set that aside and get done what I had to get done."

Asked if she was able to put those difficulties aside, Fiorina says, "Except when I came home at night. You know, you have to have a safe place you come home to."

That safe place was home with her husband Frank Fiorina. Four years earlier, when he was 49 and a vice president at AT&T where they had met, he retired, in order to support her career.

Frank says he never asked his wife, "Why don't you retire," because it would have been "futile, and it would have been a waste of time."

"That was not in the cards?" Stahl asks.

"No," he says.

What Frank did was watch her back by attending board functions and senior leader meetings, and he would tell her the unvarnished truth. He was at her side at the brutal proxy fight against the merger with Compaq that lasted eight months, including a lawsuit to try and stop it. Carly had to testify.

But in the end, the shareholders approved the deal and she threw herself into marrying the two huge companies. With that came tough decisions, like laying off 23,000 people. Grumbling about her intensified: that she spent too much time hobnobbing with movie and rock stars, which she says was part of her campaign to appeal to a younger market. And there were complaints that she was weak at the day-to-day operations.

"Do you acknowledge that you weren't running the nuts and bolts?" Stahl asks.

"No, I won't acknowledge that," Fiorina replies. "I absolutely won't acknowledge that. I was running the nuts and bolts of this company along with a lot of other people."

"But, do you acknowledge that the board felt you weren't?" Stahl asks.

"No, that's not factual," Fiorina says.

Yet early last year – three members of the board approached her with a proposal to restructure the company in a way that, in part, would’ve stripped her of some of her day-to-day responsibilities. Then someone leaked the plan to the Wall Street Journal.

Furious, Fiorina called a conference call with the board, and by her own account in her book, was cold as ice.

"I was very, very distressed," Fiorina recalls. "But as I also say in the book: when I get very angry, I get very quiet."

Asked if she scolded the board or talked down to them, Fiorina says, "I didn’t talk down to them, but I was plain in saying: 'This is unacceptable behavior.' A line had been crossed, and when no one would fess up, I said, 'We have to have an investigation.'"

Fiorina wanted a leak investigation, since no one would admit that they had talked to the press.

She says her investigation didn’t use pre-texting or any other controversial tactics, but it didn’t find the original leaker, though Tom Perkins admitted he was a second source who confirmed the story for the Wall Street Journal. At the next board meeting, Carly says she intended to clear the air and move forward. But when she showed up, she was fired – effective immediately and Pattie Dunn was elected chairman of the board.

"In the book you said, 'The board did not have the courage to face me. They did not thank me. They did not say goodbye.' Do you think it was nasty? Mean? Meant to hurt?" Stahl asks.

"I think the way this was handled was heartless in some ways and disrespectful in other ways," Fiorina replies.

"Almost as if they meant to take you down a peg or two, that kind of thing," Stahl asks.

"Well, if that was there intent, they certainly succeeded in that. Maybe they took great pleasure in seeing me beat up publicly for weeks and weeks and weeks. I don’t know," Fiorina says.

[kerigpope]

After watching your interview with former Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Carly Fiorina complain about how her firing was, in her opinion, so impersonal, all I can say is 'Boo-Hoo'. Finally a high-powered businessperson gets a taste of the tactics of indifference that most of Corporate America uses to make employment changes within their companies. Carly, welcome to our level. Maybe I should write a book too.

[hweiner]

She orchestrated the ouster of board member Walter Hewlett, the son of one of the founders of HP, because he opposed the merger of HP and Compaq. This was cruel and heartless and how she treated her opponents. Lucent, on her watch went downhill, and still is in that position. Investors in Lucent watched the stock plunge. After Carly was sacked, I bought HP stock again, after I sold it when it plunged, with the expectation that it would go up again--and it has!

Carly apparently lacks introspection and insight. She doesn't seem to examine her own behavior and flaws. She destroyed the wonderful culture of Hewlett Pack where workers had job security and high morale. In respect to her ruthless layoffs, it might be fair to say that she should have been the first one.

Like Chainsaw Al Dunlap, Carly is an example of the sickness of corporate America which has destroyed job security at the expense of CEO profits. It is high time that CEOs be called to account for their high salaries, misgovernance, incompetent performance, and spectacular lack of morality.

Just think of how many workers could have been hired with Carly's salary! Think how much of her salary could have gone to health benefits for the
workforce of HP. And if her salary couldn't cover this, her severance package could have!

[zafdor]

This piece was a real laugher. There's poor Carley with her head down. Clearly not qualified to run HP, she did a remarkable amount of damage to a great company. Hey Carley, I can tell you why you were fired, you cut the value of HP stock by 65%. You merged with a company that essentially is a boat anchor to HP. I work for a competitor and we had a feast when the merger was happening, so I guess I should be greatful to her. The board most certainly did thank you for your service, to the tune of $42M. In the world of unbelievable egos, she fits right in! I wonder if she ever called Walter Hewlett to apologise?

[fedora1958]

Corporate America throws countless thousands of people overboard. Why is this one supposed to be so interesting and important?

[jaygars]

"You know, Lesley, I wish I could answer the question: 'Why did the Board fire me?'

Could it be because she drove the stock price down from $156 to $16 a share. That she consistantly missed earnings by hitting only three quarters out of twenty-four (Mark Hurd has hit six quarters out of six). That Wall Street had no faith in her. Her best asset is marketing is self promotion with she does well.

Her stategic direction was all over the place. One year she tries the purchase PriceWaterHouse for $18B to have foothold in the consultanting business which IBM purchased the following year for $3.5B. The next year she buys COMPAQ. These directions are the opposite.

Carly should be happy with her $53M check the board gave her. What horrible why to be fired?

[jaygars]

"You know, Lesley, I wish I could answer the question: 'Why did the Board fire me?'

Could it be because she drove the stock price down from $156 to $16 a share. That she consistantly missed earnings by hitting only three quarters out of twenty-four (Mark Hurd has hit six quarters out of six). That Wall Street had no faith in her. Her best asset is marketing is self promotion with she does well.

Her stategic direction was all over the place. One year she tries the purchase PriceWaterHouse for $18B to have foothold in the consultanting business which IBM purchased the following year for $3.5B. The next year she buys COMPAQ. These directions are the opposite.

Carly should be happy with her $53M check the board gave her. What horrible why to be fired?

[md20062]

I am throughly disgusted with Ms. Fiorina's recent interview. Her EGO is simply more than I can take which is exalty why she was ousted. The fact that her firing was cold and callace should come as no surprise to her as she set the precendent in HP for laying off and firing employees in that such manner. How does she feel getting a dose of her own medicine. As an HP employee and I can tell you that the stirdes the company has made are due soley to Mark Hurd and his leadership. ALL the executives and leaders Carly brought over from Compaq have been replaced and as a company we are still struggling with the impact of a poorly executed and thought out aqusition. I can also state strongly that Carly WAS NOT running this company from an operational perspective and that is why she failed to lead HP on this journey. I will give her this, she is a dynamic speaker and can absolutely sell anything, but once you buy her pitch your on your own to figure out exaclty what it is you've been sold.

As an HP employee I am embarressed by the recent events of our board and am also appauled at the blatent disrespect from the board for the company and all it's employees. This situation was 100% preventable given board memebers had any care for their position and were not hell bent on taking each other down due to personality conflicts. Watching the congressional hearings and watching your recent HP piece has truly been an education in politics and egos for me.

[lkd711]

Ms. Fiorino's description of her firing is all too familiar to anyone who has been fired at HP and other corporations. Firings are taken personally regardless of how they are handled. What makes Ms. Fiorino so special? At least she was paid a generous severance package instead of having to take whatever the company offers, if anything.

[lifercbs]

This poor lady was terminated from a multimillion dollar yearly salary with only a 42 million dollar termination payoff. No wonder she is pouty. But she was really qualified to lead an 82 billion dollar electronics company. Here's her background from Wikipedia:
"Fiorina attended Stanford University as an undergraduate and studied medieval history and philosophy. Later, she attended law school at University of California, Los Angeles but dropped out to pursue a career in business. She earned an MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park and a Master's degree in Management (M.S.) from the MIT Sloan School of Management under the Sloan Fellows program.
In 1985, she married AT&T executive Frank Fiorina (he opted for early retirement in 1998)."
So thats how she got into management at Lucent. To an outsider, it appears she was "helped" up the corporate ladder by men she knew. Where is the surprise in the board dismissing her after 6 years of running the company into the ground? What has she done lately? Suck up more corporate gravy on other boards. Let's let this bad apple go quietly into anominity and not drag her pouting into the publics view again.