Fiorina - Tough choices: a memoir

PORTFOLIO

TOUGH CHOICES

Carly Fiorina was president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2005 and chairman from 2000 to 2005. Before joining HP, she spent nearly twenty years at AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she held a number of senior leadership positions. She has a B.A. in medieval history and philosophy from Stanford University, an M.B.A. from the University of Maryland, and an M.S. from MITs Sloan School of Management. Fiorina currently serves on several boards of directors, including those of Revolution Healthcare Group and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. She and her husband, Frank, divide their time between Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. They have two daughters and two grandchildren.

Tough Choices

| A MEMOIR |

Carly Fiorina

PORTFOLIO

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First published in the United States of America by Portfolio, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2006

This paperback edition with a new afterword published 2007

Copyright Carly Fiorina, 2006, 2007

All rights reserved

Photograph credits: : Corbis Corporation

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS :

Fiorina, Carly.

Tough choices : a memoir / Carly Fiorina.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN: 978-1-101-66382-0

1. Fiorina, Carly. 2. Women executivesUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

HD6054.4.U6F56 2006

338.761004165092dc22

[B] 2006048336

Designed by Kate Nichols

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For Frank,

a very special man who changed my life

W RITING A BOOK involves tough choices as well. One of the toughest is what, and whom, to leave out. As I thought about this book, and wrote this book, people and places and events flooded my memory. Many hours could pass in the company of these reflections and I would silently thank again the countless people who have made a difference in my life. I truly wish I could have named everyone, but a book is not a diary.

For those who are disappointed by their exclusion, I beg forgiveness and hope they take some small comfort in my struggles to edit and reeditcareful to preserve the authenticity of the memoir, while recognizing that not everything is of relevance to the reader, even when it matters deeply to the author.

I was not sure I wanted to write this book at all. So now, I want to thank those who believed in it from the beginning, who encouraged me to keep going, and who were blunt when necessary. Frank read and reread every word. My sister, Clara Sneed, the real writer in the family, offered sound advice early on in the process and read the second draft with a critical eye. My sisters-in-law, Claudia Beyer and Ursula Feldman, provided unwavering support. And Deborah Bowker, Rollins Emerson, Kathy Fitzgerald, Barbara Marcin, Dan Plunkett, Carole Spurrier and Richard Ullman all gave their time, their care and their candor to me and to this book. Finally, and especially, Adrian Zackheim has my deepest gratitude and appreciation.

I N THE END , the Board did not have the courage to face me. They did not thank me and they did not say good-bye. They did not explain their decision or their reasoning. They did not seek my opinion or my involvement in any aspect of the transition. Having asked me to come to Chicago for a meeting, they left me waiting in my hotel room for more than three hours. As I waited, I knew whatever came next would be a turning point. After I finally received the call to rejoin the meeting, I thought about each Board member as I rode the elevator down past those twenty-four floors. I didnt know what to expect, but I assumed I would be facing them. I wasnt prepared for the empty conference room I entered. Only the two designated messengers and a lawyer remained in the room. The chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee said, Carly, the Board has decided to make a change at the top. Im very sorry. I knew he had opposed my ouster. And then the new chairman said they wanted my help in positioning the news. She said they thought I should describe this as my decision: I should say I thought it was time to move on. I asked when they wanted to make the announcement. Right away. The meeting lasted less than three minutes. I asked for a few hours to think and I left the room.

I believe the truth is always the best answer, whatever the consequences. Less than two hours later I sent a message to the new chairman saying we should tell the truth: the Board had fired me. When the announcement was made, I simply said, While I regret that the Board and I had differences over the execution of the strategy, I respect their decision. HP is a great company and I wish the people of HP all the best.

I had always known I might lose my job. I was playing a high-stakes game with poweful people and powerful interests, but I had not expected the end to come in this way. I knew we were on the verge of reaping tremendous benefits from all our hard work, and I thought the Board knew this too. I wanted so much to be able to gather my team one last time and tell them how proud I was of all we had accomplished together. My heart ached that I was not given an opportunity to say good-bye to the people of HP, whom I had grown to love.

I knew the announcement would be big news. I was a woman, and a bold one at that, and things had always been different for me. All the criticisms that had ever been leveled against me would be recycled and thrown back in my face with new delight: Shes too flashy. Shes just marketing fluff. Shes too controlling. Shes a publicity hound. The merger was her idea and it was the wrong thing to do. Shes imperious, vindictive and employees didnt like her. The coverage would go on and on, and the critiques would not be balanced against the facts or my contributions or the positive changes that had been made. It would be ugly and it would be personal.