[no subject]

"If Wall Street Knew What HP Knows"

Everyone in HP seems to know it.  Management knows it.  The rank and
file knows it.  Carly Fiorina's staff seems to know it.  It's the best
kept secret outside of HP and the worst kept secret inside of HP.  It's
not proprietary information, so here it is: Fiorina has lost the people
of HP.  She is reviled, despised, and unwelcome in the company.  The
vast majority of HP people wouldn't follow her to a new restaurant, much
less through a gut wrenching merger.

How bad is it?  Fiorina goes to HP divisions to talk up the merger.
Instead of going through the front door and mingling with employees, her
staff -- citing security concerns -- slips her in through a side door.
She gives her stump speech and then she is whisked out again.  In a
December visit to the large Vancouver division, she was so paranoid
about the rank and file that her security people had all the china cups
and
metal silverware replaced with styrofoam and plastic.  Chairs were
strapped together with cable ties.  When this happens on an airplane,
it's sad.  When it happens at an American corporation, it's a joke.
When it happens at Hewlett-Packard -- a company known for friendly
relations between management and employees -- it's pathetic.

How bad is it?  Fiorina's quarterly announcements are regularly ignored.
Anything she says is considered suspect.  Many HP employees speak
of opposing the Compaq deal in large part to vote against
Carly.  This adds a different spin when Fiorina claims to "know
the people of the new HP."

Lest anyone think this is due to the proposed merger or the sour
economy, it is not.  This is a direct response to the policies Fiorina
has pursued since her arrival. She has squandered all the good will she
was afforded on her arrival.  She has turned believers into cynics;
optimists into pessimists. Fiorina has been very vocal about what the HP
Way is not, but she has been relatively quiet about what the HP Way is.
Let me share the best definition I have heard. The HP Way is based on an
assumption: "I assume that you want to do a good job and will do so
given the right tools and environment." CEOs make this assumption about
staff. Staff makes this assumption about management.

Unreasonable?  Hardly.  Silicon Valley culture is based on this
assumption.  Outdated?  Never.  Yet from her arrival, Fiorina's policies
have violated this basic assumption.  In her statements and actions, she
let it be known that she considered much of the HP staff to be slackers
who had to shape up or get kicked out.  This is why her layoffs have
elicited a much stronger reaction than the 20% layoffs experienced by
the HP spinoff, Agilent Technologies.

The problem with Carly Fiorina is that as a medievalist she talks like
Henry V, but thinks like Marie Antoinette.  At the same time that she
was cutting travel funding for staff and eliminating staff use of
corporate jets, she was purchasing three Gulfstream jets for HP
executives -- the largest for her exclusive use.  She clearly can't
stand HP culture.  From her garage ads featuring a fake shell resembling
the original Addison Street garage to her hollow promises to return HP
to its inventive roots, Fiorina has shown her leadership to be a sham, a
facade -- and the vast majority of HP people despise her for it.

Don't be fooled by articles saying that HP people are split on the deal.
Talk with people inside HP and you will find that the sentiment is
almost entirely against the deal.  Upper level managers are ordered not
to speak against the deal.  Employees are told not to speak in public
about it -- with one exception: Fiorina's staff has scoured the company
to find people willing to speak in favor of the deal.  Fliers have gone
up in divisions asking for volunteers willing to speak on camera for TV
ads.  If you want to understand how open this process is, just note that
it is only the people speaking in favor of the deal who allow their
names to be used.  Those speaking in opposition to the deal keep their
anonymity in fear for their jobs.

What this means for people who hold HP stock is that the merger --
if attempted -- is almost certainly doomed to failure.  Fiorina's
inability to lead HP guarantees that.

Here's a win-win scenario.  Fiorina leaves HP and becomes CEO of Compaq.
This gives Fiorina a corporate culture she likes.  Michael Capellas
gets a chance to work for Fiorina.  And it gives the people of HP --
make that Hewlett-Packard -- a chance to get a leader that they can
respect. 

Danny Abramovitch
Palo Alto, CA
2/17/02


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