Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett Packard

Name of the student
Institution
Professor
Deadline
Carly Fiorina and the Reinvention of Hewlett Packard
Introduction
The book, Perfect Enough was written by George Anders an investigative journalist. It was first published by Portfolio Hardcover on 23rd January, 2003. The book contains 288 pages covering the events around the life of the HP’s CEO Fiorina by then and the tough decisions she had to make. It was also published by Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated in 2004. I selected this particular book as it unveils the possibility of making progress in the line of business. It reveals the risk taking role that a manager faces and the strategies that have to be put in place to create a competitively advantaged business (Anders 5). Fiorina joins HP with her own policies geared towards ensuring the multidimensional growth of the business. However, she faces a lot of opposition from the stakeholders making her to get into loggerheads but stands firm on the decision to acquire Compaq a company involved in the same line of production.
Synopsis
This book revolves around the battle between the founders of Hewlett-Packard (HP), a computer making company and the company’s new Chief Executive Officer, Carly Fiorina. Conflicts arose because the stakeholders wanted the management of the company to be done the ‘HP Way’. Fiorina joined HP in 1999 after having a successful span of management at Lucent Technologies. Having done Sales and Marketing, she faces challenges in the organization which has a policy that requires any CEO to have qualified Engineering. She brings reforms whose objective is to maximize the revenues with reduced costs and thus increase the profits of the organization. This comes after a moment of financial strains in the industry in the 1990’s. She also emphasizes on inventions by HP of new products to improve customer satisfaction. Her presence as the CEO leads to many employees losing their jobs with the long job security of employees according to the policy of the company being abandoned. This leads to an improvement in the company performance with a 15% growth in profit and about 6% increase in earnings recorded in 2000.
The test of her leadership comes when she communicates the idea of merging HP with Compaq a competitor. This transaction is estimated to cost $20 million which is opposed by the founders of the company. Walter Hewlett engages in a series of exchanges with Fiorina which includes media and court proceedings. She finally receives majority votes from the shareholders hence Compaq is bought by HP (Anders 20). The purchase of Compaq leads to an increase in the market share of HP-Compaq in 2002. George Anders presents majorly portrays the positive sides of Fiorina ignoring her weaknesses. This makes him neutral unlike other authors who have really dwelt on her shortcomings.
Fiorina’s term as the CEO of Lucent portrayed her uniqueness evidenced by the withdrawal of Lucent from AT&T just a ...