Rating: 
Summary: Useful Hewlett-Packard account, but terribly flawed.
Review: George Anders' "Perfect Enough...", a history of the Carly-
era at Hewlett-Packard with an emphasis on the proxy fight
over the Compaq merger is a useful book but it is not a good
book. It is useful because it presents how Carly Fiorina and
the HP Board wish to be viewed. This is helpful to those
who wish to understand how to better communicate with the
HP Board.The reason this is a bad book is its poor treatment of Walter
Hewlett, David Woodley Packard and even the late Bill
Hewlett. HP engineers and HP alumni also are unjustifiably
demeaned. While this is unfortunate, I have no doubt that
this reflects the attitude of Carly Fiorina and some members
of the Board. Anders did manage to document a few new interesting HP
anecdotes, but given his sloppy, low energy research, I don't
know how much faith to place in these. For example, he
refers in the book to the most famous memo Dave Packard
ever issued, but apparently did not even bother to obtain a
copy, because it was missing from the archives. Even a brief
visit to HP's computer operations would have resulted in
multiple copies of this memo being supplied by staffers, over
25 years after it was issued. The interesting anecdote is a Carly quotation where she
expresses her animus toward powerfully-built men, as
indicated by their neck size. It is useful to remember that
capitalism requires animal spirits, and Carly's attempt to
eliminate these at Hewlett-Packard, unless corrected, will
bring about HP's destruction.
Rating: 
Summary: A CEO Behaving Very Badly!
Review: George Anders' book, which is primarily a history of the Hewlett-Packard/Compaq merger, is quite simply the most appallingly bad business book I have read in many years. It deserves to be read only as a prime example of the unconscionable behavior by writer Anders and CEO Fiorina that others should not emulate. The problem here is that HP and the publisher positioned this book as the de facto authorized history of this merger by virtue of the special access and cooperation Anders received from Fiorina and her employees, access that was denied to others. And it is very clear from Anders account that Fiorina's objective of this cooperation was a wholly gratuitous attack on the Hewlett and Packard families, HP traditions and HP employees. The reason this attack is wholly gratuitous is that the book was published many months after she had won the merger fight. At this point there was zero business purpose in making such an attack. Her cooperation with Anders is a huge, huge error in business judgment. The Board needs to demand the resignations of those it deems responsible which should certainly include the advisors that encouraged the course of action taken here.
Rating: 
Summary: Seems a fair enough assessment of the situation
Review: I came to HP as a result of the Compaq merger. This book provides a lot of insight into why HP does things the way it does, and from where I sit provides a much more balanced assessment of the merger than does the other book on the market. I use the information gained from the book in my dealings with the very much "blue" organizations that still exist within the company. This is still a hidebound company, and the good ol' boys that have been around can't deal with the concept of a strong female leader. And there are still too many employees wearing blinders which say "Bill and Dave's way or the highway." Well, Bill and Dave brought an absolutely staggering amount of over-design into the company, and while that may have worked in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, it gets in the way in today's marketplace more often than not. Kudos to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anders for not bowing to the pressure from the GOBs and telling it like it is. And to the 21+ people who recommended Bill and Dave's Excellent Adventure over this book - it's time to move on, folks. They did many wonderful things - but Bill and Dave's time has passed.
Rating:
Summary: Bad judgement and bad taste characterize Carly Fiorina
Review: I was disappointed in this book. The author does not challenge the often bad judgement and bad taste of Fiorina. For example, she was reported by CNET to have hired the cast of a television gangster family to serve drinks at LinuxWorld. This is not a proper use of corporate funds, a key issue for a CEO. It would not be appropriate for taste reasons even if these high-priced actors worked for free. HP under Fiorina is clearly out-of-control, but we would never know this from this book.
Rating:
Summary: HP¿s Poor Treatment of Customers Deserves Attention in Book
Review: I was quite disappointed that author Anders did not make customer perceptions of HP and its "re-invention" a priority in this book. This issue for me is one of the most critical. I have bought a lot of HP equipment in the past, but find current HP products disappointing. HP today is not even close to being competitive with Dell in quality, price, serviceability or support. What is worse, it is not only a difficult company to do business with, but often proves itself even more arrogant and nasty to customers than it was to Walter Hewlett during the proxy fight. Author Anders should have conveyed HP's unfortunate attitude in his book. As yet another example of this nastiness, I recently accepted their invitation on their website to attend an "HP enterprise strategy launch" on 5-6-03 for customers, partners, and the press. I was hoping to assess whether their bad attitude had changed and whether competitive products were forthcoming. After registering on the web I got a nasty message on my voicemail from HP that demanded I call them back so they could determine if I was important enough to be let in the door to this event. Failure to do so could result in denial of entry, they noted. I attend briefings by top people from other companies frequently and have never seen this bizarre conduct elsewhere, even in firms whose CEOs the press depicts as world-class hotheads. I certainly don't appreciate being insulted and disinvited for accepting an invitation they freely extended. Carly Fiorina is responsible for setting the tone at HP, and the sales and marketing functions are her specialty. Anders had a responsibility in his book to make very clear what tone has been set. If Anders had spent as much time talking to customers as he spent talking to top executives, this could have been a much better book if it documented the destructive tone that has been set. The financial consequences of this bad attitude have been severe -- HP lost server market share last year while both IBM and Dell gained share, in addition to hundreds of millions of dollars of losses in servers for HP.
Rating:
Summary: Book failed to predict big Fiorina problems
Review: I was very disappointed in Anders' book. He should have focused on those aspects of Fiorina's character that have led to further HP degeneration. Providing such predictive value is a key contribution of a good book, and the author has failed us enormously in this area. Two examples of this foreseeable degeneration have occurred in the last couple weeks: First, on page one of the San Jose Mercury-News of 4-9-03, Fiorina found it necessary to pay tribute to a local Marxist-feminist that passed away. She has been supporting this woman's commie-inspired institute with HP money/resources. These actions are, at best, idiotic. These problems could have been predicted by Anders if he had analyzed her far-left "e-inclusion" speeches. Instead, he ignored her radicalism. Second, Fiorina has demeaned US combat troops in the field by routinely flying the US flag on the wrong HP flagpole. This happens at many sites -- a good example are the flags at 10435 North Tantau, Cupertino. Because these flagpoles are oriented orthogonal to the street, the US flag belongs on the center flagpole. Fiorina disrespectfully flies it on the inside pole. That Fiorina has not bothered to instill in her people the need to get this right at a time when US troops are dying in combat is a disgrace. Even the Germans, who several years ago occupied a site two blocks north, managed to fly the US flag on the proper pole. If Anders had done his job properly in this book, he could have predicted problems of this sort would arise. This could have raised the visibility of these issues to the point where she would have been dismissed before causing these problems. Instead, both HP and the nation are still suffering from her bad management.
Rating:
Summary: The old order changeth yeiding place to new....
Review: It is hard not be seduced (given today's brutal business environment) into a romantic and nostalgic version of company loyalty and employee loyalty. I grew up dreaming of the HP Way - it seemed such a cool place to be part of. Perfection, innovation, doing it right by the people and the community at large while making profits thrived for 60 years. While there are many that think Carly is the "witch" - the old principles had to be redefined for HP's survival given the changes in the marketplace. HP didn't have much choice: acquire another company to fill the holes in the portfolio, or become a part of someone else's portfolio. Either way, the loss of innocence was inevitable. An interesting study would be to go back and see where in the 60 years of its history, HP lost its way. To blame Carly is akin to blame the fireman who is gutting a portion of your burning house to contain the damage. It is not a question of heart - it is making hard and non-sentimental decisions. The story of the old HP days leading to the boardroom struggles as part of the Compaq merger is beautifully told. It transports you to a bygone era and then brings you right into the harsh light of brutal facts of market reality peppered with the human element of power, fame, emotions, convictions, etc. It nicely balances the varied prespectives of several characters, their personal beliefs and struggles - it reads both like a suspense novel and a business book. Time will tell if the merger works or not - but sadly the "shining soul" that Carly refered to in her conversations will be missing from the new HP. While Walter Hewlett could not define the plan of action if the Compaq acquisition did not go through, Carly could not define what the "soul" of the new HP will be comprised of. A key aspect that will determine the long term success of HPQ: What values and work ethics were lost and what remained - can the employees believe in and rally behind the "new values" (as and when they are defined) In this narration, the sentimental / nostalgic view point loses in the end (no hollywood ending here!), workers of yesterday, today and tomorrow will wonder: Can companies beyond a certain size, in certain markets still have a heart / soul and be wildly successful - living good while doing good?
Rating:
Summary: False Enough
Review: Much of the "blame" for the change in HP can certainly be shared by ex-CEO John Young and his board - in a major strategic shift, Young famously declared in 1989 that "HP is a computer company". But Perfect Enough reads as little more than a whitewash of Ms. Fiorina's role and behavior since she joined the company - rushed into print because a less flattering book was in the works? Read Backfire instead.
Rating:
Summary: Book should have analyzed Fiorina speeches for insight
Review: One of my concerns about this book is its frequent depiction of Carly Fiorina as not only an excellent communicator, but a charismatic one as well. This is nonsense. She may be charming at times, but this is a charm without substance, and her public communications are often both trite and insulting to important customers, potential customers or potential employees. If author Anders' had analyzed some of her speeches in depth, I think he would have come to the same conclusion. This is not just some historical problem, she just delivered (6-19-04) yet another of these seriously unhinged addresses at UCLA for the Commencement of the Engineering College there. The text of this speech is available (for now at least) on HP's web site alongside her executive biography.
UCLA has one of the best engineering schools in the country and they have a large number of serious students of engineering. Yet Carly decides to start out her address with a joke about Donald Trump's hair and soon starts rambling at length and incoherently about her impressions of reality television. She continues on with references to disco, Jessica Simpson, Paris Hilton, William Hung and yet another reference to Donald Trump's hair.
This Carly performance is an extreme embarrassment to HP and its investors. After hearing this speech, which implied they were a bunch of airheads, why would any UCLA student or faculty member want to come to HP? Why would they want to buy an HP computer when they could buy a Dell or an IBM? Why would Donald Trump want to buy HP equipment for his firms or give HP valuable free advertising by making a complimentary reference to HP equipment?
This would have been a much better book if George Anders had read and analyzed her speeches. While most are doubtless written by others, she approves all of them, and can certainly reject inappropriate material rather than broadcast it to the world. If there is anyone left that still thinks Carly Fiorina is effective as a Celebrity Spokesperson sort of CEO, they should read her UCLA address.
Rating:
Summary: Pitfalls of CEOs with political ambitions needs exploring
Review: One of the interesting aspects of Perfect Enough... is that Anders was one of the first in this book to note Carly Fiorina's political interests and emerging ambitions. It is unfortunate that the potential implications of these ambitions were not explored further in his book. We will note some the negative impacts of these ambitions to show their importance to his book:
First, large numbers of HP employees believe she is not committed to her job, and that she sees being a CEO as just a useful stepping stone to her future political career. This explains why she is far more interested in meeting with political leaders (who are not in a position to buy HP equipment) than with business leaders (who are in a position to buy HP equipment). Nothing destroys the morale of the rank-and-file more than an uncommitted, not-interested-in-the-business CEO.
Second, as she is clearly positioning herself as a Blue state politician, she obviously creates a clear conflict-of-interest, since HP needs to sell equipment to the entire country. This situation is actually even worse, since most HP customers in Blue states are business leaders with Red State values. The result is Carly's left-wing political ambitions risk alienating the vast majority of HP's customers.
Third, a CEO with political ambitions could be expected to order the hiring of what are essentially HP-subsidized political operatives (who will owe her something later), as opposed to needed skilled computing professionals. Anyone that reads the HP job listings for the Bay Area will notice the ratio of requisitions for bureaucrats with fuzzy duties as opposed to engineers with concrete responsibilities is a high one, which raises fears that this may be occurring.
Fourth, Carly's additional expressions of interest in political office to Anders and others since the book was published was particularly inappropriate in view of HP history. Some people believe a previous HP CEO tried to pressure Dave Packard into not firing him for poor performance by giving people the impression he might become the next Secretary of Commerce, who would then be in a position to punish HP in various ways. Dave Packard, of course, would not be bullied, and this CEO retired and did not become Secretary of Commerce. HP's current Board of Directors should follow Dave Packard's example, and not let another failing CEO named Carly bully them.
Anders book would have been a much better one with an exploration of these negative implications of a CEO expressing interest in political office as Carly Fiorina has done.
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