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Jeffrey Sonnenfeld: Why I Still Think Fiorina Was a Terrible CEO
Politico ^

Posted on 09/20/2015 5:16:39 PM PDT by springwater13

As Fiorina admits, I have been critical of her for over a decade—long before she announced her political aspirations. I have studied her business record, challenged her leadership abilities and have come to agree with the assessment that she was one of the worst technology CEOs in history. I stand by that evaluation.

Fiorina can attack me all she wants, as she did when she called me “a well-known Clintonite” (an absurd allegation I’ll get to later) who “had it out for me from the moment that I arrived at Hewlett Packard.” But no amount of one-liners to Trump, weekend study of Middle Eastern names or ad hominen attacks on a university professor can take someone from gross business leadership failure to leader of the free world. To do that, she’ll have to own up to her missteps and try to learn from them—which she seems disinclined to do.

Here are the facts: In the five years that Fiorina was at Hewlett Packard, the company lost over half its value. It’s true that many tech companies had trouble during this period of the Internet bubble collapse, some falling in value as much as 27 percent; but HP under Fiorina fell 55 percent. During those years, stocks in companies like Apple and Dell rose. Google went public, and Facebook was launched. The S&P 500 yardstick on major U.S. firms showed only a 7 percent drop. Plenty good was happening in U.S. industry and in technology.

It was Fiorina’s failed leadership that brought her company down.

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: California
KEYWORDS: 2016election; absurd; authorondrugs; california; carly; carlyfiorina; clintonista; election2016; fiorina; fortune; jeffreysonnenfeld; liberalbs; opinion; politico; sonnenfeld
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To: springwater13
She once ridiculed the music interests and appearance of a dissenting board member Walter Hewitt, son of HP’s co-founder

Inasmuch as I am no fan of Carly (although I am glad she is running), the author should at least spell the name "Hewlett" correctly.

41 posted on 09/20/2015 11:31:06 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Dupes for Donald, Chumps for Trump)
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To: springwater13
If the Republican Party seeks great women leaders with proven track records of accomplishment and character for national office, I could recommend many, including New Hampshire’s Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski and, especially, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Huh? Two out of three ARE BAD!!!

42 posted on 09/20/2015 11:33:49 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (Dupes for Donald, Chumps for Trump)
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To: livius; RginTN; txhurl; Mastador1; freespirit2012; AmericanVictory; yadent; Fury; Mase; Amntn; ...
Trump declared bankruptcy four times, leaving his gullible creditors on the hook for his debts.

Actually, only four Chapter 11 bankruptcies were official, but in some cases he just turned over the failed enterprise to his creditors, without going through the bankruptcy process (examples below).

It's not surprising that Trump is using rehashed liberal opinion hit pieces (like in Fortune and NYT) and liberal academics like Sonnenfeld who have vested interest, to attack Carly's business record (do I hear echoes of 2012's "attack from the left"?)...

He wants to deflect and divert attention from his own record of failures in many enterprises (e.g., Trump University, Trump Airlines / Trump Shuttle, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage etc., most of which ended up in debt defaults to creditors, or his Trump line of clothing which were manufactured in... China, Mexico and Bangladesh) and especially his former gaming empire built on nothing but his celebrity persona and pile of his high-interest expensive "junk-grade bonds" debt which he successfully offloaded it on unsuspecting shareholders in his public company Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. / Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (DJT) after he bought-in his Trump Castle and later Trump Taj Mahal, while running the parent umbrella company through ownership of a separate (not common) controlling class of stock. That debt brought all 4 of the Trump casinos to bankruptcies, massive layoffs and loss of billions of dollars for shareholders and lenders who basically "invested in Trump's celebrity name and self-promoted aura of success" while he walked away with a pile of money from royalties (on his name), salaries and preferreds, and discharging his own debt...

Folks, stop rehashing the same opinion hit pieces based on superficial but deliberately incomplete or misconstrued "facts." Please read the actual facts in a few posts and links before you give credence to liberals, and ignore huuuuuuge problems with Trump's business record which will become huuuuuge issue in general election if he is the nominee, just because Trump (or someone else) is your candidate of choice. Nobody is asking you to renounce your candidate, or support Fiorina, but please stop spreading the liberal lies about her record at Lucent and HP - she didn't destroy either, and she saved HP from going into oblivion or obscurity like Kodak, Polaroid, Sun Microsystems, Xerox, Lexmark (former IBM printer division), Blackberry, etc.

Please, follow the links in these posts, so you won't have to ask the questions that have already been answered there - they will give you real facts, not opinions based on distortions and convenient omissions which would change the numbers and alter the picture (unless, of course you are so invested in your candidate and "destruction of Fiorina" that the "confirmation bias" would make it impossible) :

Carly Fiorina as a boss: The disappointing truth - FR, post #28, 2015 August 16

Carly Fiorina as a boss: The disappointing truth - FR, post #26, 2015 August 15

Carly Fiorina's Business Record: Not So Sterling - FR, posts #28, #30, 2015 August 18

Ex-HP board member who voted to fire Fiorina endorses her [Tom Perkins] - FR / The Hill, 2015 August 30 (links and posts ##1, 2, 9, 16, 22, 27, 32, 34)

Forget what Trump says about Fiorina's face. Her HP record is the issue - FR, posts ##27, 30, 33, 2015 September 10

Carly Fiorina terrifies me - FR / YouTube, posts ##94, 95

By contrast, here's some of Donald Trump's "magic" in his own words (Art of the Deal): "The final key to the way I promote, is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts."

- FR / The Hill, 2015 August 30 (links and posts ##1, 2, 9, 16, 22, 27, 32, 34) /strong

43 posted on 09/21/2015 12:12:48 AM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: livius; RginTN; txhurl; Mastador1; freespirit2012; AmericanVictory; yadent; Fury; Mase; Amntn; ...
Trump declared bankruptcy four times, leaving his gullible creditors on the hook for his debts.

Actually, only four Chapter 11 bankruptcies were official, but in some cases he just turned over the failed enterprise to his creditors, without going through the bankruptcy process (examples below).

It's not surprising that Trump is using rehashed liberal opinion hit pieces (like in Fortune and NYT) and liberal academics like Sonnenfeld who have vested interest, to attack Carly's business record (do I hear echoes of 2012's "attack from the left"?)...

He wants to deflect and divert attention from his own record of failures in many enterprises (e.g., Trump University, Trump Airlines / Trump Shuttle, Trump Magazine, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage etc., most of which ended up in debt defaults to creditors, or his Trump line of clothing which were manufactured in... China, Mexico and Bangladesh) and especially his former gaming empire built on nothing but his celebrity persona and pile of his high-interest expensive "junk-grade bonds" debt which he successfully offloaded it on unsuspecting shareholders in his public company Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. / Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts (DJT) after he bought-in his Trump Castle and later Trump Taj Mahal, while running the parent umbrella company through ownership of a separate (not common) controlling class of stock. That debt brought all 4 of the Trump casinos to bankruptcies, massive layoffs and loss of billions of dollars for shareholders and lenders who basically "invested in Trump's celebrity name and self-promoted aura of success" while he walked away with a pile of money from royalties (on his name), salaries and preferreds, and discharging his own debt...

Folks, stop rehashing the same opinion hit pieces based on superficial but deliberately incomplete or misconstrued "facts." Please read the actual facts in a few posts and links before you give credence to liberals, and ignore huuuuuuge problems with Trump's business record which will become huuuuuge issue in general election if he is the nominee, just because Trump (or someone else) is your candidate of choice. Nobody is asking you to renounce your candidate, or support Fiorina, but please stop spreading the liberal lies about her record at Lucent and HP - she didn't destroy either, and she saved HP from going into oblivion or obscurity like Kodak, Polaroid, Sun Microsystems, Xerox, Lexmark (former IBM printer division), Blackberry, etc.

Please, follow the links in these posts, so you won't have to ask the questions that have already been answered there - they will give you real facts, not opinions based on distortions and convenient omissions which would change the numbers and alter the picture (unless, of course you are so invested in your candidate and "destruction of Fiorina" that the "confirmation bias" would make it impossible) :

Carly Fiorina as a boss: The disappointing truth - FR, post #28, 2015 August 16

Carly Fiorina as a boss: The disappointing truth - FR, post #26, 2015 August 15

Carly Fiorina's Business Record: Not So Sterling - FR, posts #28, #30, 2015 August 18

Ex-HP board member who voted to fire Fiorina endorses her [Tom Perkins] - FR / The Hill, 2015 August 30 (links and posts ##1, 2, 9, 16, 22, 27, 32, 34)

Forget what Trump says about Fiorina's face. Her HP record is the issue - FR, posts ##27, 30, 33, 2015 September 10

Carly Fiorina terrifies me - FR / YouTube, posts ##94, 95

By contrast, here's some of Donald Trump's "magic" in his own words (Art of the Deal): "The final key to the way I promote, is bravado. I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts."

- FR / The Hill, 2015 August 30 (links and posts ##1, 2, 9, 16, 22, 27, 32, 34)

44 posted on 09/21/2015 12:29:34 AM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: springwater13

It was a tough time in the tech sector. HP did about par for the course under Fiorina, and prospered more than most after she left.

How much of that prosperity was due to the groundwork that was set down during Fiorina's tenure? It is hard to say. But it is certain that she did not run the company into the ground, as so many Trump boosters are saying.

45 posted on 09/21/2015 5:04:31 AM PDT by Haiku Guy (December 4, 2015 will be Hillary Clinton's Coming Out Day)
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To: CutePuppy
Thank you very much for your valuable information. I had found myself completely puzzled by the conflicting stories, especially in light of the great success of HP printers, one of which I rely on heavily. I would note that HP laserjets are so prized that my computer guy tells us that people will salvage them out of the trash and rebuild them.

We were friends with the sister of the CEO of compaq and when compaq was sold to HP he seemed to think that Fiorina was an excellent business leader and was very friendly with her. I found it difficult to conceive that he could have been so flawed in his judgment.

I have to say also that I found Trump's remarks about Dr. Ben Carson not to be in accord with the realities of Dr. Carson's operation of his department at Hopkins. We were personally able to observe the operations there when the saved the life of one of our sons when our local hospital had the decency to recognize that they were over their heads. The description of running programs there as managing two nurses is extremely misleading.

46 posted on 09/21/2015 7:42:51 AM PDT by AmericanVictory (Should we be more like them or they more like we used to be?)
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To: CutePuppy

Noted that all the pro Fiorina posts you listed are yours. As you are free to post your interpretation so are those of us who would never consider her. But thanks for sharing. And I really enjoyed your page stating “ male from birth”. It brought a genuine smile ‘cause today one never knows.


47 posted on 09/21/2015 8:01:08 AM PDT by nclaurel
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To: CutePuppy

And yet ‘Dumber than a Box of Rocks’ Boxer UTTERLY destroyed Fiorina with a few HP ads which Fiorina had NO answers for........we won’t even bring up HP sales to then sanctioned Iran because “What difference, at this point, does it make?”. Ya, she’d do well against whomever the Dims put up. Let’s hope Boxer doesn’t enter the race!!


48 posted on 09/21/2015 8:06:23 AM PDT by yadent
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To: yadent; nclaurel
And yet ‘Dumber than a Box of Rocks’ Boxer UTTERLY destroyed Fiorina with a few HP ads...

You don't have to be smart to win a statewide race in California, you just have to have a (D) after your name. Look at their legislature, Governor Moonbeam etc., so what Boxer was doing or what Fiorina was doing made no difference.

To draw any inference about nationwide race from California elections is a non sequitur and deliberate exercise in futility and confirmation bias.

...we won’t even bring up HP sales to then sanctioned Iran...

When a company sells a product to a contractor / reseller, which sells to another reseller which sells to another reseller which sells to Iran, I don't know how the company can prevent that (which is why sanctions for common, non-military, non-strategic goods, e.g., printer ink, are not 100% "enforceable") — it's not exactly the same as direct sales to then sanctioned Iran.

We don't need to make stuff up or rely on silly, weak liberal arguments to like or dislike a candidate. Really, we can just do it for a whole lot of other reasons, like voice or "persona" or... just because.

Noted that all the pro Fiorina posts you listed are yours.

Yes, of course they are, because I presented in them the facts that were distorted or omitted from the same rehashed and propagated hit opinion pieces or articles by the same people at Fortune or NYT. These facts change things rather dramatically, and should change the perceptions of the unbiased people who until then / now were only relying on the liberal opinions, which are posted over and over on FR, with very little counter or factual content. Especially when so many people seem not well versed in relationships between business, stock market, layoffs, bankruptcies, boards and executives, policy time lag, etc. etc.

We can interpret facts any way we want, but isn't knowing the facts important anymore, even in the election silly season?

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please" - Mark Twain

"You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts" - Bernard Baruch

"If facts conflict with a theory, either the theory must be changed or the facts" - Baruch Spinoza



49 posted on 09/21/2015 10:03:04 AM PDT by CutePuppy (If you don't ask the right questions you may not get the right answers)
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To: CutePuppy

Yep you like her I don’t for many reasons among them, loss of retirement invested in HP as well as her amnesty views and her high regard for the Islamic civilization. Too much baggage on her and too little personality that I want to see for 4 or 8 years. We can at least agree that we disagree and none of your posts will change that!


50 posted on 09/21/2015 10:45:30 AM PDT by nclaurel
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To: CutePuppy

In 2010 the R’s did fairly well nationwide. Fiorina was VERY competitive with Boxer, running essentially even with her UNTIL the HP ads ran. Fiorina was akin to that deer in the headlights with absolutely NO effective counter to those ads. I was living in CA at the time and saw first hand her implosion. If you think that those same ads or similar ads run nationwide won’t have an effect on the sheep, you’re delusional. As for the Iran situation, what did Fiorina know and when did she know it. I do’t know and neither do you. Fiorina has used Hillary’s sometimes excuse of ‘I didn’t know’. I won’t give Hillary a pass and neither will I give Fiorina a pass. An addendum, as a CA resident, when Fiorina was a Senate candidate, I was able to ascertain her politics fairly well. From climate ‘change’ to immigration, she is essentially a female Jeb Bush. I didn’t vote for her then and won’t now. She is one of the poster kids for what is wrong with the GOP.


51 posted on 09/21/2015 11:57:45 AM PDT by yadent
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To: Paladin2

I have no idea about anything you just said.


52 posted on 09/21/2015 6:43:47 PM PDT by wastedyears (Iron Maiden's new album is majestic.)
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To: wastedyears
I've built PCs for myself and for my kids when they were in undergraduate school (years back now).

It's the ol' skool American way.

Now I'm trying out an alternative to upgrading to Win8/Win10; Linux as the operating system with way to run a Windows virtual computer as a window in Linux to be able to use old favourite windows software. It's going well enough to see that for desktop PCs, Linux is the way of freedom and the way to keep the computer personal.

53 posted on 09/21/2015 6:52:12 PM PDT by Paladin2 (u)
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To: Paladin2

I don’t think I could use another OS that can’t look like the Windows UI. I’ve been using Windows since Win 95; it’s all I’m used to.

As far as PCs, I built my own gaming-capable PC for around $550 - AMD is the way to go for budget builds.

My friend has told me about multi-OS systems. Far too complicated for me. I’m talking about Linux, Windows and iOS.


54 posted on 09/21/2015 7:51:01 PM PDT by wastedyears (Iron Maiden's new album is majestic.)
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To: wastedyears

The Mint Linux UI is very comfortable for me as a long time Windows user.


55 posted on 09/22/2015 5:06:11 AM PDT by Paladin2 (u)
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