Ex-HP board member who voted to fire Fiorina endorses her [Tom Perkins]

The Hill ^ | 2015 August 27 | Jesse Byrnes

[CutePuppy]

A former board member of Hewlett-Packard who voted to fire Carly Fiorina as CEO is now endorsing the businesswoman's 2016 Republican presidential campaign.

"Carly did what she was brought in to do: turn the company around and make it successful again. Not only did she save the company from the dire straits it was in, she laid the foundation for HP's future growth," Tom Perkins wrote for a full-page New York Times ad.

The comments, in an advertisement placed in the newspaper's business section Thursday by a pro-Fiorina super-PAC, were framed as a response to an Aug. 18 Times column criticizing Fiorina's business record as "not so sterling."

"Critics often claim Carly was fired at HP because she was unsuccessful. As a member of the board, I can tell you this is not true. In truth, it was the Board I was a part of that was ineffective and dysfunctional," Perkins wrote. He added that his vote to fire her "was a mistake."

"The merger, while controversial, was unanimously approved by every member of the HP Board and won approval from shareholders. Thanks to Carly's leadership there was a path forward for this storied but troubled company," wrote Perkins, a founder of the California venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, in his ad.

Fiorina has repeatedly defended her rocky tenure as CEO of HP during her 2016 campaign.

She is currently tied for seventh in the 17-person GOP field with Ohio Gov. John Kasich in a national Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday.

[Reno89519]

Let me put it this way, who is a credible candidate? Who could I see in the White House? Another Bush, no. Walker, no. Dr. Carson, no. Same with almost all of the others. First off, Clinton would knock over every one of them just as has and will Trump. Second, none are presidential caliber. The only ones I see possible are Trump and Cruz. Cruz has issues and he is not widening his support. He might make a good VP and be a good presidential candidate in the future. I’d love to see him replace McConnell in the Senate. Can you imagine the impact he’d have if he were to do so? And in the future, he’d be my pick for Supreme Court. Right now, Trump has rightfully knocked the air out of everyone and is widening the base and can take on anyone the Democrats might put forward. I cannot see anyone else matching that.

[rdcbn]

Fiorina was executing the business plan the HP board had formulated before she was even hired.

The changes were difficult and painful for the HP old guard to accept and they hated Florina for tearing apart their little slice of nirvana and hated her because the direction of the electronics industry and the end of the Cold War had killed the lucrative HP business model.

For her part, Florina was a polarizing personality who had no qualms about antagonizing HP’s entrenched employees and their vested interests in the status quo that was dragging HP towards bankruptcy.

In the end, the working relationship between Fiorina and vested HP employees and management broke down to the point where it became a issue of entrenched employees and management vs Fiorina.

Fiorina lost but her replacement followed the Fiorina business plan almost to the letter and the company has successfully remade itself.

The same cannot be said for IBM, DEC, SGI, Burrows, Control Data Corp, Cray Research, NCR, Honeywell, Zilog, Rockwell, Commodore, Amdhal, UNIVAC, Scientific Data Systems, SUN microsystems , NeXT, Sperry - Rand and a whole universe of companies that once were but no longer are.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for your post.

I’m not buying what you’re selling, but you’ll probably convinced the already inclined to vote for her.

I never will.

Fiorina to me wreaks of being a fall back position on Jebra for the GOPe.

I won’t be cooperating. She has nothing but here HP position to point to, for success.

FAIL.

Once again, the argument is made the the management team coming in after Fiorina deserves no credit.

I’m simply not going to buy that.

[raj bhatia]

You have to drink a truck load of Koolaid to say Fiorina was a success at HP. To go from Bill Hewlett and David Packard to Carly Fiorina is a fall no company should have to go through. If she can find literally 10 HP employees to say good things about her tenure it would rank an an accomplishment.

[5thGenTexan]

While Fiorina was there, the company lost half it’s value.

This has been addressed multiple times. You are letting the stock analysts she pissed off by not kissing their rings and manipulating results to make them look smart make your Presidential pick.

[quantumman]

“...Trump has rightfully knocked the air out of everyone and is widening the base...” well said. He has Cruz protecting him on the right. He will get a lot of Reagan Dems.

[CutePuppy]

Let me put it this way, who is a credible candidate? ...

I don't see what any of this has to do with Fiorina's true record at HP and Lucent?

Unless you are saying that her record of success at HP would be a game-changer, so for Trump to be the "one and only," it is necessary that this "very nice woman" has to be dirtied up by spreading and having others to believe the lies about her "failure" and the "terrible job at Hewlett-Packard"?

Why is knowing the real executive / business record of Fiorina such a threat? Is it to distract and divert attention from that DJT stock chart that shows his management to be a dismal failure, in absolute terms and in comparison with just about any CEO in that industry or many other CEOs in other industries, including Fiorina, over the same period of time?

That's like liberals having to convince people of man-made global warming, or their entire agenda would fall apart?

Donald Trump's "magic" for everyone to see, in his own words: "The final key to the way I promote," he wrote, "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."

[Reno89519]

Bottom line is that Fiorina was FIRED. And, IMHO, rightly so. She cost friends their jobs, she cost my company tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. She will NEVER get my vote, nor my support. Working in the IT arena, I find this a fairly universally shared opinion.

And Trump, he readily admits that he's bankrupted individual companies. That is normal business. If I recall correctly, even the Bush family has. It is business, not personal. As some of this dealt with casinos, deftly blaming Chris Christie for it.

But, again, do we want a FIRED Fiorina, twice losing political campaigns, or do with want a business builder like Trump. Trump wins this hands down.

[entropy12]

Really/ THIS Carly? On live video?
Are you for real?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO6Bdt7mbVY&info=FiorinaSupportsCapTrade

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/heres-audio-and-video-of-carly-fiorinas-forceful-praise-of-h#.xmDrKGM6a5

[Chgogal]

BTTT

Another candidate who is willing to throw the knock out punch.

[entropy12]

Carly who wants Cap & Trade tax? Really? And a McCain shill to boot? Carly in her own words on video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO6Bdt7mbVY&info=FiorinaSupportsCapTrade

Carly loved Hillary before, now she hates Hillary!
Really! Do not take my word, watch this short video of Crly mouthing her own words on camera!!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/heres-audio-and-video-of-carly-fiorinas-forceful-praise-of-h#.xmDrKGM6a5

[Chgogal]

While Fiorina was there, the company lost half it’s value.

Fiorina started with HP in 1999. The Dot Com bubble burst April, 2000. NASDAQ was at 5000 then. It took 15 years for the NASDAQ to hit 5000 again.

There is a FReeper here who worked at HP during her tenure. He/She has only good things to say about her. Wish I took down his/her handle.

[Chgogal]

Well at least McCain/she didn't want to destroy the coal industry. The video was only half a minute.

“I have said numerous times, I disagree politically with Hillary, but I also have great admiration for Hillary Clinton,” declared Fiorina. “Her run for the presidency was historic. She was a great candidate. She has helped millions of women all over this country. Women of any political party owe a debt of gratitude to Hillary Clinton and I will bet that every woman up here agrees with me.”

I hate Hillary, but I am not going to piss on Fiorina because of the above.

[CutePuppy]

Bottom line is that Fiorina was FIRED.

That's what this original post and several links have covered... or at least were supposed to. BTW, you understand that The Donald was also FIRED, several times, when his companies went bankrupt? Please read the links in first post, if you need explanation.

She cost friends their jobs, she cost my company tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So it's "personal"?

... he's bankrupted individual companies. That is normal business. ... It is business, not personal.

Let's see if I understand this right — bankruptcies don't "cost" anybody anything, unless they happen "personally" to you or your friends or your company, it's just "normal business as usual"?

You do realize now that your post makes no actual sense? Please search for the term "confirmation bias" — it seems very applicable to the condition that is afflicting quite a few people on FR, particularly during the periods of elections.

[setha]

That alone wouldn’t be a problem aside from her advocacy of H1-b’s and having a somewhat hostile attitude towards HP’s remaining US engineers.

[DoughtyOne]

Oh, okay. Hey I didn’t get it until you explained that people losing half the value of their investments was a good thing. Now it makes sense. /s

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you for the mention.

[5thGenTexan]

Never said it was good - said the stock price drop was due to an agenda by analysts whose sole value is maintained by rewarding and punishing companies on the basis of whether the company made the analysts' expectations look right or not.

But you keep listening to those guys for your Presidential picks. I am sure they have your best interests at heart.

[enumerated]

I like how ballsy Fiorina sounds in her stump speeches and she is very articulate and quick on her feet in interviews. In 1976 and 1980 (only times I've ever really been excited about a candidate) I don't think I cared about Ronald Reagan's past qualifications as much as just what he was saying and whether I believed him, and how good he was at making the case for conservatism. Of course, I'm not saying Carly Fiorina is a Reagan, just saying that if she or Trump in their past careers have fired a lot of people or made brutal budget cuts or unpopular decisions that pissed a lot of people off, that doesn't turn me off. I care about limiting the federal government to the roles intended by the Founding Fathers. My fantasy president will somehow restore us to that - I don't know if it's even possible - but if it did happen, the federal government would be about a tenth the size, a ton of government people would be fired and entire departments - gone. Most government services and distributions, grants, subsidies, etc. - eliminated. Regulations that protect lobbies against competition - gone. Federal Reserve - gone. My point is that a lot of powerful people would have their ox gored and my fantasy president wouldn't be popular, wouldn't get his bust on Mount Everest. History would mark that president a failure, citing the retraction of the size, power and influence and redistributive generosity of the federal government as evidence of his failure.

I think the willingness to make enemies and to be scorned by redistributionist liberals and entrenched crony capitalists - is a feature we need right now - I see it in both Trump and Fiorina more than I see it in the career politicians.