“Best corporate culture” in the sense that it was paternalistic and protected the losers. I lived in Santa Rosa and knew many people who worked there, and I worked for a subcontractor that supplied services to their headquarters. Even there, the problems were obvious.
The brand quality had nearly collapsed and if Fiorina hadn’t cut out the dead wood and bought Compaq, the company wouldn’t exist today.
What she had was a bad board, and they fired her because they were being challenged to bring their company back to innovation, competitivity and profitability. Isn’t this what good conservatives want, somebody who challenges a bad board?
Seriously?
See
http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/05/25/can-meg-whitman-and-layoffs-turn-around-hp-nope/
Written in 2012 with no political considerations.
Simply, Carly Fiorina took a company long on innovation and new product development and turned it into the most outdated industrial-era sort of company. Rather than having HP pursue new technologies and products in the development of new markets, like the company had done since its founding creating the market for electronic testing equipment, she plunged HP into a generic manufacturing war.
No, “best corporate culture” in terms of making the workplace an enjoyable place to be, no layoffs, very high morale, disdain for reviews and punishment, and big benes enough to attract and keep the cream of the crop from around the world. I grew up in Palo Alto and saw first hand how Dave and Bill carefully created a company, not for the next quarter, but for the next generation. The value of their culture was genuine. Fiorina had no regard for that culture but obviously put her own career first.