FALL 2006
VOL. 8 NO. 1

Subscribe to the print version. It's free!

Carly Fiorina, MBA’80, is arguably one of the Smith School’s most influential graduates, but she almost didn’t make it here at all. Her application to the MBA program was rejected at first. But Fiorina didn’t let a rejection stop her. She had to do some swift talking to convince the Professor Emeritus Ed Locke, then head of the admissions committee, to take her in, but take her in he did.

Carly Fiorina’s New Memoir Tops Must-Read List at Smith School “I started out as a secretary, and success was never obvious,” said Carly Fiorina, former CEO of HP and author of the new book Tough Choices: A Memoir at a book signing and Robert H. Smith School of Business alumni networking event on November 13, 2006. “I wanted to tell the story of business the way I experienced it. I wrote it myself because I wanted it to be authentic,” she said, explaining that she didn’t use a ghostwriter or co-writer. The book is on the New York Times Best-Seller List. ►Read More

That kind of determination shaped every corporate success that would follow in a truly extraordinary career. Fiorina spent nearly 20 years with AT&T and Lucent Technologies, where she held a number of senior leadership positions and directed Lucent’s initial public offering and subsequent spin-off from AT&T. From there she went on to lead Hewlett-Packard, the venerable “Gray Lady of Silicon Valley,” as its chairman and CEO, becoming one of the most powerful executives in America.

Fiorina plunged into the challenge of revitalizing HP. “By the late 90s HP had fallen badly behind. The company had missed nine quarters in a row in the middle of the biggest technology upturn in history, and was not even in the top 25 innovators in the world,” explains Fiorina. “Then in 2000 and 2001, the global economy had slowed to a crawl and it was clear that there were structural changes occurring in the technology industry, not simply a cyclical downturn. We acquired Compaq to give HP the opportunity to control its own destiny, to master change—to lead in the 21st century, rather than be a laggard.”

The controversial merger of HP with Compaq Computer Corp., led by Fiorina, is now widely regarded as the most successful high-tech merger in history. But many within the company were threatened by the changes she was making and put off by her leadership style; this caused a furious backlash by some within HP. She was fired from the company in 2005.

HP’s fortunes have changed dramatically in the past year, and it’s now clear that the course she set during her tenure as its CEO was the right medicine for the faltering company, no matter how bitter it tasted at the time. Determination propelled Fiorina to the top of the corporate ladder, but this kind of vision and foresight are what keep her front-and-center at the intersection of business and technology.

Smith Business sat down with Fiorina on a busy Monday just an hour before she was scheduled to give the keynote address at graduation. In the midst of myriad distractions— from the bobbing boom mike of a national television crew to the popping flash bulbs of a still photographer—the Smith grad reflected on her career, leadership, sexism, technology, globalization, and her days at the Smith School.

Digital, Mobile, Virtual, and Personal
When Fiorina graduated from the Smith School, the fax machine had yet to be invented. Today it would require surgery to detach a college student from his or her cell phone. Fiorina understands the way technology is reshaping our world, and she believes we are at the cusp of an era that will last for some time: an era dominated by the power of the individual, driven by technology that is “digital, mobile, virtual, and personal.”

And companies that do not seize the advantages offered by technology will inevitably fail, says Fiorina. “Everything I know after 25 years in business and technology tells me that business models that resist technology will ultimately fail, and business models that resist individual human beings’ desire for more power and control over their own lives ultimately fail as well,” said Fiorina. “And everything I know after 25 years tells me that those who do not seek to master change are eventually swallowed by it.”

Fiorina believes that mental power—brain power—is the engine that will drive business success in the 21st century. “We say all the time people are our most important asset, but companies need to invest in leadership development the same way they invest in physical plant,” says Fiorina. Getting and keeping the best and brightest minds—the ones that create change and harness innovation—must be a key concern for businesses in this digital economy.

When thinking about the nation’s public policy, Fiorina also thinks in terms of mental power. Take immigration policy: in the last 15 years three billion people have joined the world economy. “If even a tenth of those people are educated and motivated, that means 300 million new people outside the United States are trying to compete in the global economy,” says Fiorina. “We’re not going to win through sheer force of numbers. In order for America to remain competitive, ideas and mental power have to be harnessed.”

Public policy objectives, then, should focus on investing in education and innovation, and immigration policies should focus on attracting and keeping the brightest and most competitive people from around the world. “I’m not sure that those considerations are shaping the debate on immigration or education to the extent it should,” says Fiorina.

This may be because policy makers have yet to truly grapple with the sea changes now taken for granted by the business world. “In many ways our public policy is based on 20th century paradigms,” says Fiorina. “Business, on the other hand, is out at the forefront of change. It has to be.”

Moving Beyond “Our Token Bimbo”
Technology has changed business, but the culture of business has likewise been changed by society’s evolving view of women in the workplace. Early in her career, Fiorina was introduced by her boss as “our token bimbo.” Even as a seasoned, experienced executive, she still found that being a woman set her apart from other top executives in ways that border on the ridiculous. “My hair, my shoes, my clothes, were endlessly discussed. I was routinely referred to as a bimbo, or that other b-word,” she says ruefully.

For many years Fiorina simply didn’t discuss gender issues, choosing instead to be judged on the results she generated. She held the top spot in Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” for six years running, but she felt that the very existence of such a list sidelined women leaders, implying that there was a men’s ladder to success and a women’s ladder, and that women couldn’t compete side-by-side with their male counterparts.

Working in the high-tech field also presented challenges. “When I came to HP, 85 percent of the people I was leading were men,” says Fiorina. “My gender separated me from my employees. So I didn’t want to talk about women’s issues, I wanted to talk about what we had in common—the mission, the company, our business objectives.”

In the effort to move the discussion of her career beyond gender issues, Fiorina has sometimes alienated other women. She once famously said there was no glass ceiling, which some women interpreted as Fiorina saying that barriers didn’t exist. For Fiorina, who has been through many of those barriers herself, the issue was not whether barriers existed but whether or not women chose to acknowledge those barriers. “The most important choice I made as a woman in business is not to be defined by other people’s prejudices, but to be defined by my own sense of possibility, and what I thought I was capable of,” says Fiorina.

While law schools, medical schools, and public policy schools now average a roughly equal male/female enrollment, business schools have a much lower female enrollment, between 25 and 35 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal. (The Smith School has 41 percent women students in the undergraduate program and 34 percent in the graduate program.) And very few of those women go on to achieve elite leadership roles in major companies.

Fiorina thinks perception of competence may play a role. “People look at a man in a job and think that he is capable of doing that job; they look at a woman in the same position and they’re not sure,” says Fiorina. Business also lacks the benchmarks to prove competency that mark other professions. “If you’re a lawyer, you pass the bar; if you’re a physician, you pass certification,” says Fiorina. “In business, you need to produce results, but those results come about through a team effort. I think people sometimes get confused between style and substance. I think we have a long way yet to go to understand that results can be achieved through lots of different styles and isn’t dependent on gender.”

The Making of a Leader
Technology has had profound changes on the business world; it has also had profound changes on business schools. “When I was here at the Smith School we talked about ‘international business;’ no one would do that now!” Fiorina laughs. “Today all business is global business. The pace of business is so different; no business can hide from technology or the global realities.”

Women MBAs at Smith The Smith Association of Women MBAs (SAWMBA), a chapter of the National Association of Women MBAs, has been an important venue for personal support, development and networking for women in the Smith community. SAWMBA sponsors a variety of events throughout the year, including conferences and symposia, resume and interview coaching, golf lessons, and social events.

During her time as a student at Smith, Fiorina was a teaching assistant for Bill Nickels, now professor emeritus of marketing, whom she credits with showing her the power of humor as a teaching tool. “He was like a stand-up comedian in his ability to make you laugh, yet each story or joke he told had an important point, which people remembered because they weren’t falling asleep,” says Fiorina. Nickels also permitted Fiorina to challenge him with knock-down, drag-out debates in the classroom. Fiorina respected Nickels for being the kind of person who would allow students to argue with him, and discovered both that she could hold her own in that kind of exchange and that she and her classmates learned a lot from it.

As a leader, Fiorina found out that she was the kind of person who processed best through debate; she became the person who either instigated debate or caused it. It was a signature part of her management style. “I actually think better when someone is challenging me,” says Fiorina. “It helps me identify soft spots in a plan. Creating an environment where debate can occur takes work; it’s actually easier to have the kind of environment where debate doesn’t occur, but it’s less effective.”

Fiorina is also the kind of person who truly enjoys helping others live up to their potential. She has often spoken of the role Rudy Lamone, former dean of the Smith School and now professor emeritus, played in her early development. “Rudy brought me into the dean’s office to work for him, and he treated me like a peer,” remembers Fiorina. She values the memory of being treated like a peer by a powerful and influential leader, and while she doesn’t care for the term “mentoring,” implying as it does a formalized relationship, she is enthusiastic about informal opportunities to help others grow. Recently she has begun to work with organizations that seek to alleviate global poverty; she is also serving on the boards of several start-up firms—both opportunities to foster human potential in unexpected ways.

These days, Fiorina is busier than ever and spends much of her time traveling for speaking engagements or board meetings. But what she prizes most about her post-HP life is the freedom to do things she’s never done before, like writing a book. Fiorina is the author of Tough Choices: A Memoir, which will be published this fall by Portfolio, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA).

Q&A

What makes a good leader?

A manager’s job is to produce quality results within a known set of conditions and constraints. A leader’s job is to create something new. So the essence of leadership is to master change. The essence of leadership is to make a difference, not maintain the status quo.

Whether it is in business, politics, or leading a family, there are three essential qualities to leadership: character, capability, and collaboration. In some ways character matters more now than ever, because the constraints that keep people on the straight and narrow are easier to break today. Capability is important, but good leaders know what they’re good at and use it. They also know what they’re not so good at, and bolster their weaknesses by surrounding themselves with people who are different from them. A big part of capability is never to stop learning or adapting. Collaboration is all about the reality that nothing really important or difficult happens through individual heroics; everything important happens through team effort.

What’s the best career advice you ever received?

Get all the input you can; get all the advice you can; listen to all the pros and cons; fill yourself up with information and expertise, and then go with your gut.

If I was giving career advice, I would add: Dare to be brave, to define yourself and not be defined by others. Know that there are barriers, but that you achieve as much as you choose.

Why are we hearing about so many legal and ethical lapses in business today?

If you study Enron, which I have, you see a culture that over time was corrupted because there were no clear boundaries about what behavior was permissible and what was not. The ends—in that case, perhaps stock prices—justify any means. Unfortunately, the only way to keep the tone at the top is to make the tough decisions, and that may entail taking people out if they don’t have the character necessary for that job.

What responsibility do business schools have in providing ethical guidance to students?

I think business schools have a huge responsibility…we have become a society where people expect quick fixes, and stock price has become the single most important metric for everything. Unfortunately we tend to reward results, even if they’re being obtained in questionable ways.

Business schools have a responsibility to teach leadership as surely as they teach finance. Some people are born to lead, but most people learn to lead. You can and should teach people how to lead according to their values.

I myself was fired, in part because I wouldn’t sacrifice a principle I felt strongly about. Leadership is all about the tough choices, and they’re frequently the ones made in solitude, because they’re choices only a leader can make.