HP Forum Archive 11

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New book I found. Message #1 Posted by Speck on 8 Apr 2003, 11:32 p.m. Hi, everyone. I just found a book at the library titled, "Perfect Enough." It's about the rebirth of HP under Carly Fiorina. I'm on page 42, and have been enjoying the info on the birth of HP. However, I'm wondering if anyone has seen/read this book, and is it worth my time to continue reading it? If no one knows about it, I can post my thoughts about it when I finish, if anyone's interested. Not trying to turn this into a book club or anything. I only picked it up because of my interest in HP. Any thoughts? Speck.

Re: New book I found. Message #2 Posted by Tom (UK) on 9 Apr 2003, 2:43 p.m., in response to message #1 by Speck With Carly only taking over recently no book can realy give a good account of HP's rebirth - it's far too early to tell what effects she has had. (e.g. the jury on the Compaq deal is still out). I'd guess you'd have to wait 10 years before you can tell the true effect of a new company boss. Who is it written by? - i.e. could it be someone who wants to support one possition or another or do they want to (re)write 'history' to favor one person or another?

Re: New book I found. Message #3 Posted by Ron Ross on 9 Apr 2003, 3:18 p.m., in response to message #2 by Tom (UK) I briefly skimmed this book this weekend. It seemed to me the author had a love affair with Carly. The book was full of BS as far as I read (but I am slightly biased), I gagged on it myself. As Tom (UK) stated, the verdict is really still out as to how good Carly really is. But My Hp stock is in the toilet and I am an indirect causilty of her 15,000 person employee cut. As I stated in an Email to an Hp excutive, "If you buy out and take over the other company (Compaq) shouldn't you get to keep you PC and pocket PC lines instead of having to take theirs?" That was my feeling then, I felt that if Compaq were to keep their palmtop division, they could not afford the internal competetion from any potentential competetion ie palmtop and calculator manufactoring inside HP.

Response to Tom and Ron Message #4 Posted by Speck on 9 Apr 2003, 5:37 p.m., in response to message #3 by Ron Ross I think the thing that scares me most about this whole thing is that Ms. Fiorina came from Lucent Tech., and look at what happened to them after she left. I can't say that their problems are a result of anything she's done, but it's an avenue that can't be overlooked, either. Tom, You asked about the author. His name is George Anders. He is listed as a Stanford graduate, and is the senior editor of Fast Company magazine (first I've heard of it). ISBN 1-59184-003-1, if you want to look for it. And I have to agree, it does seem a bit premature, but the book is out there nonetheless, and deserves analysis. Ron, Sorry to hear of your misfortune with HP. It must be frustrating to watch all of this. And thank you for the obeservation: I had failed to notice that the Journadas seem to have completely disappeared (I don't tend to follow the handheld computer market much; my 49G is getting me by). A shame, too, because it always seemed to me that with a name like iPAQ, Compaq was just trying to cash in on some of the successes of Apple Computer. It made me suspicious of their quality. It just seemed a cheesy thing to call a handheld device. Guess they solved the "internal competition" issue, though, albiet in a less-than-favorable way.

history is written by the winners Message #5 Posted by db(martinez,california) on 9 Apr 2003, 5:51 p.m., in response to message #4 by Speck or in this case, the wieners.

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