HP's communication failed, not Fiorina
Today's Boston Globe has an article (as does almost every other newspaper) on the ousting of Carly Fiorina from her job as CEO and Chairman of Hewlett Packard. But what I found most telling was not anything about Carly (whom I met at a dinner a few years ago and found to be extremely capable and persuasive), but was a comment made by board member Patricia Dunn:
Who talks like that? This is exactly the type of communication that used to come out of HP before Carly arrived, and I'm sad to say it hasn't changed. Is it any wonder investors, business partners, and customers might feel unsure about doing business with HP? Those two simple sentences don't convey strength and unity of purpose; instead, their passive nature makes HP sound vague and wants to avoid accountability.
Dunn should have said something like more like this:
These active statements are much stronger (and more quotable), even though they mean the same thing. Objectively, the first quote has a Flesch readability score of 65; the second scores 78, meaning it is understandable by a much wider ranger of listeners.
Just one more point on the HP story. Most of the articles noted that HP's stock price has declined since 1999 when Fiorina took office and point to that as one of the reasons she was ousted. I'll point out that one other high-tech company has had even worse performance in their stock during the same period and they aren't getting rid of their CEO or their Chairman. That company is Microsoft.
You can see the proof of that statement at CNET.
''This is not a change related to strategy," said Dunn. ''It is a change related to the desire to accelerate that strategy."
Who talks like that? This is exactly the type of communication that used to come out of HP before Carly arrived, and I'm sad to say it hasn't changed. Is it any wonder investors, business partners, and customers might feel unsure about doing business with HP? Those two simple sentences don't convey strength and unity of purpose; instead, their passive nature makes HP sound vague and wants to avoid accountability.
Dunn should have said something like more like this:
''We aren't changing our strategy," said Dunn. ''We simply want it to go faster."
These active statements are much stronger (and more quotable), even though they mean the same thing. Objectively, the first quote has a Flesch readability score of 65; the second scores 78, meaning it is understandable by a much wider ranger of listeners.
Just one more point on the HP story. Most of the articles noted that HP's stock price has declined since 1999 when Fiorina took office and point to that as one of the reasons she was ousted. I'll point out that one other high-tech company has had even worse performance in their stock during the same period and they aren't getting rid of their CEO or their Chairman. That company is Microsoft.
You can see the proof of that statement at CNET.
posted by Carl Howe at
7:51 AM
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