Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard

"Peter Burrows has written a fascinating account of the largest high-tech merger and proxy fight of all time. Riveting stories about Carly Fiorina, Walter Hewlett, and the melodrama in the HP corporate boardroom make this book a great read as well as an object lesson in corporate governance and corporate change."
-David B. Yoffie
Starr Professor of International Business Administration, Harvard Business School
author, Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors Strength to Your Advantage

"Carly Fiorinas story as told by Burrows illustrates well the timeless role of leaders: to help organizations work through necessary but painful changes that dont happen naturally."
-Robert Burgelman
Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business
coauthor, Strategy Is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Companys Future

"A well-researched view inside the controversial management transition at HP. The personality-dominated decision-making process at HP shows us how the power of personalities can override and reshape business legacies. Backfire has all the makings of a modern historical novel."
-Regis McKenna
author, Total Access and Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customer

"At a time when corporate governance was a most important issue in American business, the merger of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq produced a proxy battle that should have embarrassed everyone involved. Backfire tells the story in all its gory detail. It is must reading for investors, executives, and anyone who cares about corporate governance."
-Roger McNamee
cofounder, Integral Capital Partners and Silver Lake Partners

The clear implication here is that Walter Hewlett was absolutely correct in opposing this merger, since the result clearly is that 20 billion dollars was completely wasted, and precious time is still being lost on ineffective strategies to revive these businesses. With the benefit of hindsight we can say that Walter Hewlett should have been given more credit than he received, even from Burrows, for opposing this capital and job destruction, even in the face of Fiorina's personal attacks.

This book should have pointed out that these at-risk businesses can still be saved, particularly the server and server-related businesses, with the appointment of proper management by the Board of Directors. What they need to be looking for this time is not someone whose picture has been on the cover of "Fortune" magazine, as was Carly's before she was hired, but someone with the knowledge and interest in saving HP. Carly not only does not have the engineering expertise, she simply creates the impression that she has no interest in HP's existing businesses, even printing, which she has left to wither on the vine in a new investment sense.

HP has had a computer server business for over 25 years. It is a big market, roughly 50 billion yearly and rising. HP has 27%, but has failed to gain any share at all from the collapse of Sun Microsystems. Instead, customers are transfering to IBM and Dell, which should be a big wake-up call for the Board. Dell Computer is number one in market position for the key Linux server business, perhaps because of HP's totally insular and uninformed approach to this market. A lot of hard work by HP employees went into building a formerly successful server business, it is senseless to discard this potentially excellent business because Carly is more interested in trying to sell MP3s at Starbucks, something that will never generate much profit.

I would have liked to have seen a clear statement in this book that if in the summer of 2004 if HP's non-printer businesses are still worth zero, that the HP Board of Directors needs hire a new CEO. Doubtless they prefer to have a charming dialogue with Carly about her boneheaded hipster ideas involving HP products in Starbucks rather than argue with some computer nerd about computer enterprise/service-provider product investments, but I would argue that being true to their responsibilities requires that they do the later, whether they like it or not. It would have been good for Burrows' book to say so.


He didn't have to drink the kool aid   February 20, 2003
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

In addition to being a compelling, insightful account of the merger announcement and ensuing proxy fight, Backfire gives a wonderful glimpse into the heart and soul of the most powerful woman in American business. Especially when it comes to the Lucent anecdotes and the revealing moments after she first arrived at HP, Burrows provides a rich tapestry of insight and examples that allow you to truly get your mind around (and inside) what makes Carly tick.
With a wealth of interview material to draw from obtained prior to the HP's decision to freeze him out, what this tome does without compromise is maintain its sense of impartial perspective -- a never wavering eye on the events of the past and present. No deal had to be struck and no compromises made in order to deliver this saga, and it is far more fascinating, honest, and revealing without those concessions.


Burrows Gets it Right   February 18, 2003
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

This is a great book and an easy read. Burrows makes you feel like he is sitting across from you as he discusses the merger, the HP Way, Carly and Walter Hewlett's motivations. He clearly brings recognition to the HP Way and how it made HP a great company, and the dangers involved in destroying HP's identity by merging with Compaq. Why would a company with a suffering PC division want to buy a PC giant that was suffering even more, in a market where consumers have stopped buying PC's? "Two garbage trucks colliding". And yet Burrows gives credence to Carly's abilities and talent and clearly offers both sides of the story.

The best part of this book is the general business understanding it offers of mergers gone wrong. This is a prime example and well portrayed.


Better than fiction   February 29, 2008
Romina Wilcox (Silicon Valley Author)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This book gives us a better insight on what's going on at "the top." Oh, those company layoffs. I am just glad to have survived many of them. Even just a rumor of them is sure to diminished one's morale. But now I know why they have to happen.

I admire Fiorina's toughness, poised and confidence. BUT....It breaks my heart to find out the ridicules and bad treatment that Hewlett received. Come on, he is Hewlett!

Here is a scene where Hewlett arrived with Neal at Steve Schatz office for his deposition.

Steve Schatz, a former government prosecutor, wanted to prove that Hewlett wasn't the Jimmy Stewart character the press had made him out to be. ... Schatz let Hewlett know how he felt about him immediately, apologizing that the deposition was starting a few minutes late. "I hope you won't think that I had some nefarious rationale for it starting a few minutes late," he said, a clear reference to Hewlett's claim that HP delayed the start of the shareholder vote so it could lean on Deutsche Bank. From there Schatz didn't hold back.

At one point, HIS FACE INCHES AWAY FROM HEWLETT AND HIS FINGER JABBING THE AIR, Schatz asked: "Are you aware that your complaint accuses Hewlett-Packard of lying?" according to Hewlett and Steve Neal. The session was rife with mutual disdain, disrespect, and rudeness. Schatz fired away, and reloaded every few seconds. Schatz denied anything inappropriate.

Read this book. It's better than fiction.

Romina Wilcox, Author of Cold Eyes