Fiorina promotes McCain as tech-savvy

Candidate John McCain once described himself as a computer illiterate. Yet the former CEO and chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard is touting his tech-savvy? What gives, you may be asking yourself...

There are so many sharp, intelligent businesswomen out there.

It's interesting that the McCain campaign would welcome the putative help of Carly Fiorina -- maybe it's because candidate McCain really is as ignorant of business and business issues as he claimed earlier this campaign.

Carly Fiorina is certainly one of the most visible businesswomen in recent memory -- but for all the wrong reasons. [See the backgrounder quote from Wikipedia below.] She was seen as arrogant and incompetent by many who worked with her and most who were forced to clean up the wreckage at Lucent and, notably, at Hewlett-Packard, where she was, in essence, fired by the board of directors.

So it's especially notable not so much that Fiorina has embraced McCain -- she is, after all, a contributor for the Fox Business Network -- but that the McCain campaign -- clueless once again -- has embraced her.

The LA Times reports:

Fiorina was touting McCain's new economic program during a breakfast with journalists sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. She has become such an ardent and visible supporter of McCain that her name has appeared frequently on the list of McCain's possible vice presidential choices. While that may be a long shot given her lack of government experience, others have talked up Fiorina as a potential Commerce secretary should McCain win the presidency.

Reporters couldn't let Fiorina go without pressing her on the veep question asking her if a business person who has never held elective office or a government post would be an appropriate choice to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Fiorina showed that she's getting the hang of the politics game. She artfully sidestepped the question of any future role for herself at the top of the Republican ticket ("John McCain's going to have a lot of highly qualified people to choose from," she said.) while at the same time making a subtle case for herself. Fiorina cited the governmental experience she has gained since leaving HP in 2005, including co-chairing a women's initiative (PDF download) at the State Department and serving on the external advisory board for the Central Intelligence Agency.

From Wikipedia, a backgrounder on Fiorina's most visible business tenure:

Hewlett-Packard Company (1999-2005)

Fiorina joined Hewlett-Packard Company on July 19, 1999 as CEO, succeeding Lewis Platt.^[13] She was not involved in the decision to spin-off Agilent Technologies but she presided over the process of implementing this decision. She often referred to her efforts as an attempt to "Reinvent HP." During the general business downturn in 2001, Fiorina opted for 7,000 layoffs.^[14]

Throughout her career at HP, Fiorina was a very visible CEO. Her business travel included interactions with Hollywood entertainers and politicians. Her actions prompted the San Jose Mercury News to speculate that she might later run for election to public office.

In 2001 she was named one of the 30 most powerful women in America by Forbes Magazine.

Compaq merger

In 2002, in the wake of the bursting of the Tech Bubble, Fiorina proposed a controversial merger with arch-rival Compaq. She campaigned for this plan, and it was implemented despite public clashes with board member Walter Hewlett^[15] -- the son of HP co-founder William Hewlett. The merger temporarily put HP in the top spot in the personal computer industry (ahead of Dell Computer Corp). After the merger, quarterly results were inconsistent and the share price stayed stagnant. HP also saw an exodus of top managerial talent, mostly from the Compaq side, including Michael Capellas, Jeff Clarke, Mary McDowell, and the forced resignation of Peter Blackmore. HP's services business continued to lose market share to IBM, and HP had to over-rely on its always-lucrative printer division to hold onto overall profitability.^{[citation needed]}

On January 7, 2004, at a meeting with U.S. Congresspeople, Fiorina said, "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore. We have to compete for jobs as a nation."^[16][17][18] Her statements angered Bay Area workers who felt that lower wages overseas encouraged U.S. corporations to use less-qualified, offshore workers, instead of better-qualified American ones.^[19] Fiorina responded to this criticism by publishing a clarifying op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal.^[20]

Fiorina was named in the Time 100 for 2004.^[21]

Departure

As HP's performance slowed, the Board of Directors became increasingly concerned. In early January 2005, the HP Board of Directors presented Fiorina with a four-page list of issues the board had with Fiorina's performance.^[22] A week after the meeting, the plan was leaked to the Wall Street Journal.^[23] The board proposed a plan to shift her authority to HP division heads, which Fiorina resisted.^[24]

On 9 February 2005, Carly Fiorina was dismissed as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Hewlett-Packard. "While I regret that the board and I have differences about how to execute HP's strategy, I respect their decision," Fiorina said in a statement. "HP is a great company and I wish all the people of HP much success in the future." She was replaced by Patricia C. Dunn as Chairman, and then-C.F.O. Robert Wayman as C.E.O.^[25] Hewlett-Packard's stock jumped 7% on news of her departure.^[26]

Under Hewlett-Packard's severance agreement, Carly Fiorina received US $21 million in cash, which was 2.5 times her base annual salary.^[27] On March 8, 2006, two large institutional investors filed suit against Hewlett-Packard for violating its own severance cap when it doled out a multimillion-dollar payment to Fiorina as part of her termination agreement.^[28]

After her departure from Hewlett-Packard in 2005, the company quickly prospered, overtaking Dell as the top-selling computer maker in the world. Her defenders, as well as some critics, credit her with laying the foundations for that prosperity.^[29][30]

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One guesses that the McCain campaign couldn't figure out how to Google Fiorina's name when they received her offer to "help"...