Carly Fiorina
It has been interesting to read the press stories on the fall of Carly Fiorina at Hewlett Packard. For several years the business writers had written about how she was the perfect CEO for HP, now they are explaining in great detail how she failed.
I see many similarities to John Sculley who was regarded as the answer to Apple Computer's prayers when he became CEO of Apple, then failed miserably. Carly and John Sculley both brought a strong business background to a highly technical company. Both emphasized marketing. Neither deeply understood the technology. Both drove the best technical people out of the company.
Apple was saved from near death by Steve Jobs who rejoined the company to lead the development of one innovative product after another. Apple is now on a roll and beginning to eat Microsoft's and Dell's lunch.
The essence of the situation was explained to me years ago by my grandfather. He was Chief Engineer of Chevrolet in the 1920s and 1930s when the automobile industry was the high tech growth industry of the United States. He told me that the marketing department always said that Chevrolet should build what people wanted. He always replied, "How do they know what they want until we show them what we can give them?"
posted by James Moule @ 10:29 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Your grandfather's advise is still good in today's corporate world. Building a brand requires creating a need. The marketing visionaries always prove this to be the case and defy the rules sometimes to achieve it. Steve Jobs is doing exactly what Dell and MS thought he would never do, rightly proving their own arrogance. Jobs is creating a brand with iPod technology that neither of the other two companies embraced initially...but they will now. It's the Swiss watch paradigm philosophy all over again when Seiko came in and "took over the brand" (the Swiss quartz movement which was rejected by Swiss manufacturers in 1967) that represented a new paradigm shift the Swiss would not embrace. Joel Arthur Barker was right back in the early 1990's. But cycles have a tendency to repeat themselves with old thinking not open to change.
Forgot to log in...that was the Sage you just heard from. Sorry, I had to enter the room again. The conversation is too good around here to stay away from. Dave in Indianapolis.
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