Abstract

HP saw a decline in its business growth during the late nineties for various reasons. To revive its fortunes, the company appointed Carly Fiorina (Fiorina), who had had a successful stint at Lucent Technologies, as president and CEO. The caselet examines the steps taken by Fiorina to revive HP’s business and the changes made to the organization, pay structure, etc. The caselet focuses on her leadership style. It also describes Fiorina’s role in the famous HP-Compaq merger and how the merger led to her downfall at HP. Finally, the caselet takes a look at Fiorina’s leadership from the employees’ point of view.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Impact of leadership styles
• Approach to revamping organizational culture
• and Importance of restructuring organization for growth.

Keywords

Carly Fiorina, Hewlett Packard (HP), Culture, The HP Way, Invent, Organization Structure, Cost Cutting, R&D, Compensation, Centralized, Shareholders, HP-Compaq Merger