Palin bucks the tea parties, endorses Carly Fiorina (DeVore spokesman responds)

If you are intellectually honest you will readily observe that during her tenure, all four measures went down."

The indexes you note, IBM, DJIA, and NASDAQ are hardly useful for comparison sake. IBM was a struggling dinosaur. DJIA and NASDAQ are not competing companies - they are of course not companies at all. DJIA and NASDAQ may be an indicator of general market conditions, but drops in the indexes are merely excuses for companies that can not compete in a toughening industry.

Dell is a more appropriate comparison - I am sure you have their numbers as well for the same period.

The numbers that are most supportive of the "Fiorina ruined HP" claim are the stock prices during her tenure. Someone as fixed on numbers performance as she was could not even keep them up in a short 5 year run. I don't subscribe to the "everything in the short term" management philosophy so maybe I am not the one to be critical of her on this point. But, if short term numbers were her focus, she never achieved any of them.

While I was not there in person, what I have read about her management attitude surely turned a successful company on its head by replacing employee drive and encouragement with a club and threats. I am familiar with that business management philosophy. Never have I seen a company using it live up to its potential.

Thanks for your replies.

I worked in a major corporation, which underwent mergers, acquisitions, management changes and some cultural shocks.

It is commonly claimed that she damaged HP, but I have not seen convincing proof of that.

All I have of the proof that she damaged HP is what I've read. She first came to my attention with a flattering Forbes article years ago that I saw as unbelievable. I am a skeptic.

On your experience at major corporations going through mergers, acquisitions and management changes, you certainly have basis to question charges against Fiorina. I'm sure you have very good perspective on the culture of large corporations. That experience cannot be discounted in this discussion.

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