Yesterday’s abrupt news that Carly Fiorina was ousted as CEO of H-P got me to thinking… should Carly have had a blog? BTW, the link on Carly’s name goes to the bio page on H-P’s site where the copy has already been changed to “Former Chairman and CEO.” Don’t write off the blogging idea as ridiculous. Consider…
An Internal Blog
If Carly had had an internal blog (i.e. behind H-P’s firewall and not for public viewing), she might have been able to warm up her apparently chilly and/or distant relationship with many H-P employees. Maybe she could have reestablished some of the collegiality that defined H-P’s culture not so long ago. She might have titled her internal blog “Dateline Carly…” and doled out choice anecdotes about her constant travelling. Maybe she could have blogged about how wonderful it was to fly on the corporate jet and how much she appreciated it. I bet they had great snacks on the plane. Did she have a real bed? She might have shown a photo of it. People *love* this kind of thing… particularly if it’s divulged by a celebrity. And it’s pretty harmless info.
An External Blog
Even more daring… suppose Carly had blogged publicly, like Jonathan Schwartz of Sun. Would her every word have been parsed by Wall Street’s analysts, the media and her competitors… Making it virtually impossible for her to write authentically? Possibly. But imagine if she could have been just a wee bit more transparent about H-P’s struggles to turn a profit on its personal computers division (the unwieldy result of the Compaq merger). Or perhaps she could have engaged in a bit of mud slinging with HP’s biggest rivals, Dell and IBM. Sun’s Schwartz has been openly confrontational with IBM in recent posts. And yeah…it makes for interesting reading.
Ah well… we won’t know if Carly would have been a good blogger. Unless she has the nerve and savvy to start a blog now. Kind of a “What’s Next” with reflections on life, what she’s reading… etc. Go for it Carly! TypePad awaits you.
Useful Links (yup, from the mainstream media…)
2/10/05 Wall Street Journal: H-P’s Board Ousts Fiorina as CEO (requires registration)
2/10/05 New York Times: Fiorina’s Confrontational Tenure at Hewlett Comes to a Close
2/10/05 Washington Post: Hewlett-Packard Forces Celebrity CEO to Quit
2/07/05 Fortune Mag cover story: Why Carly’s Big Bet is Failing