Allison M. Shapira

Saturday, January 06, 2007

On reading "Tough Choices" by Carly Fiorina

Just recently, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina spoke at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and brought some copies of her book Tough Choices. Since I was unable to attend her talk, I thought I would start reading her book and see what it was like.

Tough Choices
is a fascinating memoir. It is an easy-to-read autobiography that talks about Carly’s life from childhood to “leaving” HP. There were insightful quotes about character, leadership, and running a company that I thought were simple, effective, and relevant across all industries – it proves a theory that I have had for a while now, namely, that some of the best professional qualities are simple “best practices” that can be intuited by good people, not merely studied in school. A waitress learns pretty quickly the importance of good customer service – she doesn’t have to go to school to ask herself the question “What does the customer want?”

I really enjoyed Carly’s book because she sounded like the kind of executive that I would like to be: honest, direct, passionate, logical, and inspirational. She does an excellent job portraying her character and compassion for each of her jobs, no matter what the product. Of course, we must remember that it is an auto-biography, which means it will invariably be subjective. But I felt that she did a good job of admitting her mistakes when she made them throughout the book. I finished the book thinking that passion can be found and harnessed to serve both private and public sectors, which in retrospect seems logical – whenever you have people, you have passion.

Rather than paraphrase the whole book, I selected the quotes that I found most inspiring, and I’ve listed the page numbers so that you can read more about them if you like.

Pg.19: “Don’t think about the next job; focus on doing the very best you can with the job you have.”

She learned this while being a receptionist, and I think this mindset not only makes you a great employee, it makes you a great colleague. Who would you rather work with or manage, someone who is just biding their time until the next opportunity, or someone who completely dedicates themselves to their current position?

Pg.67: “If you’re going to work for a company, large or small, then you must be prepared to embrace the objectives of that business. If you can’t, you should work someplace else.”

It seems like a no-brainer, but think about how many people work for a company just for their own personal goals – it sounds innocent enough, but ironically, it is the people who really focus on the company’s goals that do well for the company and do well for themselves.

Pg.67: “Sometimes you have to go slow first in order to go fast later.”

She said this around consensus-building and the need to rally your entire team around your agreed-upon strategy. If you take the time to do it right in the beginning, you can move faster later. If you skim through these details in the beginning, you’ll wind up spending much more time and energy later. My father calls this failure the need to “pay the pied piper.”

Pg.79: “All triumphs are much more about choice than they are about chance.”

This statement reinforces the idea of personal choice and control over one’s actions. It shows that we have the power to determine a positive outcome – we simply need to “work as hard as we [have] to and [prepare] for everything that might come our way.”

[Can’t find page number]: “We cannot always choose the hurdles we overcome, but we can choose how we overcome them.” I searched all around Page 3 (where I wrote that this quote was in my notes) but I couldn’t find it. In any case, this is another example of personal power and the ability to take what is given to you and make it better.

Pg.113: “A leader’s job is to add value, not get in the way, or preside or take credit. If things are working, people actually don’t need your help. Go find where they need you.”

Pg.125: “Advertising and marketing are great only if they are authentic – real reflections of a company’s aspirations, capabilities and choices.”

I have struggled with this in the past, because many people view advertising and marketing as trying to make a company something that it is not. The customer is not stupid – he or she knows when they are being misled. The best marketing is honest.

Pg.135: “One of the reasons leadership is lonely is that it requires both passion and dispassion. A leader must be part of the team and yet able to step back and see clearly.”

Pg. 171 [On the issue of glass ceilings]: “More is achieved by focusing on the possibilities than by fixating on the limitations or the inequities.”

Although I am lucky to have never dealt with this issue in my work experience, I firmly believe that we overcome the glass ceiling by focusing on our work and being outstanding in every way, not by harping on the ceiling’s presence.

Pg.185: “Leaders are defined by three things: character, capability and collaboration. Leaders are candid and courageous; they know their strengths and use them; they bolster their weaknesses by relying on others with complementary skills and by constantly learning and adapting; they know when they need help and seek it; they know when help is required by others, and they provide it.”

Lately I have heard the word “character” mentioned when discussing leadership. It strikes me as both natural and odd; natural, because I think of character as doing the right thing even when no one is looking; odd, because it is so subjective. Who decides what defines good character? Would a Republican define it the same as a Democrat? How about a European versus an Asian? In an age where people try to stay overly objective on every possible issue, usually out of ignorance of all the facts, to place such an emphasis on something as subjective as character seems out of place, even as I see it completely natural.

Pg. 203 [A company is like a sailing vessel]: “A sailing vessel doesn’t proceed in a straight line, although it must achieve forward momentum and sufficient velocity. A destination is determined, a course is set, and then the boat tacks, adjusting its sails to leverage or compensate for the changing winds and tides and weather. Arriving successfully and safely at the end of the journey requires flexibility.”

Pg. 213: “Dave Packard once said: ‘People wrongly assume that our proper end is profit. Profit is what makes all other ends possible.’” This refers to Hewlett-Packard’s corporate objectives: “The betterment of our society is not a job to be left to a few. It is a responsibility to be shared by all.”

Pg. 221: “All my experience taught me that leaders are made, not born. Leadership doesn’t just happen; leadership can be taught and developed.”

Once again, the issue of personal power comes into play. Throughout this book, I saw a recurring theme of an individual having the potential to do great things, no matter what the obstacles.

Pg.232: Throughout the book, I was impressed by Carly’s commitment to candor, both personally and professionally. As someone whose professional experiences were formed in the field of diplomacy, I personally find it difficult to be direct on many issues. It is refreshing to see someone who espouses a philosophy of directness.

Pg.237: “It will always be a CEO’s job to raise people’s sights and focus them on what’s necessary and what’s possible. A leader’s job is to sense, ahead of others, danger as well as opportunity and to lead the organization to adapt itself to both.”

Pg.254: “An authentic, powerful brand is more than a logo or a marketing slogan. Market share cannot be achieved without mind share, so a brand must be invested in and built over time. But that investment will be wasted if the behavior of a company does not match the promise of its brand…An authentic, powerful brand is a promise and a reminder that a company will be as it says it will be…Those values mean doing the right thing when no one is looking and even when the consequences are difficult.”

Pg.264: “We accomplished the largest integration ever attempted in the industry through rigorous attention to detail, disciplined processes and collaboration, and an expectation for both speed and precision.”

Pg.265: “Values are signposts to guide people’s behavior when the rules aren’t clear and the supervisor isn’t present. Goals and metrics are what get done; Values are how those things get done.”

Pg.307: “Moments of spontaneous joy…a moment of joy is a moment when the soul is allowed to float, weightless.” Carly describes how suddenly being without a job has given her the opportunity to recognize spontaneous happiness in her life. I interpret this as that moment when you stop everything you are doing, look around you, detached, and realize that you are happy.