Why Gender Plays A Role in H-P Drama
If there were more women on the top rungs of the corporate ladder, it might be easier to overlook the fact that the Hewlett-Packard board has booted two of them in 20 months. But there aren't -- the number of female CEOs at Fortune 500 companies can be counted on two hands. So you have to wonder: does gender have something to do with it?
There is no love lost between Carly Fiorina, who was fired as H-P chief executive in February 2005, and Patricia Dunn, who was axed as chairman last month. Ms. Dunn played a critical role in Ms. Fiorina's firing. According to other board members, she was one of the last to take sides in the board's bitter fight over the ex-CEO.
Ms. Fiorina suspects Ms. Dunn ultimately joined her opponents as part of a deal to become chairman. Ms. Dunn says the chairman's job wasn't discussed with her until after the board's vote on Ms. Fiorina. Ms. Fiorina disses Ms. Dunn in her new book, "Tough Choices," by writing that "her opinions were frequently hard to discern." Ms. Dunn accuses Ms. Fiorina of turning a deaf ear to the board.
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business@wsj.com and read reader comments Saturday at WSJ.com/TalkingBusiness.There is an odd sisterhood between these two women, nonetheless. They are roughly the same age -- Ms. Fiorina is 52 years old, Ms. Dunn, 53. Ms. Dunn still refers to Ms. Fiorina as a "hero" and wrote a warm note to her after the firing that said as much. Ms. Fiorina is less kind to Ms. Dunn, but spares her from much of the heavy reproach she heaps on other members of the board. Both were pushed out in part at the instigation of the same two men -- George "Jay" Keyworth, a former science adviser to President Reagan, and Tom Perkins, a wealthy venture capitalist.
The even more striking similarity is this: both women left their jobs with very public displays of righteous indignation. They both went down with guns blazing.
Ms. Fiorina learned of her firing at a board meeting in a hotel near a Chicago airport. Ms. Dunn, who delivered the bad news, suggested Ms. Fiorina announce she had decided to leave on her own. That is a common deceit in the corporate world. Ms. Fiorina's predecessor at H-P, Lewis Platt, had portrayed his departure as his own decision, even though, as Ms. Fiorina's book recounts, he was under intense pressure from directors to depart. Moreover, Ms. Fiorina could easily have sustained the ruse, since there were rumors that she might leave to take a cabinet post in the Bush administration.
After thinking about Ms. Dunn's request for a couple of hours, Ms. Fiorina declined. When I asked her why, she answered: "Because it wasn't true. I couldn't explain the board's decision. So I wasn't going to try."
Since then, Ms. Fiorina has been withering in her criticism of what she calls a "dysfunctional" board, and says the board never told her why she had been fired -- even though the board's concerns had been spelled out, among other places, in a story on page one of The Wall Street Journal.
Nineteen months later, Ms. Dunn herself faced a similar choice. By then, the company was engulfed in a scandal over a boardroom-leak investigation that Ms. Dunn had started. It would have been easy for her to say she was leaving H-P of her own accord, to spare the company she loved of further controversy. Instead, like Ms. Fiorina, she went out fighting.
In her testimony to Congress, Ms. Dunn blamed others for misleading her about the legality of the investigation, and refused, under repeated questioning, to accept any responsibility. Unlike H-P Chief Executive Mark Hurd, who told the congressional committee that "the buck stops here," Ms. Dunn kept bucking.
When I asked her why she refuses to accept any responsibility, she said taking the blame would have been "bad governance." As a nonexecutive chairman, "I'm not responsible for management," she said. "It's a matter of oversight versus execution... If directors think they have to do the role of management, every director of a public company is going to resign tomorrow."
In short, Ms. Fiorina and Ms. Dunn both have chosen to portray themselves as victims. And to some extent, they are. But to some extent, they are both overplaying the part. The sisterhood of Carly and Pattie isn't helping women's cause.
惠普让女人走开？
如果能有更多妇女跻身企业的管理高层，那么对惠普公司(Hewlett-Packard)的董事会在20个月内先后将两位女掌门人革职一事，我们或许比较容易看淡一些。但我们不能──财富500强企业的女性首席执行长还不足10人。所以人们不禁要问：这件事与性别有关吗？
惠普相关报导
? 费奥瑞娜自传揭秘离职内幕
? 惠普股票光彩依旧
卡丽?费奥瑞娜(Carly Fiorina)和帕特里夏?邓恩(Patricia Dunn)两人彼此间并无好感，前者于2005年2月被解除了惠普公司首席执行长一职，后者上个月被撤去了惠普董事长之职。而邓恩在费奥瑞娜被解职一事上扮演了关键角色。据惠普董事会的其他成员说，在董事会讨论费奥瑞娜去留问题的激烈争论中，邓恩是最后表明立场的人员之一。
费奥瑞娜怀疑，邓恩最终加入了反对她的阵营，并由此坐上了惠普董事长的交椅。邓恩则说，惠普董事会在投票决定解除费奥瑞娜的职务前，并未讨论过由她来继任这一职务之事。费奥瑞娜在她的新书《艰难抉择》(Tough Choices)中谈到邓恩时说：“人们常常难以了解她的意见。”而邓恩则指责费奥瑞娜对董事会的意见置若罔闻。
虽然如此，这两位女士却也算得上一对难姐难妹。二人的年龄大体相仿──费奥瑞娜52岁，邓恩53岁。在费奥瑞娜被解职后，邓恩仍将她称做“英雄”，并给她写了一封热情洋溢的短信。费奥瑞娜对邓恩的态度虽然没有这么好，但当她不吝笔墨指责惠普的董事会成员时，却也常常能将邓恩排除在外。两位女士被解职都应部分归因于两位男士的鼓动──他们分别是曾担任里根总统科学顾问的乔治?肯沃斯(George 'Jay' Keyworth)以及富有的风险投资家汤姆?帕金斯(Tom Perkins)。
两位女士还有一个更惊人的相似性：她们离职之时都毫不掩盖自己的义愤之情。两人都是带着十足的火药味下台的。
费奥瑞娜是惠普的董事会在芝加哥机场附近一家酒店开会时知道自己被解职的。向费奥瑞娜传达董事会这一决定的邓恩曾建议费奥瑞娜对外说是她自己决定离职的。这种保留面子的说法在企业界屡见不鲜。费奥瑞娜在惠普的前任刘易斯?普拉特(Lewis Platt)就曾将自己的离职描述为他的自愿决定，但费奥瑞娜的新书却披露说，他是在公司董事们的巨大压力下辞职的。其实费奥瑞娜要想维持她自愿离职的谎言很容易，因为早就有传言说她可能会到布什政府的内阁任职。
在对邓恩的建议考虑了几个小时后，费奥瑞娜拒绝了这番好意。当笔者问她当时的想法时，费奥瑞娜回答说：“因为这不真实。我无法解释董事会的决定。所以不想这么做。”
19个月之后，邓恩自己也面临了同样的选择。当时惠普公司正深陷一桩董事会泄密调查丑闻之中，而这一调查正是邓恩下令进行的。如果出于使公司避免陷入更大争议的考虑，她将离职说成是自己自愿的决定可能更好些。不过，与费奥瑞娜一样，邓恩也选择了抗争。
她在国会作证时指责公司的其他人在关于这一调查的合法性问题上误导了她，并在听证会主持者的反复追问下仍拒绝为这一调查丑闻承担任何责任。邓恩在这件事上选择了对抗到底，而惠普首席执行长马克?赫德(Mark Hurd)的态度就不同了，他对国会负责调查此事的一个委员会说，自己的抗争“到此为止”。
当笔者问邓恩为何拒绝承担任何责任时，她说，承担责任的应当是“糟糕的管理”。作为一名非执行董事长，“我不对管理问题负责，”她说。“这是个监督与执行的问题......如果董事们认为他们必须承担管理层的角色，上市公司的所有董事们明天就得辞职。”
简而言之，费奥瑞娜和邓恩都选择将自己描绘成受害者。某种程度上说，她们确实是。但她们也都有些言过其实了。女性身份帮不上卡丽和帕蒂这对难姐难妹什么忙。
Alan Murray
