Farewell to Fiorina

The volatile world of CEOs. Fiorina (HP) and Marjorie Scardino (Pearson plc owner of FT) are among women I respect in business. There is a whole list of women ceos who have managed great businesses. You can view more profiles at CapitalistChicks.com. This piece from Marketwatch.com sums up the saga quite well;

Of the many lessons one might take away from H-P's Carly Fiorina bombshell -- that arrogance is no virtue in a leader (read David Callaway's column), for example, or maybe that female chief executives have made sufficient strides that today one can be unceremoniously dumped just like an underachieving male chief (see Gender Gap) -- perhaps the most salient is that one ignores the market's will at great peril. Despite claims by Hewlett-Packard's board that Fiorina's ouster was prompted by her management style, the poor performance of the company's shares (HPQ) during her tenure likely was the key. See full story.