Fiorina's ouster taken in stride
By ROBERT TRIGAUX
Published February 10, 2005
The ousting of Hewlett-Packard chairwoman, CEO and national role model Carly Fiorina sent a mild shudder and an occasional gasp Wednesday through the ranks of Tampa Bay's close-knit network of senior female executives.
But most of all, Fiorina's exit from HP was taken in stride. When any CEO - male or female - oversees a controversial, major merger (HP bought Compaq Computer), survives nasty corporate fights (a Hewlett heir bitterly fought the merger) and manages to last six years, that's a pretty good run, local female executives noted.
"Women might say this is a black mark for women," said AmSouth Florida's banking chief, Susan Martinez, whose statewide, bottom-line responsibilities increasingly make her a regional role model for businesswomen. "But Fiorina losing her job should not be a black mark for any woman performing her job well."
"I grew up in the technology business in the 1980s, when very few women were involved," said ex-TECO Energy tech manager Pat Dominguez, who runs Triage Partners. "So we have come a long way in 20 years. The fact that Carly Fiorina contributed what she did is significant."
What Dominguez will look for is whether Fiorina, 50, chooses to bounce back and find a high-level business challenge. "What is her resiliency? How does she get back into the market? That's what I am interested in seeing."
Others viewed Fiorina's firing as a big blow to women's ongoing efforts to break the so-called "glass ceiling," that invisible cultural barrier that limits women and minorities from gaining fair access to top management spots in a corporation.
"She was the No. 1 role model. She was in a high-tech business, a high-growth and high-profit business and a traditionally male business," said Deanne Roberts, founder and CEO of Tampa's Roberts Communications and former chairwoman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. "I am truly bummed."
Still others suggested Fiorina did a good job as a CEO in tough times, but they did not look to her as a role model.
"I admire her and her staying power from afar, but this is not about being a woman," said Marty Petty, publisher of the St. Petersburg Times. "It's more important to me to find role models who are business leaders. It goes way beyond (the issue of) women."
"Being a CEO of a publicly traded company is the highest echelon of a business career and the hardest to break through to achieve," said Katie Pemble, a former Bank of America regional executive who is chief operating officer at the Bank of St. Petersburg. "At the same time, we all have to accept the higher executive level comes with an intense amount of scrutiny.
"When you play with the big dogs, you have to be willing to be scratched. As COO, I now have to put up or shut up."
More than a few female executives contacted Wednesday had seen or read the critical Feb. 7 cover story in Fortune magazine: Why Carly's Big Bet Is Failing.
"It's funny. I fell asleep last night reading that article," said Jane Mason, founder and CEO of Clearwater's emason, an online tech firm whose clients include mortgage banker Fidelity National and coffee business Melita USA. "I think Fiorina had the complete skill set, from charisma and energy to self-assuredness and leadership. She was also extremely prideful, which may have worked against her.
"I was personally disappointed that it got to the point where she was forced to walk away without finishing the job" of transforming the old-line culture at Hewlett-Packard, Mason said.
Adelaide "Alex" Sink, the former Florida head of banking for Bank of America, spied the Fortune cover story Wednesday after a directors meeting of First Advantage Corp. in St. Petersburg.
"I think the message is when you expend an enormous amount of personal capital doing what you think is the right thing to do - and when that does not work out - then you pay the consequences," Sink said.
Michelle Bauer, former executive director of the Tampa Bay Technology Forum, said the focus on Fiorina was good and bad.
"It was good because she is a woman in an extraordinarily male-dominated field," she said. "It was bad because there are so few women of her caliber that she stands out all the more. We just need to fill those top ranks with more women."
Fiorina topped Fortune's "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" list every year since the list began in 1998 until 2004. That's when eBay CEO Meg Whitman took Fiorina's place at No. 1.
Whitman was cited most often by Tampa Bay women executives as the next obvious top role model. A few mentioned CEO Anne Mulcahy of Xerox and Lucent Technologies chief Patricia Russo. After that, only one name was frequently mentioned: the country's new secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice.
By sheer coincidence, many Tampa Bay female executives gathered at Tampa's Mise en Place restaurant Wednesday evening to hear a panel of area women. The topic? "Strategies for career success for women in the workplace."
Robert Trigaux can be reached at trigaux@sptimes.com or 727 893-8405.