Here below are my preferred excerpts from this outstanding book written by Carly Fiorina, former HP CEO from 1999 to 2005.
p 11 : If we cannot choose our circumstances, we can always choose our response to them. If we cannot choose who we are, we can always choose to become something more. To stop choosing is to start dying.
p 77 : All triumphs are made of the same stuff: the right support, the right team, the dermination to achieve the goal, lots of really hard work. And all triumphs are much more about choice than there are about chance.
p 15 : quoting Albert Camus : To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others.
p 15 : Having arrived at what was for me a momentous decision, I felt happy - afraid but happy. I grew up that day. I had made a truly difficult decision on my own. I felt lonely in that choice, afraid of its consequences, but certain that I had chosen well.
p 55 : There are, unfortunately, too many abusive people. In the business world, they are frequently tolerated because they deliver results. Abusive behavior is unacceptable. Everyone deserves to be treated with courtesy and respect. Sometimes, the only solution is to fire the abusers.
p 72 : It was my first experience in a courtroom, although it would not be my last. It was my first experience with the media. It was my first experience watching people lie under oath.
p 159 : People did not confront issues at Hewlett Packard. [...] After a few months at HP, I learned that the values of the HP way had been corrupted in some important respects. Respect for the Individual had come to mean being courteous and noncombative even when candid, serious disagreement and debate was what the business really required. Highest Standards of Integrity applied to sins of commission - you didn't lie. It didn't apply to sins of omission - you could be silent instead of speaking up; you didn't need to say what you really thought. And just as Dick had at lunch, people said lots of things behind others' back that they were unprepared to say to their faces. People said one thing in the room, another outside it.
p 256 : During his earlier deposition, he [Walter Hewlett] had been confronted by evidence that he had not told the truth. He said that sometimes, lying was justified, and he used lying to Nazis about the location of hidden Jewish families as an example. During the trial, he repeated on the stand that he thought sometimes the ends justified the means.
p 318 : Later, when Jay Keyworth emerged as the primary suspect [of Board leakage], Tom told Pattie: "I don't know who leaked. We have good directors.They're doing important work. Let's don't embarrass anyone. Sit down with whoever it is. Get an admission, an apology, and a promise never to do it again. That will be it. We'll go on".
p 323 : To avoid the damaging consequences of behavior that's on the edge, managers, employees, executives and Board members must believe that ethical conduct is always more important than short-term results. [...] The standards for ethical behavior are more stringent than those for legal behavior. This is why candor and truth-telling are so vital to any organization, although both make some people intensely uncomfortable. Complex dilemmas cannot be effectively tackled without candor. And without straight talk, problems may be postponed but they cannot be solved.
p 88: Many decisions are made or strongly influenced by individuals outside the formal organizational structure that theoretically has decision making authority. These individuals have access to and relationships with others from whom they derive their power. And sometimes formal decisions can be very effectively undermined by simply refusing to acknowldedge them. These are realities of how large, complex organizations work, and it's particularly true in businesses where people have been together a long time and where relationships are deep and long-standing. The relationships become more important than the organization charts. It's very hard for outsiders to come into these insulated worlds. Everyone should understand how things work on paper and how things actually work when they get a new job or enter a new organization. Stop, look and listen is good carrer advice, not just wise counsel for crossing the street.
p 132 : Whenever a new leader issues a challenge, a critical mass of the old-timers must rise to that challenge. If this fails to happen, the new leader is simply ignored. People who have never operated in large, complex companies are often surprised to learn that even a change agent with title and position can be effectively rendered powerless by peoples's collective decison to maintain the statu quo. A boss can hire and fire. A boss can reallocate people and money. A boss can measure and reward. A boss can threaten and inspire. Each of these actions and decisions will be analyzed and interpreted by an organization. Some interpretations will motivate change. Some will discourage change. But no boss, even a president or a CEO, can order people to change. No boss can force people to behave differently. People operate based on their own free will. They make their own decisions, and in big companies, those decisions are easy to hide.
p 55 : Never threaten if you're not prepared to follow through. Never threaten if reason can prevail, but if you must, threaten something that really matters and stick to it.
p 92 : I have read somewhere that anger can be effective as long as it's controlled: use it, don't lose it.
p 245 : There is always something to laugh about, even in the most difficult of times. It's especially important to find the humor in the tough times because laughter helps people manage stress. And when people find something they can laugh about together, they begin to bond.
p 106 : People both appreciate and resent strength and success in others: for the same reasons, strong, succesful people are both admired and attacked. Some people see inspiration for themselves in others' success. Some people who think they cannot accomplish their objectives alone ally themselves with strong people when their goals and agendas are aligned. Some people, who are equally strong and successful, may choose open confrontation if they disagree, but they do so with real respect. And some people simply resent others' strength because it highlights their own perceived inadequacies. Some are jealous of success they see as greater than their own. Jealousy and resentment are feelings of inferiority or inadequacy, and they breed resistance and the instinct to engage in an unfair fight. And at a very fundamental level, on the school playground, boys don't like losing to girls, and girls sometimes compete against each other for a boy's attention.
p 139 : if you thought about the fastest way to get a product to a customer, you would endup drawing a horizontal line of collaboration across many different departments: every departement from product development to manufacturing to shipping to sales to installation needs to be involved. Any movements up and down each departments's chains of command just prolongs the process from the customer's point of view. The customer suffers if any department misses a step along the process. And yet, inside an organization, collaboration is inherently more difficult to teach and motivate than command and control. We all understand that a boss can tell a subordinate to do something: a request from a peer for cooperation doesn't seem to carry the same clout. It seems faster to "just do it ourselves" rather than rely on others to do it with us. It feels easier to understand coworkers within our own organizations. And so people have to be convinced that collaboration is the only answer. And leaders must have the discipline to demand it, measure it and reward it.
p 167 : One of a leader's jobs is to assess the capability of the organization. If a leader underestimates the organization, it underperforms. If a leader overestimates its capability, the organization disappoints. A leader's job is to assess accurately and then to increase the capability of the organization by building skills, building teams and building confidence.
p 184 : Leaders are candid and courageous; they know their strenghts 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. They have strong peer networks and are not afraid to share with others. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes and colors from every walk of life and level in organization. They can emerge anytime and anywhere, but they are consistent and steady in their actions and approach. Leaders recognize, support and encourage other leaders.
p 232 : about debating for making decision: I had grown up debating at the dinner table with my father. [...] I need debate and dialogue with others to test my own thinking and to make a decision. I test others' convictions or opinons by pushing on their arguments and seeing how strongly they will defend them. When challenged, do people shrink away from their own views, or do they stand behind them? When pressed, do people offer more data to support their position or do they simply repeat the same things in a louder voice?
p 321 : about diversity: A company's ability to look at new ideas and new solutions is linked directly with the heterogeneity of its management team. If a management team is homogeneous or becoming less diverse, it means people are favoring consensus and conformity in their meetings and decision-making processes, rather than encouraging the creative tension that comes from differences in perspective, experience, and yes, race and gender as well. This is why real diversity is in everyone's interests: better decisions come from understanding and hashsing out the differences in people's points of view. If everyone thinks in the same ways and agrees quickly, decision-making may be faster, easier, and more pleasant, but it's not as effective. Something important is going to be missed, some problem ignored, some risk underestimated. [...] If individuals have been in the same job or the same kind of job for too long, their perspective will inevitably narrow and their instinct will become to protect their turf, their position, and the statu quo of how they've always done things. [...] The only way to succeed is to take risks and try new things. Relying on old habits may be more comfortable, but creativity yields better results. [...] While twentieth-century power structures have always been male dominated, there is irrefutable evidence that unless women are actively engaged as peers, problem-solvers, and entrepreneurs within their communities, sufficient progress will not be made toward economic development, disease prevention, or conflict resolution.
p 181 : While the rest of Silicon Valley seemed perpetually juiced up on too much coffee and not enough sleep, HP people seemed relaxed and calm. The parking lots emptied at 4:30 or 5:00 every afternoon. The most frequently asked question from employees in those first few month was what I thought about work/life balance. [...] Inside HP , the sounds were muffled, the light was faded, and the gentle images of Bill and Dave as kindly, older father figures were more visible than the harsh realities of the marketplace. HP, especially at headquarters, which was so close to the original garage, felt like a mausoleum or a cocoon. All success was measured inside this protective environment and internal politics were rampant.
p 181 : Jay Keyworth, a long-standing member of the Board who'd been a good friend of Dave's, once said to me: "There was nothing democratic about the way Bill and Dave ran HP. It was more like a benevolent dictatorship".
p 208 : I told him [Bill Hewlett] what a handsome fellow he'd been and how the ladies of HP still swooned over the pictures of him as a mountain climber (Bill had had quite a reputation as a ladies' man).
p 209 : Jay Keyworth had once said to me, "I wish you could have met Dave [Packard...]. You are exactly the same. Maybe Dave was a little taller, but you both have a broad, humanistic perspective. Like Dave, you're bold, uncompromising and focused on excellence."
p 286 : I asked them [board members] why they thought we should reorganize now. They said it would show "flexibility". We were under pressure in the market and in the press, and if we reorganized, we'd change the topic of conversation. It would show we were "doing something".