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FOOD FOR THOUGHT Lessons from
History’s Worst CEOs
HP
Carly Fiorina
When Carly Fiorina became CEO of HP in 1999, she described herself as a 'change agent' – and change the company she certainly did. By the time she left six years later, HP had lost half its value and thousands of staff, although Fiorina still paid herself plenty.
Poor decisions included trying to buy PricewaterhouseCoopers for $14 billion; after she was dissuaded, it went to IBM for less than $4 billion. Meanwhile, a merger with Compaq was widely seen as a disaster. The day Fiorina was fired, HP's market value increased by $3 billion.
Lesson:
Fiorina antagonised workers and investors alike while apparently never doubting her own rightness. Listen to those around you.
Union Carbide
Warren Anderson
Warren Anderson was CEO of US chemical company Union Carbide when a plant in Bhopal, India, leaked more than 40 tons of poisonous gas into the surrounding city, killing several thousand people and seriously harming hundreds of thousands more. While Anderson had the fortitude to visit Bhopal a few days later, he fled after being arrested and released on bail, never to return.
The company claimed that the accident was caused by a disgruntled employee, and that the Indian government was at fault for allowing people to live so close to the site. But Anderson himself admitted that the plant did not have the same safety standards as those in the US.
Lesson:
Anderson was apparently devastated by the disaster, but the fact remains that the buck stops
at the top.
Carly Fiorina
Warren Anderson
Contributed by Oye Jolaoso
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