Author Description

Recruited in 1999 to run Hewlett-Packard, the legendary company that helped invent Silicon Valley, Carly Fiorina promised big changes from the moment she arrived. For twenty years, she had consistently won over those who doubted her. And at HP she believed she could connect two hostile cultures, remaking the high-tech pioneer while staying true to the HP Way, the old-fashioned values of company founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard. Her zesty new style would be "perfect enough." In 2001, she entered an epic struggle with Walter Hewlett, son of HP's late cofounder, over the company's destiny and her stunning plan to merge with archrival Compaq. For months Fiorina and Hewlett battled in the boardroom, in the media, and, ultimately, in court. They couldn't stop until one side destroyed the other. In this fascinating human drama, George Anders draws on unmatched sources to reveal Fiorina to be both braver and more vulnerable than outsiders ever realized. And he discloses the role played by a powerful recluse in Idaho: the only person at HP who could bridge the old era and the new.