Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Holman W. Jenkins demystifies Carly Fiorina's ultimately unsuccessful tenure as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. He points out that she won the job just before the tech boom went bust, and her performance was no worse than the two CEOs who have followed her at HP.
Fiorina was a strong leader who tried some big things, at a time that hindsight says was inopportune. It happens. That only disqualifies her if, like the late General Patton, you put a big premium on leaders being lucky.
George Patton was a sometime mystic, who after much battlefield success and several public relations disasters, proved ultimately unlucky himself. He died as the result of a car accident shortly after the war ended. Proving, I believe, that predicting a leader's luck is a chump's game.
If you've liked what Fiorina has said but were concerned about her performance at HP, you should read Jenkins' article. Fortunately the article is not behind the WSJ paywall.
