名人演講:Tough Choices 勇敢抉擇[卡莉·菲奧莉娜]

Tough Choices 勇敢抉擇

——Carly Fiorina 卡莉·菲奧莉娜

點擊查看名人演講更多精彩內(nèi)容
 

 

00:06.06]Thank you very much.

[00:07.01]It's great to be back

[00:07.81]and I just want to stay for the record,

[00:09.82]the class of 88-89

[00:11.38]was by far the best class.

[00:17.34]The decision to write a book

[00:19.42]called Tough Choices

[00:21.54]and to write it myself,

[00:23.13]I did, in fact,

[00:23.95]write it myself every word,

[00:25.56]no collaborator,

[00:26.48]no ghost writer,

[00:27.43]for better for worse.

[00:29.58]That decision first occured to me

[00:32.98]about five years ago

[00:34.57]I was sitting on the witness stand

[00:37.92]being cross examined

[00:39.19]by a team of attorneys,

[00:41.43]because having just received

[00:43.76]enough shareholder votes

[00:45.19]to complete the acquisition

[00:46.85]of Compaq computer.

[00:48.72]We were sued one last time

[00:50.50]to try stop it.

[00:52.70]And as I said on that witness stand

[00:54.62]being questioned

[00:55.98]by these attorneys that occurred to me

[00:57.93]that most people don't actually

[01:00.46]understand how a business operates.

[01:03.95]Because all of the questions

[01:05.04]that I was being asked

[01:06.23]really had to do with

[01:08.11]how you set goals

[01:10.37]and how you motivate people

[01:11.78]to achieve those goals.

[01:13.42]And the fact is that

[01:14.29]if you want to change products and profits,

[01:17.18]you have to change

[01:17.92]what people do everyday.

[01:20.60]And so I decided five years ago

[01:22.65]that I would write a book about business

[01:27.09]from the point of view

[01:28.31]of what I find most fascinating,

[01:30.70]most challenging

[01:31.62]most fun about business.

[01:34.60]And that is that's all about people,

[01:37.29]it's all about the people.

[01:40.25]Now of course sure Sloanes,

[01:42.72]so you know it's also really important

[01:44.51]it's all about the numbers,

[01:46.07]absolutely;

[01:47.13]it's all about the technology

[01:49.22]without a doubt.

[01:51.67]But only people can build products

[01:54.84]and produce numbers.

[01:57.20]And so I decided to write that book.

[02:00.73]Now if you decide to read the book

[02:04.27] which I, of course,

[02:04.62]hoped you will.

[02:07.40]You will find that

[02:09.50]the first thing I deal with in this book

[02:12.04]in the very first two pages

[02:14.72]is the fact that I got fired

[02:17.21]It was, of course a hugely public event.

[02:22.71]It made headlines all over the world.

[02:26.02]It causes lots of people still to say,

[02:29.52]"Gosh, you failed."

[02:32.35]By the way I don't think I failed

[02:34.08]I do think I was fired

[02:36.03]I will come to that in a moment.

[02:39.83]But I decided I had to start with that,

[02:43.47]because if I could not deal with that,

[02:47.30]most public of events,

[02:49.47]in an authentic way,

[02:51.35]the reader wouldn't believe

[02:53.35]the rest of the book.

[02:55.05]And so I start with that.

[02:57.40]What happened and how I felt

[03:00.18]and how I got up the next day

[03:01.90]and went on.

[03:05.49]I do spend a chapter

[03:08.20]talking about my time at MIT.

[03:11.68]Because my time here

[03:12.84]made a big difference,

[03:14.27]and I want to just talk to

[03:15.81]about three classes that I took here,

[03:18.59]because they are,

[03:21.66]they made being impact on me.

[03:23.57]By the way, you know,

[03:24.48]I loved, actually maybe four classes.

[03:27.42]I took, of course, operational research

[03:31.96]and learning about system's problems,

[03:38.90]is what helped me understand

[03:41.18]the systemic nature

[03:42.69]of transformation

[03:43.87]that was required at Hewlett Packard.

[03:47.03]When you learn about complex systems problems,

[03:49.47]you know that

[03:51.04]you cannot solve one of those problems

[03:53.27]by only acting on or understanding one

[03:55.68]or two parameters of the problems.

[03:58.27]You have to understand

[03:58.95]all parameters of the problems,

[04:00.63]and how they interact with one another.

[04:03.75]All transformation is a system's problem.

[04:07.46]And so for me,

[04:08.21]when I came to Hewlett Packard,

[04:09.72]a company that was iconic,

[04:12.17]mythic, but also a company

[04:13.90]that was deeply troubled;

[04:15.77]a company that was lagging further and further behind

[04:18.66]that no longer was even among

[04:20.00]the top 25 innovators in the world.

[04:22.77]A company that had missed nine quarters

[04:24.59]in the roll

[04:25.27]and the middle of biggest

[04:26.39]technology up-turning history,

[04:27.86]and yet employees

[04:29.19]were receiving record bonuses.

[04:32.24]A company that was so in love

[04:33.80]with its past

[04:34.83]it could not envision its future.

[04:39.07]I realized when I came

[04:40.07]to that company that

[04:41.50]this was a system's problem

[04:43.07] of deep complexity

[04:45.95]And if we were going

[04:47.28]to transform this company,

[04:47.83]it would not only take time,

[04:49.93]it would not only take the energy

[04:51.56]of tens of thousands of employees

[04:53.17]but it would also takes us

[04:55.14]working on the strategy of the firm,

[04:57.60]the structure and processes of the firm.

[05:00.13]How we measured and rewarded performance

[05:02.71]and as well what I called

[05:04.38]the software of the company,

[05:06.10]the culture,

[05:07.10]the values and behavior.

[05:10.65]I call culture the software

[05:12.12]of the company because

[05:12.92]like a computer,

[05:14.31]the hardware won't work

[05:15.98]if the software isn't up to the task.

[05:19.11]And for all you,

[05:20.24]I am sorry quantitative types that things,

[05:21.72]values and organizational behavior and culture,

[05:24.40]all that is just soft stuff,

[05:27.49]it is the hardest stuff

[05:30.18]and it's the software of a firm

[05:33.62]it is I took another really important course

[05:35.55]called gaming theory while I was here.

[05:38.29]Gaming theory to me was fascinating

[05:40.53]because, with all due respect to my

[05:42.58]very erudite teachers Jake Jacoby

[05:46.00]taught that course.

[05:47.52]It's a great course,

[05:48.24]but to me what gaming theory was

[05:49.61]was an attempt by scientists

[05:53.12]to explain irrational decision

[05:55.36]making and irrational framework.

[06:00.30]Not all decisions are rational

[06:03.15]not all decision are scientificlly based

[06:06.53]Many people

[06:07.55]in business are overcome

[06:09.79]at times by their fears,

[06:12.13]their resentments, their rivalries,

[06:15.93]their agendas.

[06:17.96]It is part of life

[06:20.11]and business is a collection

[06:21.63]of people working together.

[06:24.27]I started out as a secretary.

[06:28.34]I was a medieval history major

[06:30.66]and philosophy major at Stanford University;

[06:32.96]it was really interesting

[06:33.86]but it would not pay the bills.

[06:36.53]I went on to law school,

[06:38.39]and discovered very quickly

[06:40.72]that I hated law school.

[06:43.14]So I quit.

[06:44.42]And then I had to pay the bills.

[06:46.33]And I took the only job

[06:47.40]that I knew I could do

[06:48.36]that would pay my bills

[06:49.89]and that was to be a secretary.

[06:51.11]Actually, secretary is big glorified.

[06:53.64]I was a receptionist,

[06:54.97]I sat in front of the building

[06:56.96]I typed and I answered the phones.

[06:58.81]That was my job.

[07:03.21]I thought while I was a secretary

[07:05.96]that the people in the mail room

[07:08.24]must be fundamentally different

[07:10.11]from the people in the board-room.

[07:12.20]In what I have learned,

[07:14.07]in the course of my life,

[07:15.37]and my career

[07:16.20]and what this book is all about

[07:17.67]is that people are people

[07:19.80]wherever you find them.

[07:22.29]There are people

[07:24.03]who will hold their positions with honor

[07:28.07]there are people who will not.

[07:30.97]If you doubt that all you have to do

[07:32.41]is thinking about the current scandal

[07:34.71]with Backdating of Stock Options.

[07:37.86]Here you have people

[07:39.15]in some of the most prospected companies,

[07:42.86]in America

[07:44.89]who lose sight of

[07:46.80]good judgment and good ethics.

[07:50.89]They believe that they could get away

[07:53.12]with something because there wasn't

[07:54.52]a clear rule that told they couldn't.

[07:59.01]That's a breakdown in judgment and ethics.

[08:01.49]I knew from being a secretary

[08:03.31]and sitting in the mail room

[08:04.50]that sometimes people

[08:06.17]stop talking directly with each other

[08:08.08]about the real issues

[08:09.38]and when that happens,

[08:10.22]dysfunctions occurs

[08:11.35]and bad things happen in the business.

[08:14.09]That happens all the way up the chain.

[08:17.16]People are people wherever you them

[08:18.72]and that gaming theory course,

[08:21.52]I found it fascinating

[08:22.59]was a whole set of quantitative science

[08:25.77]design to try and explain

[08:27.57]how it is

[08:30.03]that people's personal agendas

[08:31.84]or emotions or fears

[08:33.67]can drive them to any irrational decision.

[08:37.26]And yet it happens all the time.

[08:39.13]And if you want to

[08:41.05]advance in business

[08:42.72]you have to also understand people.

[08:45.71]I took a course

[08:50.05]in organizational behavior

[08:50.71]and one of the important things

[08:51.72]that we have to do

[08:52.48]was role play a labor negotiation.

[08:56.20]Everybody went into this role play

[08:57.85]after very electoral conversation

[09:00.03]about how to bring

[09:01.26]two opposing groups together everyone

[09:03.18]knew electorally that

[09:04.82]the only way to solve this very tough problem

[09:07.89]between management and labor

[09:09.31]was for both sides to feel

[09:11.25]as though their issues were

[09:12.73]at least recognized,

[09:15.63]and hopefully addressed in some way.

[09:17.61]In other words,

[09:18.52]there had to be a win-win

[09:20.50]somewhere in there.

[09:23.64]Everyone knew this electorally,

[09:25.53]we study it.

[09:26.88]And yet when people

[09:28.48]got into the role play

[09:29.79]I watch how quickly people

[09:32.08]dissolved into win-lose

[09:37.62]with obvious consequences.

[09:40.39]People are people wherever you find them

[09:42.03]and the number of advance degrees someone has

[09:45.06]has nothing to do with whether

[09:47.72]or not they have judgment

[09:50.13]or maturity or perspective or ethics,

[09:55.59]which brings me perhaps

[09:56.20]to the most impactful course

[09:58.53]I took when I was here.

[10:00.52]And I talked a lot about this

[10:01.65]in the book which

[10:02.85]is called readings in power and responsibility.

[10:06.55]It was literature.

[10:10.03]From throughout the ages

[10:13.21]but it was also a set of compelling stories

[10:17.04]about who people are

[10:19.73]and how they behave

[10:22.83]and that made a big impact on me.

[10:27.83]One of the most cogent pieces

[10:30.05]of career advises I ever gave

[10:34.55]was something I gave to

[10:36.14]one of my very first subordinates.

[10:40.49]And she was a young woman

[10:43.70]wrestling with a set of personal choices.

[10:47.33]She was an engineer,

[10:49.21]it was in 80s.

[10:50.89]She was trying to decide

[10:52.17]about the age-old work-life balance question

[10:56.94]and I said to her,

[10:58.50]Never sell your soul,

[11:00.99]because if you do,

[11:01.90]no one will pay you back

[11:04.73]Now that may seem like very

[11:06.61]Touchy feely advice

[11:10.66]for a bunch of hardcore scientist engineers.

[11:14.60]But what I know

[11:16.52]about business in life

[11:18.45]is that there are many,

[11:19.81]many, many opportunities

[11:22.48]to lose your way,

[11:24.40]there are many opportunities

[11:25.40]to lose your way

[11:26.14]because you are overcame by greed.

[11:29.28]That's what the

[11:30.49]backdating stock option scandal's about.

[11:31.96]People have been overcome by greed

[11:35.69]and they have forgotten the fundamentals

[11:37.41]about what's right and what's wrong.

[11:41.30]People can be overcome by their ambition.

[11:45.14]I'm going to do this

[11:45.95]because if I do this

[11:46.96]I get the next job

[11:48.63]or I save the job I have

[11:51.60]People can be overcome by fear,

[11:54.48]I talk a lot about fear in this book

[11:56.72]because if you want to change

[11:58.60]what people are doing,

[11:59.88]you have to understand

[12:01.24]that people are afraid of change,

[12:04.32]change is always resisted,

[12:07.55]it's human nature.

[12:09.81]Why is the change resisted?

[12:11.78]Because people fear the unknown;

[12:14.81]and because the nature momentum

[12:17.70]of any institution is

[12:19.05]to preserve the status quo.

[12:21.62]Why?

[12:23.72]Because the status quo

[12:26.55]preserves the position

[12:27.65]of those who hold power.

[12:30.93]It is human nature

[12:31.78]that people who have power

[12:33.37]want to keep it.

[12:36.19]And so any institution

[12:39.18]is focused on the preservation

[12:41.71]of the power

[12:42.88]of those who already have it,

[12:46.11]human nature.

[12:47.86]If you want to transform something

[12:50.27]as we had to transform

[12:51.75]a great company called Hewlett Packard,

[12:53.68]you have to understand fear.

[12:56.15]You have to understand human motivation

[12:58.64]and you got understand the numbers.

[13:03.44]This book is about all those things,

[13:07.92]and I'm gonna stop talking here

[13:09.32]in about 2 minutes

[13:10.24]so we have plenty of time for your questions.

[13:13.52]Now one of things that I believe

[13:19.19]is that change not only requires

[13:22.48]an understanding of human nature,

[13:26.15]change also requires clear-eyed realism,

[13:31.66]change requires a deep understanding

[13:34.80]of what is wrong,

[13:38.85]so that means, for example,

[13:42.49]understanding all of issues

[13:44.66]and articulating them to people.

[13:47.72]When I came to Hewlett Packard in 1999,

[13:51.10]this was a company as I mentioned,

[13:52.73]legging further and further behind,

[13:54.54]as measured in innovation,

[13:56.84]as measured in financial performance,

[13:59.09]as measured in competitive position,

[14:01.64]by every measure,

[14:04.02]HP was falling further and further behind,

[14:06.19]and it was also a company

[14:07.67]dissolved into what I called 1000 trifles

[14:12.92]at 87 different business units

[14:15.47]they all did their their own thing,

[14:17.44]they all had their own brands in the market,

[14:19.76]150 of them,

[14:21.04]believe it or not,

[14:21.94]when I asked

[14:22.59]how many employees we had,

[14:24.33]no one could answer the question,

[14:27.06]because they were 87 different IT systems,

[14:28.95]and 87 different HR departments,

[14:31.53]not very effective.

[14:32.44]But people were so possessive

[14:37.00]of their resources and their power.

[14:43.61]When you come into transform a company,

[14:44.98]it is a leader's job to see things

[14:47.54]that others don't see

[14:50.11]that is a leader's fundamental responsibility

[14:53.88]to see things before others see them.

[14:56.35]The leader's most fundamental job

[14:57.76]is to sense danger and opportunity

[15:00.04]ahead of others and to act on it.

[15:03.38]And if you doubt that

[15:04.34]think about the parable of Kodak

[15:06.24]and Hewlett Packard,

[15:08.59]Kodak was a company that in 1999

[15:10.76]set on the huge pair of profit

[15:13.06]in the traditional photography business

[15:15.82]less in 5 years later,

[15:18.68]that business was drifting away,

[15:20.80]because a new technology had transformed

[15:23.24]an entire industry,

[15:24.81]all of you have cell phones

[15:25.91]you all take pictures with them.

[15:27.82]And that happened in about 5 years,

[15:30.04]when Kodak finally announced

[15:31.70]with all due respect to anyone

[15:32.92]who is here who works for Kodak,

[15:34.71]when Kodak finally announced,

[15:36.33]OK, we get it, we're going to

[15:38.30]now move to the new digital edge,

[15:41.42]we're going to deemphasize

[15:43.29]our traditional business.

[15:44.76]The market said,

[15:45.36]Yeah, that's the right decision

[15:47.44]everybody accepted it

[15:50.32]It was too late and Kodak brand may survive,

[15:53.96]but it's not clear the company will.

[15:57.24]On the other hand,

[15:57.91]when we undertook the merger with Compaq,

[15:59.83]very few people saw it,

[16:02.75]the fact that technology industry

[16:04.46]maybe had to consolidate

[16:06.13]was been viewed as heresy,

[16:08.97]the fact that scope and skill mattered,

[16:12.35]the fact that we could

[16:13.16]actually compete against Dell,

[16:15.74]the fact that maybe we could

[16:17.11]overcome IBM as the largest technology company

[16:20.24]in the world, by the way,

[16:21.11]these all goals all things were said way

[16:23.18]back to 2001,

[16:25.31]they seemed like hubris and naivety,

[16:30.42]and yet looking back now,

[16:31.48]it's clear the industry had to consolidate,

[16:34.53]it's clear that HP is competing

[16:36.44]against Dell and IBM.

[16:38.77]At the time that we announced Compaq merger,

[16:41.32]I told the board of both companies

[16:43.03]the stock will drop,

[16:44.82]HP stock will drop 20%,

[16:48.86]and it dropped 23%.

[16:51.00]I was the close.

[16:52.46]But my point being that sometimes

[16:55.85]a leader's job is to undertake

[16:58.16]the difficult job of transformation,

[17:01.20]and in this case it was a great company

[17:03.62]we're saving,

[17:05.90]but it is a tough, painful CRIsis

[17:09.19]for everyone involved,

[17:11.25]and I accepted that part of a transformation

[17:13.63]means that people who have lost their jobs,

[17:17.62]I laid off 36,000 people in my tenure,

[17:21.80]those people don't like me,

[17:23.47]I understand that,

[17:25.05]I understand that

[17:25.72]part of what comes with leading transformation

[17:28.09]is people tend to focus their resentment

[17:30.92]and fear and anger

[17:32.00]on the person leading the change,

[17:35.48]but leadership is all about change.

[17:39.37]Management

[17:41.40]is about producing acceptable results

[17:43.63]within a known set of parameters,

[17:46.25]management is a worthy profession,

[17:48.28]but it is not leadership,

[17:50.25]leadership is about

[17:51.61]changing the order of things,

[17:54.05]seeing possibilities

[17:55.57]that others do not see.

[18:00.63]Some of you who may

[18:01.58]have heard me speak before know

[18:02.90]that I believe deeply

[18:03.96]that anyone can leave from

[18:05.55]any place at any time.

[18:07.08]Leadership is not about position,

[18:08.54]leadership is not

[18:09.20]about how many degrees you have,

[18:11.57]leadership is about the decision

[18:13.14]to make positive, different,

[18:14.45]changing the order of things.

[18:16.83]But leadership is

[18:18.49]both rewarding and difficult,

[18:21.87]my most important lesson,

[18:23.04]I'll stop here take your question,

[18:24.37]my most important lesson

[18:25.59]about leadership came

[18:26.91]when I was a secretary,

[18:29.74]I sat, typed, answered the phones,

[18:31.76]by the way,

[18:32.44]the building that I sat in was one block

[18:34.76]from Hewlett Packard headquarters,

[18:37.34]how strange.

[18:40.83]About 6 months into that job,

[18:43.55]two men came to see me,

[18:46.02]those two men said,

[18:46.78]you know we think maybe

[18:48.32]you can do something else,

[18:50.25]we think maybe you can

[18:51.72]do something more,

[18:52.42]would you like to help us

[18:54.50]write some deals?

[18:56.42]That was my first introduction

[18:57.97]to the possibility

[18:59.13]that I might choose a career on business.

[19:02.21]What was the leadership lesson

[19:03.38]I learned that day

[19:04.20]it is a leader's job to see possibilities

[19:07.18]in other people,

[19:08.91]it is a leader's job to see the possibilities

[19:11.39]in circumstances.

[19:14.79]Change requires realism,

[19:16.94]clear-eyed realism

[19:19.48]about where we are

[19:20.54]and what our problems

[19:21.61]and our risks are.

[19:23.00]But change requires a sense of possibility

[19:26.00]and optimism as well,

[19:28.52]because optimism is the belief

[19:29.88]that things can get better

[19:32.61]and optimists trust

[19:34.89]that people are willing to go along

[19:36.76]for the journey

[19:38.07]despite their fears.

[19:39.85]That day those two men taught me

[19:41.38]the leaders see the possibilities in others

[19:43.91]and possibilities in circumstances,

[19:46.80]and so I will close with my

[19:48.16]other side of career advice

[19:50.14]before I take your question,

[19:51.30]which is don't spend all your time

[19:54.47]worrying about the next job,

[19:57.23]do the job you have,

[19:59.50]do it with passion,

[20:00.92]do it with commitment,

[20:02.00]do it with excellence,

[20:03.34]and do it with honor

[20:04.10]and integrity,

[20:05.27]learn everything you can in the job

[20:08.08]you are doing,

[20:09.59]focus on the possibilities

[20:11.16]where can you make a difference.

[20:12.94]Don't fixate on

[20:14.61]all the things you can't do,

[20:16.97]focus on the things you can do.

[20:19.31]And if you do that,

[20:21.88]opportunity will knock.

[20:24.65]People will present you

[20:26.68]with opportunities to do more,

[20:28.75]when opportunity knocks,

[20:31.17]do not be afraid to answer,

[20:33.45]do not be afraid to go outside

[20:34.86]your comforts to try something new

[20:36.56]to take a risk,

[20:37.48]maybe to make a mistake.

[20:38.98]It is what life and success are made of.

[20:42.37]I never had a plan to be a CEO,

[20:45.51]I never thought I would be a CEO,

[20:49.70]the first time it ever occurred to me

[20:51.69]that maybe I could be a CEO

[20:54.67]was when I graduated from Sloan,

[20:57.56]and probably because

[20:58.27]I saw a lot of CEOs walk through here,

[21:01.52]and I discovered watching all those CEOs,

[21:04.96]some of them I had enormous respect for,

[21:09.00]some I did not,

[21:10.82]some I like to have a drink with afterwards,

[21:13.09]some I hoped I never see again,

[21:17.08]some seemed comport themselves

[21:18.79]with excellence and honor,

[21:20.11]some did not.

[21:22.69]People are people wherever you go,

[21:25.72]and if you can choose to lead or not.