In July 1999, Carleton "Carly" Fiorina assumed the position of CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP). Investors were pleased with her view of HP's future: She promised 15 percent annual growth in sales and earnings, quite a goal for a company with five consecutive years of declining revenue. Ms. Fiorina also changed the way HP was run. Rather than continuing to operate as separate product groups, which essentially meant the company operated as dozens of minicompanies, Ms. Fiorina reorganized the company into just two divisions.

In 2002, HP announced that it would merge with Compaq Computers. However, in one of the more acrimonious corporate battles in recent history, a group led by Walter Hewlett, son of one of HP's cofounders, fought against the merger. Ms. Fiorina ultimately prevailed, and the merger took place. With Compaq in the fold, the company began a two-pronged strategy. It would compete with Dell in the lower-cost, more commodity-like personal computer segment and with IBM in the more specialized, high-end computing market.

Unfortunately for HP's shareholders, Ms. Fiorina's strategy did not work out as planned, and, in February 2005, under pressure from HP's board of directors, Ms. Fiorina resigned her position as CEO. Evidently, investors also felt a change in direction was a good idea; HP's stock price jumped almost seven percent the day the resignation was announced.

Understanding Ms. Fiorina's rise from corporate executive to chief executive officer, and finally, ex-employee, takes us into issues involving the corporate form of organization, corporate goals, and corporate control, all of which we discuss in this chapter.