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What Would You Ask Carly Fiorina?

Carly Fiorina is speaking out. The woman who was fired 20 months ago from her post as Hewlett-Packard's CEO has written a book about her rise through the business world, her work at HP, her dismissal, and the media frenzy that swirled around her in the weeks after. Now she's opening herself up to questioning. I'll be interviewing Fiorina late Wednesday afternoon. Here's your chance. Have a topic you'd really like to see her talk about? Have a question you'd love to ask her yourself? Give me your suggestions, and I'll throw the best ones into the mix.

Fiorina's book, Tough Choices, hits bookstores Tuesday, Oct. 10, less than a week after Patricia Dunn, the recently ousted chairman at HP, and four others were indicted on felony charges of fraud and conspiracy in connection with a boardroom leak investigation that involved spying and accessing phone and fax records using false pretenses.

In Fiorina's book, she talks about her rise through AT&T and HP's courtship of her for the lofty CEO job. Early on in her discussions with outgoing CEO Lew Platt and members of the board, she had misgivings about the board's actions--or more accurately, inactions. She writes, "Hewlett-Packard was the storied, original start-up that had spawned Silicon Valley from a garage. Then growth and innovation had stalled. The company had become known as the gray lady of Silicon Valley." She goes on to talk about going into a company that "lacked a strategy," was a "market laggard," and whose culture was both a great strength and a source of weakness.

She also takes on the now-nearly-mythical "HP Way." The book, The HP Way, is David Packard's story about the building of HP, along with its management philosophy. On their first day at HP, new employees are given records and benefits papers to fill out, they're given manuals, and they're each given a copy of The HP Way. Fiorina challenged the myth. She writes in her book that the book title became a frequently used phrase that "was being used as a shield against change." She writes, "As I became a champion of change for some, I would become a dangerous heretic for others."

Fiorina writes about her surprise at how focused many people were on the fact that she was a woman in business and not just a business leader who happened to be a woman. "Vanity Fair, despite being warned numerous times that they were writing fiction about me, continued to report that I traveled constantly with a hairdresser and a makeup artist. There was a persistent rumor, bolstered by commentary in the local press, that I'd built a pink marble bathroom in my office." She goes on to say she was often described as "flashy" or "glamorous" or "diamond-studded."

She writes about the battles she waged to push the HP/Compaq merger through, and she writes about the day she was fired from her job, being told the board had voted her out, but not being able to face the board members who made the decision. They had left the room before she was ushered in.

In the end, Fiorina says 2005 was the "payoff year" she had expected. HP, she says, had delivered the plan she set in place. "The company's 2005 results finally demonstrated that HP had indeed been transformed."

It's quite a story, no matter what you think of the job she did at HP. So go ahead: Think about what you'd like to ask her. Weigh in with your own questions and then watch for the story later this week.

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