Carly Fiorina
Former Chairman & CEO, Hewlett-Packard, Founder & Chairman, Unlocking Potential and 2016 Presidential Candidate
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Carly Fiorina
Biography
The esteemed career of business luminary and leadership expert Carly Fiorina has had two constants: leadership and problem-solving. From helming Hewlett Packard (HP), to her 2016 run to lead the country, to heading several philanthropic organizations tackling global poverty and female empowerment, she's channeled what is an innate ability to help others reach their highest leadership potential.
Notably, Carly has been a business leader in turbulent times, leading HP to become the 11th largest company in the U.S. when the industry was facing the worst technology recession in 25 years, and during SARS and post-9/11. In this capacity, she exhibited the quintessential traits of a leader: making the difficult decisions necessary to preserve and protect in the short-term, while simultaneously initiating bold moves to create strength and future opportunity upon a return to stabilization.
In 2015, Carly launched a campaign for President. Running as a political outsider, she spoke about empowering and engaging citizens to take back government from a political ruling class that has failed to deliver results. During her run, many more Americans came to know her as a clear-eyed, direct leader capable of actually solving problems.
Today, Carly is a passionate, articulate advocate for problem-solving, innovation, and effective leadership. She is founder and Chairman of Carly Fiorina Enterprises, which counsels companies to create an equitable workplace culture, build high-performance teams, and teach the fundamentals of leadership, and of Unlocking Potential Foundation, a non-profit organization that invests in human potential by supporting local leaders who are solving problems in their communities and places of work.
In addition to her regular speeches to students, businesses and non-profits, Carly is also a best-selling author. Her titles include Tough Choices and Rising to the Challenge. Her third book, Find Your Way, was published in spring 2019 and documents the path to unleashing one's own power and highest potential based on Carly's own personal and profession.
Carly Fiorina
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Carly Fiorina
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Secretary to CEO
A Story of True Leadership
Solving problems, effectively empowering employees, and driving results are the expectations of today’s leaders, at all levels and in every sector.
In a powerful, pragmatic presentation, Carly shares her transformative career story: from secretary for a nine-person real estate business to become the first woman to lead a FORTUNE 50 company, as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
She delivers reflections and lessons learned from a journey on which she solved the problems in front of her and unlocked the potential of those around her.
Based on her own renowned experiences, and with an innate ability to help others reach their highest leadership potential, Carly imparts how leaders can be clear-eyed about their current state, optimistic about their future, and deliberate about getting the results they want.
Building a High-Performance Culture
Lessons from a High-Profile Assignment
As CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina successfully tackled complicated business challenges - strategic focus, product innovation, and mergers and integration – all during the dot.com boom and bust and the worst technology recession in 25 years.
The company’s success can be attributed to Carly’s invaluable foresight: for HP to survive, she had to transform its complacent culture into a dynamic, innovative environment that would enable the company to become the industry leader.
From her renowned leadership of HP, Carly shares her personal account of what it takes to create a high-performance culture. She openly discusses navigating a challenging path filled with hurdles like major acquisition, integration, and transformational change.
For today’s organizations that are forced to adjust in an incessantly volatile business environment, she provides a blueprint for navigating uncertainty, managing change, and building a high-performance culture – all critical keys to empowering and driving results.
Unlocking Potential
Leaders Exist Everywhere
Throughout her career, Carly Fiorina has developed leaders and problem solvers in nearly every sector, from for-profits and non-profits to faith-based communities and academia.
She believes that leadership is not about an impressive title or possessing the corner office, but about effectively solving problems and unlocking the potential of those around you.
Productive members of today’s workforce are increasingly interested in professional growth and development through their surrounding communities, and companies in every industry must provide the tools and resources to meet these very practical needs and foster tomorrow’s leaders.
Based on her work leading the Unlocking Potential Foundation, Carly delivers a powerful presentation that inspires, empowers, and connects employees at every level.
She shares her proven leadership philosophy, which is based on a set of human behaviors and characteristics that everyone can develop and deploy, as well as a set of practical tools that enable effective problem-solving.
Learning from Our Past
Linking History to Today
History can and should be strategically leveraged to help us navigate today’s extremely turbulent times. Instead, too often, we romanticize history, confusing nostalgia for the real thing. Or, we compartmentalize the past and focus only on those aspects that serve a particular rhetorical or political purpose. Sometimes, we even place historic figures on a lofty pedestal that renders them both un-human and un-real, and we cannot expect to emulate what is out of reach.
But, when we combine knowledge and experience about what works in the real world with the principles and ideals upon which our country was founded, then change is possible. This interplay between practicality and ideals is America’s story; practicality and idealism are our gifts to the world.
It’s imperative that we distill practical, real-world fundamentals from our founding ideals of the past, and apply to our present.
With her deep understanding of history, Carly Fiorina offers an insightful assessment of how-to, and what we can learn from, our past. She connects historic events and figures to the current complex issues confronting both our nation and the world.
Carly Fiorina
Featured Books
Tough Choices
by Carly Fiorina
Rising To The Challenge
by Carly Fiorina
Find Your Way
by Carly Fiorina
Carly Fiorina
Featured Articles & Resources
Carly Fiorina - Leadership in Tough Times
Introduction
Welcome to Beyond Speaking with Brian Lord, a podcast featuring deeper conversations with the world's top speakers.
Brian Lord:
Hi, I'm Brian Lord....
PAST: Carly Fiorina | 8/28
Leadership in Tough Times: A Fireside Chat with Carly Fiorina
In this Q&A format, Carly will cover:
- How leaders can approach decision-making in tough times
- How our...