Summary: Carly Fiorina knows tough choices, as the title of her 2006 memoir suggests. As president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, she made the difficult decision to merge the company with rival Compaq Computer. The decision proved a crucible for the storied HP, and the waves it triggered led to her abrupt firing in 2005. Fiorina stands by the decision. "Sometimes a leader's job is to undertake the difficult job of transformation," she told MIT Sloan students in an October 2006 Dean's Innovative Leader Series appearance, presented here. Fiorina, a 1989 MIT Sloan Fellow, is introduced by MIT Sloan Dean Richard Schmalensee.
