Backfire - Peter Burrows

"Reading at times like a Clancy novel and at others like a Greek tragedy, Burrows?s Backfire presents a detailed picture of how a leader can rob a company of its soul and cause it to stray from the principles that had made it enduringly great. Read it and weep."
?Jerry I. Porras
Lane Professor of Organizational Behavior and Change Emeritus, Stanford Business School
coauthor,
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

"Peter Burrows has written a fascinating account of the largest high–tech merger and proxy fight of all time. Riveting stories about Carly Fiorina, Walter Hewlett, and the melodrama in the HP corporate boardroom make this book a great read as well as an object lesson in corporate governance and corporate change."
?David B. Yoffie
Starr Professor of International Business Administration, Harvard Business School
author,
Judo Strategy: Turning Your Competitors? Strength to Your Advantage

"Carly Fiorina?s story as told by Burrows illustrates well the timeless role of leaders: to help organizations work through necessary but painful changes that don?t happen naturally."
?Robert Burgelman
Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management, Stanford Graduate School of Business
coauthor,
Strategy Is Destiny: How Strategy–Making Shapes a Company?s Future

"A well–researched view inside the controversial management transition at HP. The personality–dominated decision–making process at HP shows us how the power of personalities can override and reshape business legacies. Backfire has all the makings of a modern historical novel."
?Regis McKenna
author,
Total Access and Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the Age of the Customer

"At a time when corporate governance was a most important issue in American business, the merger of Hewlett–Packard and Compaq produced a proxy battle that should have embarrassed everyone involved. Backfire tells the story in all its gory detail. It is must reading for investors, executives, and anyone who cares about corporate governance."
?Roger McNamee
cofounder, Integral Capital Partners and Silver Lake Partners