Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, gave a lecture tonight as part of the university's Tate Lecture Series. She got her undergraduate degree from Stanford in medieval history and philosophy, two majors that many people might consider totally worthless, but she got two graduate degrees and became one of the most powerful people in business, despite, or perhaps with help from her seemingly useless majors. The first thing that struck me about her speech was that while every other speaker I've seen has either sat while speaking or stood behind a podium, she stood on stage without a podium. Speaking in front of a large audience is not easy and it must be even harder with no podium to hide behind.
She began her speech by talking about how her childhood, and specifically her parents, were key to her success. She then shared some advice, stressing the importance of being authentic - not only having integrity, but also being true to yourself and not selling your soul "because no one can pay you back for it." She said that what you are is God's gift to you and what you make of yourself is your gift to God.
Next, she talked about business and the changes in the world that we have seen recently and will continue to see. She talked about globalization and how in just 15 years, our economy has transformed to a global economy and that people in other countries all want to be a part of the global economy.
She also talked about technology becoming digital, mobile, virtual, and personal. Everything that was previously analog will someday be digitized, if it hasn't already, she said, citing examples like music and photography that are now stored as 1s and 0s instead of on records and film, respectively. Things that were previously stationary, such as phones, now exist in the pockets of most Americans. The change from real to virtual could be seen even before digitization and mobilization of devices began, such as with the inventions of television and radio. Personal technology could include things like iPods, of which many people have their own and personalize it to their tastes. Her speech ended after about 45 minutes, which is shorter than the more-than-an-hour-long speeches I'm used to at these lectures.
To review her speech, I liked the personal touch of her talking about her childhood, too often people seem to overlook where they started in life and the decisions they made to get where they are now. This was a good subject to start on because it was light and was a good way for Carly to introduce herself to the audience, but she lacked any humor or interesting stories that could have enthralled the audience from the beginning.
Offering advice to the audience is one of the best things that a speaker can do at these lectures, for me, at least. While most of the audience is elderly and might be too late in life to benefit much from hearing the means by which these speakers became successful, as someone who would like to be successful, I find advice from successful people to be valuable. The advice she offered was definitely valid, though nothing I didn't already believe myself, but I wished that she had spent more time offering her advice to people who might benefit from knowing how she progressed to such a high level in business.
The largest part of her speech, business trends, which included her discussion of globalization and technological trends, could have also been very enlightening from someone who has a deep knowledge of the business world. However, this portion of her speech disappointed me. While she talked about globalization for a while, she spoke mostly in general terms. She offered a few examples of globalization from her tenure at HP, which were only mildly interesting, but I did not feel that I gained anything from hearing her talk about globalization. She talked too vaguely for me to feel that I had learned much and she did not tie it all together to seem to be making any kind of point.
Her talk about the trends in technology to be digital, mobile, virtual, and personal was more interesting because it was a new idea to me and is a valuable way of looking at trends in technology. I felt, however, that some of her examples were lacking.
While she had cards to help her with her speech, I don't think she prepared adequately, judging by her short speech-time, her lack of clear organization, the lack of good anecdotes and clear examples, and the lack of an overarching purpose to her speech. While I benefited from hearing her speak, it was one of the weaker speeches I've heard in the Tate Lecture Series.
