There is a bit family confusion in the HP clan. Craig Barrett, a former CEO of Intel, recently provided an political endorsement for Carly Fiorina and in it he claimed that “my father, Dave Packard, and Bill Hewlett would join him in supporting Carly”.

Barrett's own dad was a strong Republican so would probably vote for one of them on reflex, but the question is whether Packard and Hewlett would have gone the same way.

The feeling is that the HP founders would probably have gone with the board which fired Fiorina early in 2005. When she arrived in 1999, HP earnings per share (adjusted for stock splits) were $1.54. In her last year (2004) they were $1.16. She renamed the outfit HP Invent and got rid of Bill and Dave's famous anti "hire and fire" policy.

Fiorina's merger with Compaq was based on eliminating at least 15,000 HP jobs. Barrett says that Fiorina "positioned HP to gain market share and helped transform HP into the largest computer manufacturer in the world."

But David Packard writing for the Mercury News said that his daddy had a different view about market share as being a good indicator of a company's health. He said that it was not a legitimate management objective of this company, that it leads you to the wrong kind of decisions.

Fiorina's relentless pursuit of size and market share only served her personal ambition to be celebrated as "the most powerful woman in American business." Her fatal failing was her inability to win the respect of HP employees, which stemmed from her inability to trust, empower and motivate these employees, Packard said.