Is Ann Livermore The Hottest Property In The Valley?

In the spring of 1998, with Hewlett-Packard Co. stuck in one of the deepest funks of its 60-year history, the company's top executives agreed to put themselves through a so-called 360-degree evaluation in which they would open themselves up to criticism from employees, peers, and board members. That's when Ann M. Livermore, then head of HP's $5 billion software and services business, discovered something about herself. "I learned that I'm a very, very well-controlled executive, but that my employees like when I go off the handle every once in a while--you know, show my human side," says Livermore. "It reinforced that leadership means touching people's hearts as well as their brains--so since then I haven't worried so much about keeping my lid on."

That's for sure. In the past year, Livermore has evolved from a cautious practitioner of HP's consensus-oriented management into a lightning rod for change at Silicon Valley's granddaddy of technology companies. It was she who finally got HP into gear on the Internet. After years of fragmented efforts, she broke through HP's highly decentralized structure of warring tribes to create an "E-services" vision that finally put HP into the Net game alongside IBM and Sun Microsystems. And when HP CEO Lewis E. Platt announced in March that he would step down, Livermore shocked some colleagues by confirming that she wanted the job.