Opinion: 3 Things HP Needs To Do Right Away
HP's board has done it again. Leo Apotheker was fired, seemingly without much deliberation, from the CEO post. Successor Meg Whitman inherits a half-baked strategy that has HP dangling between a hardware-focused and a software-tailored future.
HP's board did it again: CEO Leo Apotheker was fired, seemingly without much deliberation. Named his successor, former Ebay CEO Meg Whitman inherits a half-baked business strategy that has HP dangling between a hardware-focused and a software-tailored future.
One of Whitman's first official statements was that she has a lot to do at HP. Given the fact HP stock declined by 47 percent during Apotheker's leadership, Whitman may have understated what lies ahead of HP - a monster corporation that can hardly control its growing number of arms and legs. Torn between the sprouts of different business strategies, it is difficult to define what HP is about today. I have some thoughts what Whitman should be doing right away.
1. Remember the HP Way: Reinstall it, and employees will follow you
Hewlett-Packard has had a few CEOs and chairpersons who followed the ‘new broom sweeps clean’ mantra. In 2001, HP began its move into the services business through a merger with Compaq, who had previously acquired Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)—a major services force. The highly controversial move was pushed through by then CEO Carly Fiorina. While it was common knowledge HP's weakness was a lacking Internet strategy (which Fiorina's predecessor Lew Platt missed completely). Fiorina wanted to change HP’s image from that of a ‘printer company’ into a PC and services giant. She was forced to resign in 2005 over differences with HP's board. Mark Hurd took over in 2005 (after 25 years at NCR) and instituted a rigorous cost-cutting strategy which allowed HP to gain traction again. He resigned in 2010 after an internal investigation (sparked by a sexual harassment claim against Hurd) uncovered expense-account irregularities. Leo Apotheker was appointed CEO of HP in late 2010 and was replaced by Whitman this week due to the board’s reported unhappiness with Apotheker’s execution of HP's business strategy.
Most of HP’s recent CEOs may have made the same mistake of failing to remember the company’s foundation. HP’s foundation is not its printer business, PC business, or its services. It's about the employees and the heritage of William Hewlett and David Packard, whose greatest idea may have been the creation of the HP Way. The HP Way is generally described as the core values of the company's two founders and the art of translating those values into a structure of operating a business by establishing and maintaining a corporate structure and creating business strategies. In that sense, HP has a hidden treasure and opportunity few other companies have, but it is also a trap for newcomers seeking to make HP their own, which simply cannot be. Mark Hurd was possibly the CEO most committed to the HP Way, as he reportedly promoted the heritage of Hewlett and Packard above his own. Whitman will have to reinstate the heritage of the company and its core values and build upon them. HP does not need another new broom that sweeps clean.
2. Invent: Foster creativity and innovation to fix the cracks and lay a new foundation for the HP of 2015.
"Invent" is the little word that HP likes to put below its logo, yet it is innovation which Whitman must focus on. Unfortunately, the true innovation we once expected from a company the size of HP just isn’t there anymore.
I can’t think of any innovation HP is known for these days. In printers, it is difficult to create something beyond LCD displays in color printers. Besides, when was the last time we got excited about a new printer? The current PC market can be frustrating and problematic given its low-margin. However, we know that with hundreds of millions of PCs being sold every year an opportunity for innovation is just waiting to be unlocked. One such opportunity slipped through HP’s fingers in 2006 when newly acquired VoodooPC was killed off. Another chance disappeared when HP completely missed the tablet market despite having all the necessary tools to make it a success, including the advantage of building upon hardware and software no competitor could. In services, HP appears to remain in an eternal second-place behind IBM, fighting for much smaller services portions with smaller services providers. While HP is following the cloud computing trend, it struggles to sell its ideas, which are often just marketing phrases placed atop larger trends. Today, HP's tagline should be "follow" and not "invent".
I know patent filings are a controversial topic these days, but consider the fact HP published just 26 U.S. patent applications over the past 60 days while IBM filed 634 applications. IBM was granted 1299 patents by the USPTO, while HP received only 245.There may be questionable patents in both collections, but the perception is clear that HP needs to do more.
3. Drop Services: Return to your roots, take advantage of HP's brainpower
I admit this is certainly a controversial idea. HP Services are second in revenue to only HP PC sales - $1.2 billion in profits compared to $892 million in net earnings. (Posted by the printing group for Q2 2011.) However, HP is ever more frequently colliding with IBM and getting cut out off from the big deals the company desires. The only way for HP to sustain its services business will be the acquisition of companies such as Autonomy, which will get increasingly expensive.
There are few successful companies in both the consumer and enterprise markets. The enterprise market is occupied by IBM, which would make the choice to go much more effectively after the consumer market an obvious one for HP, thus avoiding compromised budgets and strategies that have to be divided between the two markets. Focusing everything on the consumer market would enable HP to compete with Apple much more effectively, develop products consumers get excited about, and deliver on the company’s innovative promise. It's a big risk, but HP has the resources and the brainpower to turn its traditional business and strength back into the wind.
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I have a really great strategy for HP: quit making crappy computers. Step up the quality of your components and build machines to last. After owning a couple HP's and having them completely fall apart, I will never buy another nor recommend one to a friend. Time to change my opinion on your product quality HP.
You lost me at, "Innovate" is the little word that HP likes to put below its logo.
The word is Invent NOT Innovate
1. Sell cheap but powerful PCs
2. Release a Windows tablet
3. Not spunk billions on Palm only to chuck it in the bin and axe WebOS
I remember a time when HP made the best printers, best PC's out there. Now, they make mostly junk. I can't say they don't innovate, because the little Android tablet on the inkjet printer idea is a pretty nice idea. However, HP inkjet printers no longer use the least amount of ink, though they still have a sharp, vibrant printout, and their computers are just as crappy as Dell's. They need to take the high road, much like Apple, and quit peddling junk. They've ruined their name!
1. Stop selling PC's with bloatware (yes they all still have crapware)
2. Bring all Customer Support & manufacturing back to the U.S.
3. After 1 & 2 market your products better.
I agree. We're a local computer shop and HP and Dell keep our doors open with there poorly crafted computers.
1) Software is bloated to hell.
2) Laptop cooling is so...... bad and causing so many cooling issues.
3) Cheap plastic cracks
4) Hasn't released anything ground breaking new, just a refresh of crappy crap with new CPUs.
HP reminds me of Emachines before Acer bought out emachines and destroyed the brand.
I guess we have HP as the new Emachines! Such a pile of #$#%
My advise for HP: Don't pay a lousy rapper a gazillion dollars for advertising..
How about a new logo? That Christmas font had become annoying and looks extremely unprofessional. Consumers want something that looks sleek.
HP is big enough they could separate the divisions into semi-autonomous business units. So if services wants to grow they have their own budget, revenue, profit - the same for Consumer Products and etc.
For computer experts, their pc build options seem to be made by retards.
Therein lies a problem. (why offer the most super duper intel chip, then compromise it with unknown motherboard and a discreet GPU on a par with intels new on board graphics, no better than dodgy pc builders on ebay, quad core = 3.6x4 = OVER 9000 GIGAHURRTZ)
Also, advising HP to go after consumers instead of enterprise market seems somewhat foolish.
Don't let the Laserjet's reputation for quality slide. When it counts, people still want to be able to take their printers for granted, not babysit them or replace parts every few weeks or months. Yes, you ARE a printer company; be the best one.
Tell all the advertisers to take a hike. Bloatware really sucks.
Your customer service is fast and efficient (I was able to verify warranty coverage on someone ELSE's HP laptop and get a HDD replacement for her in a matter of only 2 days, without jumping through hoops with script-reading "technicians"). Make sure consumers know that.
Edit: And I agree with the article's #1. People are enthusiastic about joining companies with a solid foundation of meaningful core principles. If you're not that, disillusionment and apathy can set in, and apathy in particular is a killer.
As someone who lived through the Hurd regime, as soon as you said "Mark Hurd was possibly the CEO most committed to the HP Way", the rest of the article suddenly lost all credibility. Mark Hurd was a butcher. Sure, he was good at burning all the furniture in order to prop up the short term stock price, but he was a one-trick-pony (the only thing he was good at was cutting costs, and destroying HP's ability to do any meaningful R&D), and he was universally hated by technical/R&D employees for it. Mark's Way was the antithesis of the HP Way.
HP.... can't do anything...
Does the world actually NEED HP?
1. Sell cheap but powerful PCs2. Release a Windows tablet3. Not spunk billions on Palm only to chuck it in the bin and axe WebOS
The Windows tablet is the biggest misery! It would sell as hot cakes well even better than Windows Phones 7. Just look for review on Windows tablets. They suck!!! All of them, because of Windows! Forget about Desktop applications on tablets!!!
I sure hope they dont listen to your third point as I work for HPES.
Wolfgang plagiarized my posts from other HP stories here! LOL
I suppose I should be flattered.
Three things.
1) Focus on quality products, and customer service.
2) Go back to their roots and remember how Bill and Dave operated the company, the HP way.
3) The entire board should resign for the good of the company.
Listen to your employees.... Or, in this case your ex-employee, he knows what to do, promote him to CEO or something cause honestly your last CEO was like a fish in a desert.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/o [...] -2011.html
Still can't believe you fired this guy.
The Windows tablet is the biggest misery! It would sell as hot cakes well even better than Windows Phones 7. Just look for review on Windows tablets. They suck!!! All of them, because of Windows! Forget about Desktop applications on tablets!!!
Please note I did not say Windows 7 tablet, just Windows tablet.
Windows 8 will do a storm, certainly a lot better than what it cost them to dump the Touchpad.
You lost me at, "Innovate" is the little word that HP likes to put below its logo.The word is Invent NOT Innovate
Cut the guy some slack; he's an Apple expert, not HP.
I'll never buy another HP printer. They make great printers, but their software is the worst. Every time I need to print there's a problem. The printer driver needs to be reinstalled, or it won't see the HP network printer that is visible to the rest of the network and can be pinged. My brother has a Canon printer and I installed the drivers in 5 minutes and was printing. It takes me 30 minutes EVERY TIME I want to print something to an HP printer. And it isn't just the one printer, ITS ALL OF THEM. So maybe if they hire some new software engineers and rewrite all their drivers from scratch then maybe they could get somewhere. Lately I have had more success by installing their barebones drivers and skipping the rest of their software bundle. It also makes driver reinstalls much faster.
"The HP Way is generally described as the core values of the company's two founders and the art of translating those values into a structure of operating a business by establishing and maintaining a corporate structure and creating business strategies."
I can't believe Mr. Gruener wrote an entire paragraph about the importance of following core values without ever identifying what those core values are.
"Another chance disappeared when HP completely missed the tablet market despite having all the necessary tools to make it a success, including the advantage of building upon hardware and software no competitor could."
What exclusive hardware is this? AFAIK, HP doesn't manufacture it's own hardware and the hardware it has access to is available to any other vendor. And what advantage was WebOS supposed to give HP over its competitors? Is Mr. Gruener arguing that WebOS has/had the potential to be a superior OS to Android and iOS? If he is, he can't just gloss over that argument without providing support.
The third section argues that HP should focus more on competing with Apple for the consumer market instead of with IBM for the enterprise business. It never provides any support or reasoning for why HP should choose one over the other. If anything, I'd say intuitively that the consumer market is harder to break into than the enterprise market.
While I agree with Mr. Gruener that HP needs to make radical changes to save its business, I must say this is one of the most poorly written articles I've read on the subject.
Really you think they will take your crappy free advice they pay more to their workers than taking your free advice of a bribed website
Big picture focus change is required, from hardware to helpdesk.
Speaking and living at the bottom of the HP Enterprise ladder:
"Eliminate the stress created by technology in the workplace"
1. Sell the company to Agilent.
2. Try and develop new products & services that fulfill the present and future needs of their customers, not just cheap me-too knockoffs of other companies ideas.
3. Get feedback and research first before making profound changes instead of panicking and going off half-cocked.
Make a HP touchpad 2
use a 16:9 9.7 inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1280x720
Use a VGA front facing camera, and a 3-5MP rear facing camera
Use a dual core snapdragon CPU, enable voltage scaling to slightly overvolt the CPU for a turbo mode where the clock speed is increased from 1.5GHz to 2.1GHz (it can overclock to 1.9 GHz on stock voltages)
1-2GB RAM
9000mAh 3.7V battery (user replaceable)
Add 2 USB ports, 1 mini HDMI, 1 Headphone jack, 1 Microphone jack
For connectivity, allow Wifi, bluetooth, and IRDA (for those who want TV remote functionality as well as home automation, consider teaming up with nevo for this)
For location services, use built in GPS (
If people inchina can make a knockoff smartphone with GPS, wifi, bluetooth, 3g, dual sim card and many other features for $50, I am sure HP can add a single GPS chip (retail, the chip needed to add GPS support cost less than $1 imagine buying it in bulk for volume discount)
Stereo speakers (bevel the speaker port to prevent cracking around the speakers)
Have it dual boot android and webOS
Avoid locking down the device so users can use a wide range of devices and linux drivers (allowing them to add 4g modems, external drives, USB microphones and speakers and many other USB devices.
Do all this and market it at $175 for a 16GB version and $199 for a 32GB version, and $225 for a 64GB version
100 megabyte printer drivers? Also, I know a lot of people with HP laptops that have a very loud CPU fan, reported by them to start happening after 6 months of ownership.
Also, their printers will resort to using your more expensive color ink if you run out of black ink.
That kind of garbage made me hesitate on getting anything else by HP.
It amazes me that everyone - including the author has completely forgotten about the *other* side of HP's enterprise offering - the hardware, HP is number one worldwide for servers - rack, blade, and pretty sure tower as well, they are number two worldwide for storage, 2nd only to EMC, and are rapidly gaining market share in the networking space as well. They also have a pretty solid offering in the business notebook and desktop space, yet everyone here seems to be concentrating on the consumer notebook/desktop space - which is a fairly small part of HP as a whole as is definitely not what they live/die by.
4) Offer the AIO-PCs without TV-Tuner in Switzerland, as many people don't want to pay TV fees.
500 KILOBYTES printer drivers without additional software, not 500 MEGABYTES.
What is this hp printer thing everyone keeps talking about?
As a linux user, I just plugged my hp printer in, and the desktop gave me a little notification 2 seconds later saying "HP Printer ready for use" and I was good to go.
Is it really that horrible on Windows?