How Hewlett-Packard Lost Its Way
By James
Bandler & Doris Burke
In the article “How Hewlett-Packard Lost Its Way” by James Bandler and Doris Burke
they explain to us how the troubles at Hewlett-Packard (HP) came about. Their
main focus was on the many CEO’s HP has had over a short time span, the
behaviors of the Board, the aftermath of
Leo Apotheker’s volatile term as CEO,
and whether or not the current CEO, Meg Whitman, can handle HP’s crumbling
empire.
In the past seven years HP has had three
CEO’s, Carly Fiorina, Leo Apotheker and Meg Whitman, each of them having a
caseload of difficult problems and situations to attend to in their own style.
What added to each ones obligation was the feuding between the members of the
Board. These behaviors had become more apparent to the public during the merger
with Compaq in 2002 and have continued to spiral out of control. (Bandler)
Since Hewlett-Packard has been experiencing many problems throughout their
company the repercussions were outright disregard for Meg Whitman and the
severe lack of morale in the employees.
Whitman’s main strategy is, “Let’s execute better while we figure out our long-term plan.” This in turns asks the question “What is HP?” (Bandler) During Whitman’s brief tenure at Hewlett-Packard she is still struggling. In Businessinsider’s article they depict 7 ways that she is faltering. First, is the direction she put HP to go forth on is wrong because of advancing technology. Second, her strategy is not impressive. Third, is from the damage of extremely lowered cost. Fourth, she has not assimilated in the HP culture yet. Fifth, in the beginning of her rein she seemed to have a lot of similarities with Apotheker’ beginning. Sixth, Whitman is still receiving help from Ray Lane, HP Chairman. Seventh, Whitman showed too much of an abundance of self-confidence during her first quarter of leadership when the results were much less than great. From these reasons Whitman’s definitive score on here likability and capability is still in hiatus. (Bort)
In
conclusion, the phrase “time heals all wounds” is true then it’s the exact
opposite of what Helett-Packard can expect says businessweek.com. This
statement seems to hold truth to it because of the constant leaks and lack of
communication. Let’s hope that HP can pull its top executives and members of
the board together and maybe just maybe they can climb out of the hole they dug
themselves in.
Bandler, James.
"Tech." How Hewlett-Packard lost its
way.
www.money.cnn.com, 08May2012. Web. 22 Jul 2012.
<http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/08/500-hp-apotheker/>.
Bort, Julie.
"Tech Media." How Hewlett-Packard lost its
way. www.businessinsider.com,
08May2012. Web. 20 Jul 2012.
<http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/05/08/500-hp-apotheker/>.Bandler,
James
Vance, Ashley.
"Technology." HP Is Still Full of Leaks.
www.money.cnn.com, 08May2012. Web. 20 Jul 2012. <http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-10/hp-is-still-full-of-leaks>.
Technically astute people don't buy HP PCs any more. They are loaded with crapware and lack a Windows disk (a recovery partition is not enough). They also have marginally-useful proprietary tweaks. In the server space HP doesn't surround their HP-branded hardware with the useful software competitors offer. Compaq-branded servers are hanging in there much better. If Ms. Whitman can turn the HP mess around, maybe she'll have proved she would have been a good Governor after all. I'd hesitate to make any quick conclusions about her efforts. It might take years to get to an accurate judgement on her results.
ReplyDeleteJeanette
ReplyDeleteI can't believe what is going on with HP. Sometimes it is so sad to see Companies that had so much power and great potential spiral down. I think it is tragic that they have let this leak in their company get so big were it has spilled out into the public. I hope they are able to regain the confidence of their consumers and the competence for their internal organization.
Thank you for sharing this article Jeanette. I am surprised that the board of directors let Whitman have the CEO position without a clear strategy from the beginning. This course has focused so much on the importance of a clear strategy, and communicating that strategy down through the ranks to the most entry-level position; that it seems odd for a company as important as HP to be content with the leadership performance described in the article. That might explain the drama of the board "feuding". It sounds like the board of directors doesn't agree on the direction of the company ether. Hopefully Whitman will be able to rally her efforts at HP to get the board and the rest of the company moving together toward a common goal.
ReplyDeleteJeanette,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting article. Recently, we are hearing a lot about HP in the media and this article provides a good insight into HP’s management struggles in the last few years. This clearly illustrates how important management and planning skills are in a business. Not only will Whitman have to shape back the board but also will need to focus on the company’s direction.