Posted on 02/13/2005 7:14:46 AM PST by drt1
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - The next chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. will need to decide whether to stick with Carly Fiorina's two-pronged strategy of trying to beat the company's rivals in what they do best _ IBM in premium computers and services, Dell in business and consumer systems.
Or the Silicon Valley icon could effectively concede defeat in its current multifront war and break itself apart into separate businesses that can focus their employees, management and research resources on specific markets.
After showing Fiorina the door this week, HP's board made its near-term intent clear: It wants to keep the strategy but change how it is executed. "The board is firmly committed to the business strategy that is in place," said Patricia Dunn, HP's new non-executive chairman.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.moneycentral.msn.com ...
HP broke the basic tenets of Positioning and Marketing Warfare, years ago, when they "re-invented themselves", to be all things to all people. They "line extended" their products into markets where they didn't "own a position of strength", and lost millions, yet kept on pursuing a profitable position.
Great printers; so-so computers.
Read "Positioning" and "Marketing Warfare" by Jack Trout & Al Ries. I worked for them at Trout & Ries in the 80s in NYC's midtown, before my new life here in Penna, as a garden center & nursery owner/operator.
There are several chapters on HP in those two, and in other books they've written.
History of corporate failure continues to repeat itself.
Be smart find someone who understands the HP way. Having worked for HP just before and horribly after Carly I can say without reservation that she did not understand how HP worked. She took a GREAT company and plowed it into the ground.
Michael Capellas don't make me laugh.
From what I hear from insiders in the telecom biz where she came from, she has consistently screwed up her way to the top and now the Peter Principle has been demonstrated. Our problem is that Arnold might make her an economic adviser in California and she is supposed to be a rising star in the Republican party. What has she done right ever, and what would she do to the party?
Their position of strength was their instrumentation division (which Carly spun off, of course). If they had decided to solidify their position with excellent compatible offerings to tie together their medical instruments into hospital networks, lab automation, and process automation, they would have been able to build themselves a bigger position of strength. But noooo! They had to extend themselves in all directions, and try to beat companies that were bigger than them in their own areas of specialty
Good riddance to her
Sauron of Post 5 makes the point of shedding some of these traditional (And profitable brands) in her single minded pursuit of 'New' markets. At the same time Poodle, in Post 6 shows the inability to make the transition and establish a unique value proposition by her failure to enhance hardware/software offerings with integrated consulting services. Finally, 7.62 Makes the point that, in all of this, there was a failure to properly position HP and exert some control over the Marketplace she ostensibly competed in.
Dell has eaten their lunch on both a price and service basis in those markets she ventured (blundered) into and what was left over was quickly devalued by all of the other competitors, most notably IBM and Sun.
And, lest we forget, she accomplished this devastation in the face off stiff opposition from some more far sighted Board members and in the process of vanquishing this dissent, seriously damaged morale and innovation at HP.
Her prior incarnations at Lucent were certainly a glimpse into what she had in store for HP and she and her army of 'Invaders' of HP have done what any reasonable observer could have predicted. Now they leave and someone mentions Capellis? Deja Vu all over again!
Carly and the non-HP-way people decided that HP should become just like their cheap, zero-margin competition and compete for the big market, instead of retaining their distinguishing characteristics of being the best and the brightest. Bad move. Now they're at Wal-Mart instead of NASA.
Maybe the new CEO will stop calling a large enterprise products company a "printer company." The previous CEO disrepected the company and was egotistical when she kept saying that she would transform the company from a "printer company". Obviously she didn't know what HP produced.
Now they sell Presarios at razor thin (Negative?) margins and play right into Dell's strengths. They have even managed to place the traditional Cash Cow Printer Business at risk, lowering quality and competing om price against Lexmark. Completely idiotic bordering on insane.
we use a HP 1215 for both print and general color pictures
but the Epson Photo 2200 for better quality photo's, and it prints 13 x 19 prints..the 7 ink cartridges are a kicker though
My new HP a819n PC is pretty good. My old homemade crashed a few weeks ago so I went to Best Buy and bought this tower only for about 600 after rebate.
It's a wingding PC for me anyhow....does all kinds of stuff and fast on Comcast.
I hate all that unwanted software they throw on market models but I can't build one for cheaper than buying anymore....at least I can't..
The only problem is I know I need a newer monitor now...this one has that bright sort of unsteady thing going on....it's a 5 year ol concave screen and the HP graphics or whatever must be too juiced.
One little thing I learned about cable this time....if you have too much bandwidth or it;s too hot.....it will slow your PC too. I have 7 lines and had two amps in the box....it was too hot....hey had to take one out.
This HP chick bit off more than her ass could chew...though she gets points for aggressive. Is she a FReeper?...lol
The Sony Vaio (?) was 1st choice but too pricey for a mere surfer/home office user like me.
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