LAS VEGAS—After HP’s turbulent year in 2011, with Léo Apotheker stepping down as CEO just 11 months after being named and the indecision over the future of its PC business, HP (NYSE: HPQ) used this week’s HP Discover 2012 event to make its enterprise business strategies clear. HP executives stressed that the company is getting back on track and working to leave uncertainties behind.
During the general session, HP president and CEO Meg Whitman, who has been at the helm of HP for the past 10 months, was pretty clear that company’s foundation is infrastructure. “When people say infrastructure can be commoditized, we respond that with R&D we can be ahead. We are proud to be in the infrastructure business,” Whitman said during the keynote session.
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Whitman’s role will be far from easy. She is presiding over layoffs of approximately 27,000 employees by the end of 2014 fiscal year, which might cost HP about $1 billion and is expected to generate savings of $3 billion to $3.5 billion. To achieve the company’s forecasted results, Whitman seems to be spending much of her time clarifying HP’s view of the future and how the company is working to address enterprise needs.
HP’s strategy involves adding layers above its core business infrastructure such as: software (a core business extension), services (to add value to the core business) and solution offers. In addition, HP has also built horizontal lines to attend them and meet future demands of cloud, security and information automatization, optimization.
“Over the years, there have been some inflection points in the IT industry. Currently, we see that mobile, cloud and big data are changing the IT model,” she said. Whitman cited recent conversations with CEOs about their concerns that have helped inform HP’s view of the future. She noted that CEOs are very concerned about technology because they believe it can help their companies be successful. They also pointed to concerns over the explosion of information; the increasing importance of security and compliance; the need for increased speed and agility for less cost; and the disruption of business. “HP is in a very good position to help them,” Whitman said.
HP’s R&D has focused on cloud, security and information optimization, as Dave Donatelli, HP Enterprise’s executive vice president and general manager, explained to RCR Wireless News. When asked about how HP has responded to its turbulent year, Donatelli said the company has been committed to infrastructure as its core business. “We are the number 1 or 2 player in market share, and we continue to look for growth opportunities,” he explained, citing cloud and security as examples.
Regarding Meg Whitman’s performance as CEO, Donatelli said that he feelt good about her strategies, and she has had an excellent reception from HP’s customers.
HP provided travel expenses to this event.
