I want some assistance. I want to complete an environmental and economic analysis on Hewlett-Packard Company, including the remote, industry, and operating environments. The paper should identify any major changes that you expect to affect Hewlett-Packard in the next 5-10 years. This will include the following subcomponents:
a) Utilize a macroeconomic forecast of economic indicators that will affect Hewlett-Packard in the future and should be considered part of strategic planning.
b) Analyze the non-economic factors in the remote environment:
1) Social and Cultural
2) Political
3) Technological
4) Demographic
c) Complete a competitive analysis of Hewlett-Packard's position from a microeconomic perspective based on the pricing of the organization's primary product or service line, an assessment of its cost structure, and an assessment of the market in which the organization competes. (Note: This should be a discussion, not a spreadsheet.)
d) Identify strengths and weaknesses in the organization's operating environment that can be leveraged to capitalize on the emerging opportunities or minimize the threats that you identified in items 1-4.
e) Create three to four strategic long-term objectives that can be measured to determine the success of the strategic plan.
I have added a paper on HP for reference.
Answers to Questions:
Forces and Trend affecting Hewlett Packard Company and their relevance
Description: There's only one way to succeed in business-the HP Way! From a one-car-garage company to a multibillion-dollar industry, the rise of Hewlett-Packard is an extraordinary tale of vision, innovation, and hard work. Established in 1939, Hewlett-Packard earned success not only as a result of its engineering know-how and cutting-edge product ideas, but also because of the unique management style it developed. Decades before today's creative management trends, Hewlett-Packard invented such strategies as "walk-around management," "flextime," and "quality cycles." Always sensitive to the needs of its customers and responsive to employee input, Hewlett-Packard earned massive steady growth that far outshone its competitors' vacillating fortunes, even with radically different products from those responsible for its initial boom.
Hewlett-Packard Company is ready to pursue growth, having made considerable operational gains in recent years, but the ongoing investigations into questionable methods it employed to identify the board member who was leaking information to the media could prove to be a distraction.
Scope:
• Contains corporate strategy, value chain presence and SWOT Analysis
• Provides detailed business description, segment analysis, 5-year financial trends, key products and key competitors
• Includes information on suppliers/ partners, shareholding structure and key employees with biographies
Highlights:
Hewlett-Packard is a global provider of personal systems, imaging and printing products and technology solutions. The company has a strong market position in most of its product segments. Hewlett-Packard wrested market leadership from Dell in the global PC market in the third quarter of 2006 and managed to sustain it in the fourth quarter of 2006.
The company is the second largest entity in the servers market behind International Business Machines. Also, Hewlett-Packard is the dominant entity in the printers market. Hewlett-Packard has a strong balance sheet, reflected in low long-term debt and high cash reserves.
The R&D spend of Hewlett-Packard has remained flat in recent years. This could hurt the growth prospects of the company. Hewlett-Packard is primarily focused on improving its operational efficiency. The company is in the midst of an ambitious overhaul of its IT systems, which it hopes will serve as a showcase for its capabilities
Color is a proven tool to make sure consumers notice, remember, and buy your products. With HP thermal inkjet technology (TIJ) solutions , you can easily add color to an existing system, allowing you to print in black and color at the same time. HP TIJ solutions utilize spot colors, special colors, and four-color processing
Knightsbridge solutions, now HP services offer new information management practices. A professional services firm focused exclusively on business intelligence. It specializes in information quality data integration, data merchandising and information delivery. HP and Knightsbridge together offer the most comprehensive business intelligence solution for global 2000 clients looking to productively manage computer date environments
Financial Trend:
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19 — Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest technology company, today reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings that well exceeded Wall Street’s estimates.
Related
Hewlett-Packard Earnings Report
Times Topics: Hewlett-Packard
For H.P.’s fourth quarter, the company reported sales of $28.3 billion, and earnings of 86 cents per share, a figure that does not include one-time charges.
On that basis, a consensus of Wall Street analysts had expected Hewlett-Packard to report fourth quarter sales of $27.4 billion, and earnings of 82 cents per share.
In the fourth quarter a year ago, H.P. reported net income of 68 cents per share and sales of $24.55 billion.
Mark Hurd, the company’s chief executive officer, characterized the latest quarter as “a strong balanced finish to what’s been a very strong year.”
With the inclusion of so-called one-time charges, such as expenses related to acquisitions, H.P.’s earnings were 81 cents per share.
For its full fiscal 2007, H.P. reported sales of $104.3 billion and earnings of $2.93 per share, excluding one-time charges. On that basis, a consensus of Wall Street analysts had projected year-end sales of $103 billion and earnings of $2.88 per share.
The news, announced after the markets closed, gave a lift to Hewlett-Packard’s shares. After closing at $49.44, down 2.6 percent on the day, the shares rose to about $49.75 in extended trading.
The record profits for H.P. continue a TREND of strong revenue growth. Cost cutting and improved efficiencies have helped to bolster profits. The company’s financial story has grown somewhat predictable, leaving Wall Street looking for nuances in H.P.’s returns to gauge the company’s progress.
Mr. Hurd declined to comment specifically on whether HP, like some of its competitors, was seeing softening demand among its enterprise customers in the United States.
“Our numbers are our numbers,” he said, adding that, generally, “we saw a fairly steady environment.”
Mr. Hurd also said that his company was not seeing a decline in spending in the financial services sector, though he noted that HP relies on only a tiny fraction of its business from companies in that industry.
More broadly, H.P.’s returns come as other major technology companies have spooked Wall Street investors by cautioning of a slow down in spending by their corporate customers in the United States. Cisco Systems, the bellwether maker of Internet infrastructure equipment, shook the market earlier this month when it spoke of relatively soft spending among companies, a sector that includes financial services
Indeed, in Hewlett-Packard financial results analysts may discern that the trend as of yet seems not to have spread internationally or to consumer sector of the market. Unlike many technology companies — which do roughly 60 percent of their business domestically — H.P. does 65 percent internationally.
Further, much of H.P.’s revenue comes from consumers, not corporate spending. Roughly half of its printing revenues comes from consumers, while 70 percent of its personal computer revenue is consumer-centric, estimated Clay Sumner, an industry analyst with FBR Equity Research.
“That’s why H.P. is considered such a safe play,” Mr. Sumner said. Among major technology companies, “it has the largest percentage of international business — and it’s heavy in consumer and lighter in enterprise.”
Nevertheless, analysts said H.P., because of its size and scope, is equipped to provide insights into spending patterns of the American companies.
As for H.P.’s own business, industry analysts said they are watching a handful of issues.
Mr. Sumner said one theme is the company’s operating margins, which measure a ratio of revenue versus the cost of making products, selling and marketing them, and doing administration and research and development.
That number has raised to about 9 percent, from around 6 percent in 2003 — an increase that Mr. Sumner attributed to establishment of greater efficiency at H.P.
There has been a more modest increase in gross margins, which Mr. Sumner noted have risen to around 24.5 percent in earlier quarters from 23.9 percent just after the Compaq acquisition in 2004.
H.P. continues to rely heavily for profits on its printer and imaging business, which make up around 29 percent of sales, Mr. Sumner noted. But the personal computer business (including hand-held devices), which accounts for 33 percent of H.P.’s revenue, has been getting more profitable, the analyst said.
Underscoring H.P.’s diversity, the company gets around 18 percent of its revenue from enterprise services and storage. About 2 percent comes from the financial services industry, Mr. Sumner said
Computer Technology Review, Dec, 1999 by Bosco K. Sun, Boba Popovic
Hewlett Packard's VISUALIZE series of workstations area perfect example of how a memory supplier is able to integrate its products into systems produced by an OEM. Engineers use these high-end design workstations, running on UNIX, Windows NT, and Linux, for everything from aircraft and automotive design, complex IC verification, and Systems-On-a-Chip (SOC) simulation to designing animated characters for next year's cinema blockbuster. The new HP VISUALIZE N class workstation, with its 8GB RAM, is a good example. It is a computer with graphics.
Join the team:
All of HP's company literature emphasizes the importance of teamwork at Hewlett-Packard. Considering that two friends working side-by-side in a garage founded the corporation, it isn't hard to understand why. Potential employees should find out if this is their ideal work environment. Says one engineer, "The key is to find out if you fit into HP's low-key, nice-guy and team-oriented work environment." One employee insists "the key word is 'informal'." With all of the emphasis on teamwork and the "HP Way,"
The 2002 acquisition of long-time competitor Compaq has vaulted Hewlett-Packard into the upper echelon of high-tech companies. HP announced the mammoth $19 billion deal -- the largest merger in computer industry history -- in 2001. After a year of opposition by many HP stockholders, including members of the Hewlett and Packard families, the deal was finally completed on May 3, 2002. The merger has established HP as a world-class producer of computer hardware such as PCs, servers, storage components and printers, and software and computer consulting services, making HP comparable in size to industry-leader IBM.
Until February 2005, Hewlett-Packard was led by high-profile CEO, Carly Fiorina. Fiorina took over the top spot at HP in 1999 and instantly became notable for being the most prominent female CEO in corporate America. A darling of the business press during the high-flying tech bubble era, she also endured her fair share of criticism when some of HP's business moves didn't pan out as expected in the post-Internet boom economy. While Fiorina succeeded in growing the company's revenue -- according to a Wall Street Journal report chronicling Fiorina's departure, net income for the 2004 fiscal year increased by 38 percent from 2003 -- the company continued to lag in certain key areas, such as corporate computing. A week after letting Fiorina go, HP's board hired New York-based executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates to find her replacement. Just a month later, in March 2005, HP named Mark Hurd as the company s president and chief executive officer. Prior to joining HP, Hurd served as president and CEO of NCR Corp.
3) . Hewlett-Packard Company's strategic adaptability for the force or trend.
Hewlett-Packard Company and Trend Micro, Inc. to Collaborate on Virus Protection
Strategic alliance between enterprise anti-virus provider Trend Micro and Hewlett-Packard will provide integrated virus protection for OpenMail users
RSA Data Security Conference, San Francisco, CA, January 14, 1998— Trend Micro Incorporated, the leader in server-based virus protection, today announced a strategic alliance with Hewlett-Packard Company to develop integrated virus protection technology for Open Mail, Hewlett-Packard's enterprise-wide messaging infrastructure for heterogeneous environments and large user populations.
Working closely with Hewlett-Packard engineers, Trend Micro Inc. will adapt its email scanning technology to provide Scan Mail® for Open Mail. This will be the fifth product in the widely acclaimed Scan Mail series; already, more than 3 million users of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Mail, Lotus Notes and Lotus cc:Mail benefit from Trend’s integrated Scan Mail virus protection. The integration of Trend Micro's award-winning enterprise virus protection technology with Hewlett-Packard's Open Mail technology will meet growing customer demands to protect messaging environments from the rapidly increasing number of viruses traveling in email attachments.
"Companies are increasingly realizing that they need to have email virus protection in place to protect their messaging infrastructure from the significant productivity losses that result from virus outbreaks, " said Dan Schrader, director of product marketing for Trend Micro. "By working with Hewlett-Packard to provide integrated virus protection that is easy to implement, we are helping customers to more easily adopt this core protection technology."
Customers stand to benefit tremendously from the integration of two leading-edge technologies. "Trend Micro is a leading developer of server-based virus protection technology for the enterprise and we're happy to be working with them," said Nigel Upton, product marketing manager for the Electronic Business Software Organization of Hewlett-Packard. "As a result of this collaboration, Hewlett-Packard will be able to offer Open Mail customers the opportunity to obtain proven, top-of-the-line virus protection for their messaging infrastructure."
"Trend is delighted to have formed this strategic alliance with Hewlett-Packard to develop integrated enterprise anti-virus solutions," said Iran Salem, President of North American and European Operations for Trend Micro. "We expect that the combination of Hewlett-Packard and Trend Micro will result in a series of technology firsts that will help enterprises meet the challenge of protecting complex mail environments."
Trend Micro's virus protection product line also includes Inters can Virus Wall® 2.0 for Hewlett-Packard Company’s enterprise-class UNIX operating system. Inters can Virus Wall 2.0 for HP-UX is still the first and only virus protection available for HP-UX. More information about this and other Trend enterprise virus protection products can be obtained from Trend's web site at www.trendmicro.com.
Website: www.hp.com
Category: business application development
Project Goals:
As an online vendor, HPShopping.com is responsible for losses due to fraud. The goals of the fraud management project were:
• To reduce incidents of credit card fraud on Hip’s consumer e-commerce storefront HPShopping.com, and
• To increase productivity and efficiency in fraud analysis and order review.
To achieve these goals the fraud management project team set about designing and implementing a robust fraud management suite of tools, including algorithms, web services, an order review portal and dashboard, and analytic reports.
The challenge was to protect HP from fraudulent attempts, while maintaining a quick online transaction processing time and ensuring good customers were not accidentally turned away due to inaccurate fraud analysis. The previous fraud screening technology was outdated and HPshopping.com needed an upgraded fraud management solution that would scale with the business. HP also wanted to ensure that the technology was predictive and would be able to keep up with the ever-growing sophistication of fraudulent credit card attempts.
The business needed to mitigate the risk that modifying the process and technology involved in fraud management might result in longer customer response times. In addition, any site downtime would mean a loss of revenue to the business. HP needed to upgrade the technology and process seamlessly to prevent any customer dissatisfaction or shopping cart abandonment.
Brief description of how the system helps users:
The users of the fraud management system are HPshopping.com’s loss prevention team made up of both operations and fraud analysts. The operations team is responsible for managing the fraud review strategy. The fraud management system allows the operations team users to develop more complex strategies and exercise greater control. The fraud analyst team is responsible for reviewing potentially fraudulent orders and determining whether to approve or decline them. The fraud management system helps the fraud analysts review and approve orders quickly and more efficiently. By combining the order details, risk profile, order history, and a summary of results from various third party data sources into one web portal, the analysts no longer have to manage data from multiple sources or cut and paste results from online searches.
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II. Organizational Objectives:
What short- and long-term benefits did the organization receive from the project? Did the solution meet the projected goals of saving time and money? How were the benefits measured? Was the system mission critical to the organization?
Within the first couple of weeks of launching the new fraud management system, HP shopping.com’s loss prevention team immediately noticed productivity improvements in order review cycle times. In fact, with the new fraud management tools fraud analysts are able to review about twice as many orders per hour than they were able to do with the old system. Additionally, an unexpected benefit has been an increase in storefront revenue due to more orders being approved.
The fraud management project met the projected goals of saving time and money. It reached the break- even point within six months. The benefits were measured by tracking order volume, revenue, operating expenses and chargeback’s (losses due to customers’ refusal to pay) during the first six months and comparing that to the same six-month period the year before.
The system is mission critical to HPshopping.com’s loss prevention organization.
Describe the business purpose of the new system
The fraud management system allows HPshopping.com’s loss prevention team to manage strategies to reduce the risk of online fraud, and to efficiently review orders that the system flags as potential fraud.
Describe the features of the new system
The fraud management system includes a comprehensive suite of services including:
1) Cyber source’s Risk Management Service (RMS) which is a tool that allows users to create and maintain a complex fraud screening algorithm, 2) Fraud Queue Manager (FQM), which is an HP developed web based portal and dashboard that presents the order information and history for analyst review and approval and 3) Analytic reports, which help the operations team manage the business. Each order placed online and through the call center passes through a complex fraud-screening algorithm, RMS, involving real-time web service call outs to validate customer information from five third-party data sources, prior to order acceptance. Orders that cannot be systematically approved or declined in the RMS algorithm are sent to the FQM portal. Trained fraud analysts access this portal to approve or decline orders.
Explain the functions of the new system
The RMS functions as a way to create and maintain business logic that determines whether or not an order placed online could be fraudulent.
The FQM portal allows fraud analysts to review order detail, feedback from third party data sources that match billing and shipping addresses, view order history, approve or decline orders, mark fraudulent orders and manage hot lists of good and bad customers.
Who were the internal sponsors of the project? Which officials or groups were opposed to developing the application? Why?
The HP global operations team collaborated with HPshopping.com’s operations team to sponsor the project. These teams were responsible for the business goals and it made the most sense to have these groups also act as sponsoring bodies.
Were users of the system involved in the planning and development stages?, if so, how?
The users of the system, HPshopping.com’s loss prevention team, were involved in the planning, design, and testing phases of the new fraud management system. Originally, a team observed the fraud analysts using the old tools and processes to understand where improvements could be made. During the design and testing phases for the FQM portal, HP also reviewed the proposed changes with the fraud analysts for feedback and any additional suggestions for improvements.
What were the greatest challenges in completing this project? How were they overcome?
The project presented several challenges, including ensuring successful coordination of over five external vendors, precise implementation of new and proprietary technology, training staff on a new hardware infrastructure and new business processes, and ensuring a high availability Internet application. The challenges were overcome with diligent project management and daily communication sessions.
Were the goals changed as the project as the project progressed? If so, what were the changes and how did they progress.
No, the goals were met throughout the project as expected.
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III. Category
eBusiness Application Development
________________________________________
IV. Methodology/Process
a. Describe how productivity tools or techniques were used in the project.
Not applicable
b. Were testing tools used during development? If so, when were they used? Was the testing cost-effective?
There was minimal use of development testing with Junit, a java based, script oriented testing tool. However, the use was informal and applied inconsistently throughout the development lifecycle.
There were also a series of test scripts that were created and run that utilized the Quick Test Pro and Test Director 8.0 platforms from Mercury Interactive. These tests were also carried on an informal basis, but were run during each of the phases of infrastructure migration to baseline the application in each environment.
c. Was a formal or informal software development lifecycle methodology employed? If yes, please describe it.
A formal software development lifecycle methodology was employed. The lifecycle passes through six phases:
• Opportunity Development: Present project charter and get management approval.
• Scoping and Analysis: Gather business requirements and present plan of record. Create a functional specification.
• Design and Construction: Create and review design. Complete code construction and unit testing.
• System Testing: System and User acceptance testing. Includes regression testing, performance testing, and exception testing.
• Implementation: Includes training and communication.
• Support: Support team manages production issues. Warranty release with high priority fixes. Success metrics reported.
d. What formal or informal project methodologies and tools were used to manage the project? If used, describe how:
Tools used during the project included Microsoft Project to manage the project resources, tasks and timeline, Test Director (an automated testing tool), BugZilla (a web based test tracking and issue management application) Microsoft Excel (to manage and track issues and actions) and Microsoft Share Point (to share documents).
e. Were software quality metrics used? If so, what were they and did using them significantly help the project? No
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V. Technology
What were the major technical challenges that had to be overcome to complete the project successfully? How did the team respond to these challenges?
Automating the fraud screening process required the technical team to integrate applications running on Broad vision, .NET and J2EE platforms as well as integrating data from several third-party vendors. To do this in real time while maintaining a level of performance we had to ensure that this did not negatively impact the customer shopping experience.
Out of the box, Cyber source’s RMS requires a custom XML message as an input. Integrating the fraud management system with the storefront required choosing an industry standard mechanism that could be used as an adaptor in front of the RMS rules engine. To connect storefronts in a standard way, the team added a SOAP Web service adapter between the two and an existing financial Web service gateway running on .NET was chosen as the adapter. The storefront sends a SOAP message to the financial gateway application, which processes and transforms the SOAP request into the XML request for RMS. By utilizing the SOAP standard over SSL HP was easily able to link systems running on Broad vision, .NET, and J2EE in a secure and high performing manner.
Calls to third-party vendor data are critical to successful fraud screening. It allows independent verification of customer order data by comparing order data to the vendor’s database in real time. However, each call returns a high volume of data that can severely impact order-processing performance. To increase the performance of third-party data calls and overall system throughput, the calls are processed using asynchronous JMS message queues. JMS messages are sent to a message driven Enterprise Java Beans (EJB), as third-party calls are made. The main order processing can continue while third-party calls are processed in parallel by the message driven EJBs.
What software tools, including databases, operating systems, and all development tools, were selected for the project? Why were they selected over competing tools? What process was used to select development tools and software platforms?
a. Database: MS SQL Server 2000
b. Operating System: Windows 2003
c. Application Server: BEA Web logic 8.1
d. Rules Engine: Cyber source Risk Management Server
e. Development tools: Eclipse IDE, Web logic Workshop 8.1, Struts, Hibernate
f. Source Control: CVS, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe
g. Bug Tracking: Bugzilla
Cyber source’s RMS was chosen as the decision engine to detect fraudulent orders. RMS was chosen due to its configurability and extensibility. RMS’ configurability allows business users to react quickly to new fraud scenarios and deploy new rules without changing any application code. The extensibility features of RMS allow custom developed plug-ins to be integrated into the fraud detection rule set. This feature was used to transform existing offline processes into real-time processing of orders.
Development tools were chosen for their ability to enable rapid application development. Hibernate was used as the object-relational mapping tool. It automatically generates an application database layer based on an existing database schema. Hibernate is a widely used open source project so it was easy to hire new team members with Hibernate knowledge to help augment the team. Struts were used as the web framework. It was chosen because it is a standard within HP and the Java development community in general. BEA Web logic Workshop was used to rapidly develop Web services and J2EE components. The development team did not have experience with J2EE however, Workshop’s simplified interface into J2EE allowed HP to develop EJBs and Web services with no learning curve. BEA Web logic Server was chosen as the application server because of its performance, support, and documentation.
Describe the overall system architecture. Were elements of the technical infrastructure put in place to support the new system? Please describe.
When new orders come into HPshopping.com, a fraud check is done before orders receive final approval. The storefront Broad vision platform sends a SOAP request over SSL to the .NET financial processing platform. The SOAP request is logged, converted to a custom XML message and sent to RMS. The fraud screening strategy executes on the order data. As the strategy executes, calls are made to newly developed EJB plug-ins, which query third-party vendor data sources or compare the incoming order to the storefront’s complete order history. The third data sources are queried by a combination of SOAP Web services, custom XML message passing and Java client-server calls. After being approved, declined or marked for manual review, the order and third-party results are saved to the database asynchronously using JMS message queues. As data is received, a JMS message is published to a message driven EJB with the logic to process and persist the data. The main order processing can continue as soon as the JMS message is generated without waiting for the persistence to complete.
New orders are detected by newly developed web GUI tools that allow users to manage any potentially fraudulent orders detected. As users view each order, it can quickly be checked against more detailed third-party data or compared against the full order history. Running the order history checks in the fraud database is very fast compared to running the checks against the storefront database because the fraud database was tweaked for these specific order history queries.
The order history database is kept in synch with the storefront database by SOAP Web services. The storefront calls the fraud system to request updates to orders made in or publish updates to the fraud system. Once an update has been received, an acknowledgement is sent to confirm the update. This confirmation ensures data integrity between the two systems and has resulted in no loss of data in several hundred thousand transactions.
What characteristics of the tools and technologies used were most important in achieving the business purposes of the system?
Interoperability, rapid development and widespread industry acceptance were the most important characteristics of the tools and technologies used by the development team. The interoperability of the SOAP protocol enabled the team to deliver a fraud management system that can be integrated into a wide variety of storefront platforms in a short amount of time. This was critical in the HP application environment, which contains a wide variety of platforms.
The development team benefited greatly from the rapid development features of the tools used in this project.
The fact that the development tools used, such as Hibernate and Struts, are de facto industry standards made it easy to add knowledgeable resources to the team during the critical project development time.
The fraud management system allows HPshopping.com’s loss prevention team to manage strategies to reduce the risk of online fraud, and to efficiently review orders that the system flags as potential fraud. The success of Hewlett-Packard Co.'s recent move to break apart its 5,000-person Global Operations group will depend largely on whether the electronics giant can put into place reporting and governance structures that will reassure the executives running the company's three principal lines of business that they will continue to receive the supply chain, procurement, and logistics support they need, experts say.
Palo Alto, CA-based HP, in the middle of a cost-cutting program initiated by new CEO Mark Hurd that will eliminate 15,300 jobs by the end of 2006, said it would disband its Global Operations organization and reintegrate its functions into the existing organizations responsible for the company's personal computer, printer, and enterprise systems lines of business. HP said it will continue to manage the affected functions -- including direct and indirect procurement, logistics, channel operations, and e-commerce transactions -- as company-wide shared services
Hewlett Packard (HP) view product stewardship as a philosophy and practice of designing products and their associated accessories and processes to prevent and/or minimize adverse health, safety and ecological impacts throughout their life cycle, i.e., design, manufacture, distribution, use, take-back, disassembly, reuse, recycling and ultimate disposition of constituent parts and materials. Thus, HP's environmental program has expanded its focus beyond manufacturing facilities to also consider product shipment, use by the customer and eventual disposition at the end of the product's useful life. Also taken into account are the possible environmental impacts that may occur “upstream” with respect to HP's suppliers' manufacture of materials, parts and components used in HP's products. This new product stewardship philosophy represents a major change in perspective and is bringing attention to the fact that much, and often most, of the environmental impacts associated with products occur beyond manufacturing facilities
On the web: https://www.hp.com
Employees: 156,000
Employee growth: 4.0%
While Hewlett-Packard may be known for product innovation, the company's corporate development is a tale of reinvention. HP provides enterprise and consumer customers a full range of high-tech equipment, including personal computers, servers, storage devices, printers, and networking equipment. Its software portfolio includes operating systems, print management tools, and Open View, a suite that encompasses application, business, network infrastructure, and product lifecycle management. HP also boasts an IT service organization that is among the worlds largest.
For some workers, the HP Way bordered on religion. They considered it inviolable.
A management philosophy emphasizing integrity, respect for individuals, teamwork, innovation, and contribution to customers and the community, it earned the abiding loyalty of thousands upon thousands of employees since the company was founded 63 years ago in an Addison Avenue garage. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's legendary management style has been the subject of case studies by ivory-tower and Wall Street professionals alike. When Packard and Hewlett passed away in 1996 and 2001, respectively, obituary writers noted their enduring legacy was not the multi-billion dollar tech giant -- it was the HP Way. Or so it seemed. But times have changed. The high-tech industry that grew up with the company also grew more cutthroat, showing no mercy to man or management philosophy. Even before the founders' passing, some industry watchers contend, the HP Way showed signs of wear in the increasingly competitive business environment. The possible merger of Hewlett-Packard Company and Compaq brings to some minds the probable end to the HP Way as it's been known and practiced
Hewlett and Packard formalized the HP Way in 1957, the year the company went public. With the business growing in leaps and bounds, the founders realized they needed a set of corporate objectives to guide their division managers. The objectives were unusual for their time. The six objectives (a seventh was added later) began with a focus on profit; however, Hewlett and Packard also had a broader vision -- seeing profit as an enabler of other, equally valuable objectives, including people (employees)
The people running the company thought it out well as to what kind of company they wanted and how you make a company successful in the long run, not just increasing the stock value and getting out. These people really had a vision in the long term. The fact that it had been successful, the way they had succeeded, it meant that it was a sustainable thing." When former employees reminisce about the HP Way, they toss around words like "integrity," "trust," and "team." They tell stories about how Hewlett and Packard regularly roamed the halls, talking with employees about their projects; how employees put on annual skits where they ribbed their bosses, including Bill and Dave; how co-workers were reassigned to new jobs rather than fired; how the company for a time implemented a shortened work week for all employees so certain individuals would not lose their jobs. "Everybody respected everybody else. Management was part of the team," Cottrell said. "Something you'll notice is that even retirees talk in terms of 'we.'" Following the founders' lead, managers were expected to know their employees and share with them what was going on in the company. "There was not the feeling like 'this is something only managers should know about,' " Ash said. Both Hewlett and Packard spent time at various HP sites, talking to employees at all levels. "They had a pretty good feeling of how people felt," Cottrell said. "We've lost a lot of that at HP." Hewlett and Packard also believed in creating a loyal and dedicated work force. They practiced "reassignment" rather than firing, with some employees searching for up to six months for a position in which they would thrive. Employees who couldn't be reassigned were allowed to "quit," so their record would not be hurt. The pair turned down short-term contracts, so they would not have to lay off chunks of their work force after the contract was over. Packard said they didn't want to run a "hire-and-fire operation." From the earliest days of the company, Hewlett and Packard also practiced management by objective -- "the antithesis of management by control, a strong, almost "cult-like" culture is one of the factors contributing to the overall financial success of visionary companies.
The American and Japanese management approach called the theory Z approach involves giving workers job security, including them in some decision making emphasizing group responsibility, increasing quality, establishing gradual advancement policies more informed controls, and broader career paths, showing greater concern for employees’ work and no work well being The General Motors, The Ford Motor Company, Hewlett Packard and Intel have adopted aspects of Theory Z.
The adaptive , entreprenueral organizations tend to have cultures in which members view growth and change as desirable and also believe that they can effect the competitive environment to their advantage. Hewlett Packard is one such organization. Large companies well known for their innovative ways such as 3M and Hewlett Packard typically ask that the managers and employees who are petitioning for money prepare a written business plan how the new idea will be developed. This helps ensure that the ideas are well thought of.
The three major strategic thrusts that combine well with information technology are differentiation, cost and innovation.