As Interex Crumbles, HP Slashes
From Bloomberg:
Hewlett-Packard Co...will eliminate 14,500 jobs in the biggest reductions since 2002, as new Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd seeks to bring costs into line with competitors.
The cuts, to come in the next six quarters, represent 10 percent of the workforce and will help save $1.9 billion a year....
Some analysts had expected Hurd to cut more jobs in a shorter time frame, causing some disappointment, said Paul Meeks, managing director of NMH Advisors in Princeton, New Jersey. Hurd, CEO since April, indicated in May that cuts were coming and some analysts had estimated he would slice 25,000 from the company's 151,000 headcount.
Time to revisit Naomi Moneypenny's comments on talent management:
I'm seeing a worrying trend at some large organizations....What is it? Lack of people... Sound crazy? Maybe I am - but it seems like everyday I'm talking to clients and leaders at large organizations who have a culture or change problem, or just a plain 'shorthanded' problem. Why - because the people who 'survived' the downsizing and cost cutting over the last few years, may not be the people who want to grow and change the organization.
Moneypenny wrote that piece some time ago. So, what did she say about HP in March?
Mark Hurd ran NCR and came up through the data warehousing division (Terradata). He was at NCR for 23 years. In his CEO tenure there, he has improved the financial results of the company, but maybe not its strategy....
I'm worried that HP is really trying to go to the same 'strategyspace' as IBM. That's a good way to destroy value....
Let me explain, don't try to follow the IBM way of trying to be everything to the customer, instead it should concentrate on tackling big needs of customers with unique value propositions. Surround the customer with multiple tailored solutions for them, delivered by HP units in collaboration with other smaller, innovative companies.
But will the remaining people be inspired to be innovative?
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