Hewlett-Packard Company is an American transnational corporation concentrating on information engineering. It is headquartered in USA. California. Palo Alto. HP is among the world’s largest organisation and operates virtually in every state of the universe. The company focuses on the development and fabrication of calculating. networking. and informations storage hardware. The company merchandises include enterprise waiters. personal computer science devices. related storage devices. and a broad scope of pressmans plus other imagination merchandises. The company sells its merchandises to families. little. medium and large-scale concern entities. and other users ( Packard. Kirby and Lewis. 2006 ) .
Wired Magazine identifies HP as the first manufacturer of marketed and mass produced personal computing machines ( House and Lewis. 2009 ) . The Hewlett-Packard 9100A was produced in 1969. coming as the first scientific reckoner. The company is credited with bring forthing the world’s foremost scientific electronic reckoner in the twelvemonth 1972. This lone captures a section of the many electronics the company pioneered in their production. This presents the company every bit radical as it focuses on the production of new efficient merchandises into the universe.
1. History
Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett founded the HP Company in the twelvemonth 1993. At the clip of gestating the thought. the two were pupils at the Stanford University. The Company’s first merchandise. an audio oscillator for proving sound was built in Palo Alto garage. Walt Disney Studios was among the company’s first clients as reflected by the purchase of eight oscillators. which went into usage in the testing of the sound system in the production of the film Fantasia ( House and Lewis. 2009 ) .
The HP Company is among the few concern entities in the universe. which successfully married calculating measuring engineerings. and communicating ( House and Lewis. 2009 ) . The company continues to do advancement in portable computer science. entry into place computer science. and imaging and printing solutions. For the latter portion of the past decennary. the HP Company enjoyed 20 per centum growing rates on annual rates ( House and Lewis. 2009 ) .
In the 1990’s Lew Plant replaced the retiring John Young. The leading alteration continued to see the growing way charted by the company travel on. It is at this clip that the HP Company gets acknowledgment as a company. which values its workers as it offers a balance on work-life. diverseness. and community engagement is struck. This is the major ground behind the immense attractive force the company has on both current and possible employees. At the bend of the century. HP formed Agilent Technologies. At the same clip. it brought on board Carleton ( Carly ) Fiorina as the new CEO. Carleton Fiorina chiefly focused on reinvesting for growing and leading ( Packard. Kirby and Lewis. 2006 ) .
The major alterations in the company remainder on the portion of a by-product of its concern to Agilent Technologies in the twelvemonth 1999. In the twelvemonth 2002. HP merged with Compaq. In 2008. HP acquired EDS. which saw an increased gross up to 118 billion US dollars. HP. in November 2009. acquired 3Com. In April the subsequent twelvemonth. HP paid one billion two hundred million US dollars towards the purchase of Palm. As at May 2010. the acquisition of Palm had been finalized ( House and Lewis. 2009 ) .
The concern environment of the HP Company merely every bit in any other environment is characterized by competition ( Packard. Kirby and Lewis. 2006 ) . This offers a partial account as to why the company has focused on the acquisition scheme. The presence of other rivals like Toshiba. Acer. Dell. etc imply that the company’s place in the market is threatened. as a consequence. it has to prosecute in steps aimed at bettering or retaining its market portion.
The turning population and demand for electronic goods on the other manus. nowadayss chances for the HP Company ( Packard. Kirby and Lewis. 2006 ) . Through the acquisition scheme. the company has spread its presence across the Earth and therefore has the chance of analyzing the different markets’ penchants. This forms the footing upon which HP should ship on bring forthing market specific merchandises. This should guarantee an improved market portion and a cheque on its rivals. Overall. the company does non look to hold taken dramatic alterations to counter emerging menaces.
2. Scheme
Brand placement and distinction
At the acquisition clip. Compaq was the low-end dominant computing machine seller ( Collins. 2009 ) . Its trade name had become premium in both concern and place usage. On the other manus. HP enjoyed the reputation of bring forthing the best instruments in the calculating market. After conveying these two trade names under one leading. there was a challenge of harmonising them into 1. HP did non hold the option of jettisoning Compaq owing to its valuable trade name. At the sale case. it was hard marketing the two lines for the same merchandise ( Collins. 2009 ) . The consequence due to this is reflected on the HP web site. which reveals a lame trade name distinction between the two. It remains hard for an mean client to distinguish the two.
The acquisition scheme seems to be the major growing attack employed y the company. The acquisition of several concerns in assorted parts of the universe indicates the topographic point of the scheme in the company’s developmental docket. This scheme is utile as it underlies a assortment of benefits attributable to it ( Collins. 2009 ) . The acquisition scheme is non alone to the HP Company as its major rivals as IBM employs the same attack. During the stewardship of Carly. HP went caput to caput with IBM refering the acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting wing. The acquisition monetary value ballooned motivating a backdown by HP. Later IBM completed the acquisition ( Collins. 2009 ) .
The presence of a figure of rivals in the computer science industry seems to be the major ground why the company chose to use the acquisition scheme ( Dong. 2009 ) . With rivals like Dell. IBM. etc. the company is under no semblances. It must work out agencies of staying in front or at the lower limit. acquiring close to these companies. Towards the chase to keep and increase on its market portion. HP had to follow the acquisition scheme to vie efficaciously.
Success is a map of several factors and as a consequence. it is hard to nail a specific one for success ( Russ. 2002 ) . The major scheme employed by HP is the acquisition method. It is merely one time that the company had faltered in doing an acquisition trade travel though albeit on the footing of this paper. This was after the ballooning of the monetary value on the PricewaterhouseCoopers doing HP to resist. Based on the fact that IBM paid a fraction of what HP was being asked to remit. so the executing of HP is plausible on this case. However. based on the disadvantage of leting your top rival make the acquisition. it does non bode good for HP.
However. this is merely an case. which happened during the rein of the discredited Carly Fiorina. Given the company had achieved enormous success before Carly Fiorina’s assignment. and it seems to be making reasonably good after her issue. the company scheme must hold played a important roe in the development of the company. However. a scheme entirely is non good plenty ; its executing is every bit of import. On this grounds. it is held that the success of HP to a great extent rested on its scheme merely as it did rest on its executing.
Technology is a quickly altering country of concern ( Collins. 2009 ) . The company therefore needs to be antiphonal to these alterations. Towards this terminal. the company needs to change its merchandises if it is to vie. The presence of other elephantine industry participants makes it hard for the company to dawdle behind in footings of following newest engineering in its merchandise fabrication. Competition is healthy particularly to the consumers ; nevertheless. this poses a serious menace to the company. as it must look into this or face worsening gross revenues.
3. Culture
From the beginning. Packard and Hewlett developed a leading manner ne’er practiced before. They coined a corporate civilization known as ‘the HP way’ . The civilization renounced the ‘hire and fire’ outlook. This is reflected by the defying of enticements to put off workers despite the1974 US economic crisis. The two proprietors besides underscored the demand to advance ain motive at the workplace. The company was run like a household. The net income sharing attack underscores this focal point. Further to this. employees were extended several benefits. which meant that HP was the perfect and alone employer ( Buhler. 2003 ) .
In 1950. Bill and Dave chose to compose down the company objectives to function as guidelines in mention to all decision-making in the company. this was aimed at maintaining gait with the growing the company had achieved by this clip. The aims covered citizenship. direction. the growing people. clients. and net incomes. Towards accomplishing the end. team-wok was proposed ( Collins. 2009 ) .
Based on subdivision of workers. HP was premised on faith when mentioning to the company doctrine. The company was viewed as inviolable. The direction doctrine was founded on teamwork. regard for persons. invention. unity. and part to society. This explains why the company gained a batch of regard both from its workers and from members of society. The founding male parents ; Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett are credited with the debut of this legendary leading manner into the company ( Dong. 2009 ) .
The hiring of Carly Fiorina from outside the company ranks coming after the amalgamation with Compaq seems to hold brought alterations hitherto un-witnessed. Carly Fiorina was accused of heedlessly managing workers issues particularly on lay-offs. in the lay-off exercisings. Carly Fiorina factored in on net incomes with small respect on the public assistance of the workers. At the same clip. Carly Fiorina is accused of presenting the component of personality cult into the organisation. It is during the reign of Carly Fiorina that employees began kicking about fright. The CEO’s reign was farther characterized by proxy wars. Retirees besides complained about ignored positions and entire neglect of parts. This presented a large going from the initial civilizations as set by the two proprietors ( Dong. 2009 ) .
Rather than firing. employees were reassigned responsibilities. Employees were allowed up to six months to happen their coveted places. If one failed to turn up a on the job place. s/he was allowed to discontinue as opposed to being fired. This was during the good old yearss. The direction interacted freely with the workers to ease sharing of information. Both Hewlett and Packard took clip to speak to staff at assorted HP points ( Dong. 2009 ) . The focal point was on making a loyal work force.
Fiorina is accused of turning the company fortunes to a lower graduated table ( Dong. 2009 ) . This is reflected in the manner in which employees were laid off. Further to this. Fiorina made remarks intended to minimize Walter Hewlett. her amalgamation opposition. this indicates a going from the original HP manner.
The dramatic alteration in the civilization of the environment was occasioned due to the altering environment in qualifying the industry ( Walton. 2002 ) . This would enable the company gage competition and remain in concern though its place as a believable employer could free credibleness. However. the extent to which civilization affects the organisation has weathered over clip. Unlike in the yesteryear. organisational construction seems to be in control as opposed to the cultural facet. The fact that the organizational set up has managed to alter its focal point from cultural properties of the company serves to augment this place.
