In 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, two Stanford University classmates founded Hewlitt Packard. The company's corporate headquarters were established in Palo Alto, California. From the beginning, the company operated with an open door policy to create an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding. The strategy for the company was to offer products, services and solutions that are high tech, low cost and deliver the best customer experience.
In 2000, Carly Fiorina is named chairman of the board of directors, and today is one of a handful of women CEOs in American corporations. In 2002, HP completed a merger transaction with Compaq Computer Corp., signifying the largest tech merger in history. The new HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies, solutions and services to consumers and business. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access devices, global services, and imaging and printing. HP is #1 globally in inkjet, color laser printers, scanners, print servers, and ink and laser supplies.
Explore the site in detail to prepare a two-page report indicating your responses to the following questions. What is HP's mission and grand strategy? Based on current corporate events, develop a SWOT analysis for Hewlitt-Packard. Which of Porter's four competitive strategies is utilized in the HP model?
Internet Exercise
As the world becomes progressively more competitive, possessing a competitive edge is necessary for survival. But how does a company remain continuously competitive as the environment changes? How does management forecast performance? How accurate is the assessment when management is looking at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis)? What if a current strength, such as Xerox's insistence on maintaining the copier even with defects, becomes the Achilles heel tomorrow? In this instance Xerox had over 90% of market share in the 1980s that went down to under 12% by the 1990s. Today Xerox is still struggling to regain a semblance of its former self.
One means of being competitive is through making sure that those in charge see themselves not just as managers, but also as leaders. As the number of workers and managers who organizations employ increases, the greater the need for leadership. Peter Drucker calls these employees 'knowledge workers' - that is, those who use their brains not brawn to make a living in the Knowledge or Information Age. The old models of authoritarian leadership or command and control management will not work much longer (and not at all) in most high tech companies.
Vector Visions, Inc. offers you a way to assess your leadership in its questionnaire, Leadership Assessment: 20 Ways to Shift Your Leadership Style. Please go to http://www.vectorvisions.com/Freebies/Ldr_Assess.htm and read the information presented. Then take and score the Leadership Assessment.
Questions
What would you say is the difference between a manager and a leader? Describe.
Do you see most managers shifting from the manager/executive column that describes what were the values and norms of most of the 20th century to the new demands of the 21st century? Explain.
