Business Strategy Of HP In Computer Industry

Discuss the business strategy of HP in computer industry.

Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is a multinational computer hardware and software corporate organization also providing IT services and consulting ("About HP", 2016). The company headquarter is in California, the United States of America and the present CEO is Meg Whitman. The company was founded in the year 1935 when it initially manufactures electronic test equipment. Walt Disney was one of its initial customers. In the 1970s, the company first started to manufacture computers for business servers, which were commonly used in ATM and petrol stations. In the 1990s, the management expanded its computer line targeting the university and school students and business houses. In 2001, the company merged with Compaq, which helped HP to become the market leader regarding laptop, desktop and server manufacturer. From 2007to2013, HP retained its position as No. 1 regarding sales of personal computers. It operates across globally in more than 170 countries and has a revenue flow of billion dollars yearly. HP is ranked as 44th amongst the Fortune Global 500 companies. The core business of HP is managing large-scale business projects, and the organization depends greatly on project management to generate preferred outcome.

According to scholars, organizational structure, and the controls, it has in the process affects the performance of the organization (Porter, 2008). Once, the organization's strategy does not match with the structure and controls, the performance of the organization decreases. The present CEO of HP is Meg Whitman and the board of directors has twelve members and has four standing committees: CSR, IT and finance committee, HR and audit. The purpose of the board members is to determine the power, duties, and responsibilities delegated to the committees. HP’s boards of directors are responsible for the management of the business process.  The Board’s function is to supervise the management and governance of the HP and to keep an eye on senior management’s performance. The company aims to build a sustainable business environment where stakeholders are brand loyal, which will help in brand sustainability. The IT giant plans to gain the trust of its stakeholders by implementing integrity, respect, and fairness in the business process. According to the company website, all members who are parts of HP (employee and board of directors) are bound to follow the Standards of Business Conduct set as per company policy. The organization follows a set of ethics within the organization as well as with customers and suppliers. The IT giant encourages stakeholders to be communicating with the management and bring notice to issues that do not seem right or ethical. The organization maintains confidentiality about stakeholders and their information. HP’s Corporate Governance Guidelines strictly followed, revised, and updated regularly. To support the Board in gratifying its responsibilities for usually supervision and management of HP’s public affairs, especially about the policies and processes involving to HP’s public policy and government activities. HP maintains high standards of confidentiality and secrecy about the information of its stakeholders. The organization only shares sensitive and confidential information outside of the company only with certified authorities and have to sign a confidential disclosure agreement. All, HP products and services are sold only through HP authorized dealers and suppliers in diverse geographical locations maintaining local governance and policies. HP is regarded as one of the most socially responsible corporate house, and it has designed and manufactured products, which are reusable and recyclable (Www8.hp.com, 2016). The company is also planning to reduce usage of energy resources, water, and other resources where possible. The company maintains strict guidelines and standards that are to be maintained by its partners and suppliers. If any partners or suppliers fails to meet the quality standard or violates the guidelines, their licenses are canceled without any notice. In 2012, HP ranked second in the Greenpeace International ranking.

Competitive Advantage of HP

 The world economy is experiencing an enormous growth and development as well competitiveness among the business organization. Information Technology industry is one of the fastest growing and competitive sectors (Bharadwaj et al., 2013). Therefore, to sustain in this competition, a business organization needs to create sustainable value for the stakeholders for stronger and effective market presence (Wagner & Hollenbeck, 2014). As the IT business sector continues to accelerate and customers are becoming more demanding and refined, business organizations are experiencing the competitive landing spectacularly shifting. The HP is constantly working and investing in its research and development department for new and innovative developments in products and services. It has the ability and has sustainably maintained the competitive advantage in the thriving it sector. Ease in the process including the services initiating from printers, desktops, after sales services, software and IT infrastructure for customer’s usability. The management has always maintained a corporate culture on incorporation and strengthening from significant opposite’s position. The functional aspect of this application is, utilizing the advantages of the approaches tackling related risks, and there is another way the competitive advantage of HP Company is through developing cross-functional individuals (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). The human resource department hires individuals, who are highly productive and the individual has to work in more than 4 to 5 departments within the organization to the better understanding of organization's culture, objective, and competencies. HP effectively manages the knowledge within the organization which helps in cutting down on product cost. The organization believes in the development of workforce bring productive change in the company's performance (Kaynak et al., 2013). Moreover, HP has always highlighted and strengthens importance on quality maintained in their products and services. The quality of products and services of HP has always put forward in accordance to its competitors. In 2016, HP joined the RE 100 to commit to 100% renewable electricity at the business process, proposing in the transformation of the global energy market. HP is continuously developing, implementing and scaling programs and societal investments to help transformation making simplifying how people live and work. For instance, in 2014, the company committed to reducing greenhouse grass from its production process by 2020. That made HP the only IT organization to have committed GHG emission reduction from its process. To provide better protection and security to its employees and staffs, HP has introduced Foreign Migrant Worker Standard for employees working overseas as well as domestic.

Leadership in HP

Effective leadership in an organization assists to guide during recession and turmoil times. Successful leadership is capable of influencing others, makes decisions in day-to-day business activities in business, and has the vision for long-term organizations goals and objective (Senge, 1991). The significant feature of strategic leadership is shared value and vision to lead. In cooperation of which will facilitate and let human resources to formulate decisions with minimum proper monitoring or organized system. If properly implemented an organization will have more time and a greater ability to focus on other business activities, and face unprepared and sudden issues and challenges, such as adjusting the visualization to improving the business environment (House et al., 2013). As well, strategic leadership will include farsighted and managerial leadership by at the same time allowing for risk-taking and rationality. Briefly, managerial leaders require to regulate and constancy and to be capable of managing the feature of the job being performed. Mostly, these leaders have no private involvement towards identifying and setting objectives as motivational tools, and they may have complexity presentation understanding when commencing with staff (Rothaermel, 2015).

Hp is a multinational business organization, with the diverse market and human resource, needs an effective strategic leadership to sustain its strategic position in the competitive it sector. The present CEO Meg Whitman was appointed in the succession of Leo Apotheker by the board of directors, and Ray Lane became Executive Chairman (Www8.hp.com, 2016). Mrs. Whitman announced to continue the strategy of the organization but revising the PC division. She has been well known for her job roles in the IT sector. However, the overall view of the staffs of HP was demoralized and skeptical by her appointment. According to her, managing top management and bottom management is not difficult, but the middle management creates many challenges for a CEO. Whitman also stated that a company should not over emphasize on the shortcomings rather concentrate and improve the existing potential resources. One of the most important decisions taken by the Whitman leadership is that, in November 2015, HP decided to split into two companies, HP Inc., and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Conclusion:

The information technology is fast evolving with new and innovative advancements. The completion in the market is ever rising with new market players emerging and rising awareness and sophistication of customers regarding technology and services. To meet the customers demand and gain the competitive advantage in the IT sector a business organization should be adaptable to change and innovative in its product and services. HP has been a market leader in the business servers and personal computers and desktops. The company is facing some recent challenges regarding the market competition and economic stress. The management of the organization has taken steps to confront the challenges and retain its sustainability and market position.

Reference:

About HP | HP® United Kingdom. (2016). Www8.hp.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016, from https://www8.hp.com/uk/en/hp-information/index.html

Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O. A., Pavlou, P. A., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business strategy: toward a next generation of insights. Mis Quarterly, 37(2), 471-482.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson.

Hill, C., & Jones, G. (2012). Strategic Management Cases: An Integrated Approach. Cengage Learning.

House, R. J., Dorfman, P. W., Javidan, M., Hanges, P. J., & de Luque, M. F. S. (2013). Strategic leadership across cultures: GLOBE study of CEO leadership behavior and effectiveness in 24 countries. Sage Publications.

Kaynak, E., Fulmer, R. M., & Keys, J. B. (2013). Executive development and organizational learning for global business. Routledge.

Living Progress | Hewlett Packard Enterprise. (2016). Www8.hp.com. Retrieved 3 June 2016, from https://www8.hp.com/us/en/hpe/hp-information/livingprogress/index.html

Porter, M. E. (2008). Competitive strategy: Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Simon and Schuster.

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill.

Senge, P. M. (1991). The fifth discipline, the art and practice of the learning organization. Performance+ Instruction, 30(5), 37-37.

Wagner III, J. A., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2014). Organizational behavior: Securing competitive advantage. Routledge.