HP's anxiety and sadness: Is PC business going to stay?

Never seen an IT giant like Hewlett-Packard is so playful in major decision making.

On August 18th, the PC giant announced that it would spin off, and it would not even rule out the sale of the PC industry and give up the tablet and smartphone. The former CEO Li Aike emphasized that this was a "necessary transition"; after more than a month, Apotheker was fired and HP's new CEO Whitman said that he would decide whether to split the PC as soon as possible; two days later, Hewlett-Packard Chairman Rann said that he had no intention of stripping the PC. . The Hewlett-Packard Board of course can play word games. For example, it can be said that there is a difference between "splitting up," "stripping," and "selling." It never stated that it would give up the PC.

The author believes that the uncertainty of more than a month reveals the anxious heart of the giants and the loss of strategic transformation. In the face of IBM on the path to IT services and Apple on another road, it lacks the courage to make strategic decisions.

Hewlett-Packard’s previous sale of tablets and smartphones, and splitting of PCs, was seen as a radical step in IBM's transformation, and people thought it had surrendered to Jobs. However, at the moment, HP may realize that the road to IBM may be very risky in the short term.

After Apotheker announced the spin-off of the PC, he immediately attracted many reverie and people were concerned about who would take over a "gorilla" with a $ 40 billion revenue. Before it was rumored that Samsung may buy, but the Samsung CEO quickly denied it; after people named Lenovo, HP said it would not sell it. However, Lenovo has not said that it is very rare until now, although Liu Chuanzhi started to talk about internationalization on different occasions.

This implies a huge risk. A business that is marked with spin-offs and does not exclude sales marks has its brand value as a whole is downward in people's minds. When the outside world continues to fail to see the commentator's remarks, HP's PC may suffer a huge brand loss. Adding to the newsletter is not clear. This will make investors and consumers lose their confidence.

Therefore, regardless of how bright the former CEO Li Ai Ke's planned IBM path is, the immediate task for Hewlett-Packard is to halt urgently. Even with the intention of splitting and selling, it is necessary to stabilize the military spirit of the PC business and allow investors to rest assured.

If it is not possible to pass on specific information to the public, the PC industry, which has already been weak in growth, will soon be surpassed by its competitors. When it comes to selling, the valuation may have to shrink.

However, how can we reverse Li Aike's remarks? The direct negation of him may give the outside world a guilty feeling, after all, his words and deeds. You must find a decent reason and let him leave as soon as possible. In this way, it is possible to transfer the passive and stable military forces caused by the release of information, in order to make the market outlook.

Therefore, Apotheker is just a victim of HP's strategic contradiction - although HP does have reason to fire him, such as the performance decline in more than half a year, the market value evaporated much, the investor is angry.

However, this precisely exposed the conflicting decisions of HP's board of directors. You know, when Li Aike took over the CEO position last year, Hewlett-Packard was a mess, and his predecessor, Hurd, had just been ousted by the board with "eroticism" and reimbursement. The outside world believes that Hurd's departure is due to the contradiction between the strategy and the board of directors.

Before finding a way out for the PC industry, the strategy of the HP board of directors may be conservative. It may continue to push for PCs, but it may be more focused on marketing, especially in emerging markets, rather than long-term system layout. The new CEO, Whitman, who was put on stage, was at this turning point, but it was a symbol.

The author observed that in the past month or so, Hewlett-Packard has been re-intensifying its PC business in emerging markets around the world, especially in Africa, and has established several marketing offices.

However, this move may only serve to quench thirst. Because, PC is already not the main source of HP's profit. The former CEO Carly disclosed in his biography “Brave Choice” that as early as 2002, Hewlett-Packard had a plan to spin off and even sell PCs. One manifestation of the delay has been: Last year, rival IBM's revenue was only 4/5 for HP, but the net profit was 1.7 times that of HP.

After successive acquisitions, HP is now faced with an important task of integration. The author asserts that if the giant cannot find a growth platform for the PC in the integration, today's conservative move will inevitably trigger a greater strategic crisis in the future.