Hewlett-Packard - Essay Example

Hewlett-Packard Hewlett-Packard company was founded as early as 1939 in Palo Alto. Surprisingly, this area will be later known as the Silicon Valley, but the company originally did not have anything to do with semiconductors. At first the company created several commercially successful devices, like oscillators, that allowed it to enjoy a good reputation. Gradually, it expanded by acquiring new companies and entered new markets, Japan for example. HP should be credited with any innovations like, screen labeled function keys, hand-held calculators and many others.

There have been a number of important executives that should be mentioned. The problems of the company started with Carly Fiorina whose tenure resulted in many internal crises. Under Mark Hurd, the company did to engage innovation and could not enter new markets properly. Leo Apotheker is notorious for his chaotic acquisitions and short tenure: around ten months. Nowadays, HP is split into two companies with Meg Whitman being the head of HP Inc. and Patricia Russo - Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

The priority stakeholders of this company are consumers. At first HP was largely oriented at university and research staff, but now it is more focused on ordinary consumers. The reason for this is simple: technology has firmly entered the daily life and nowadays not only educational facilities are actively using it. Speaking of the performance, one should note that it is poor and failing. The major manifestation of it is the split of the company: it is quite possible that the original founders would not even think of it.

At the present moment the company enjoys a strong brand, but loyalty of the customers is decreasing since they are switching to other products for various reasons. In spite of the fact that one it used to be the leader of innovation, nowadays, HP is not known to have produced anything groundbreaking. The major problems that the company in question is facing today include bad acquisitions, lack of innovation and outsourcing (Mourdoukoutas, 2014). For example, it acquired the company called Autonomy for a considerable amount of money, but the purchase appeared to be not useful at all, resulting in heavy financial losses.

The similar can be witnessed when one analyzes sales as well. As for the issues that the company is facing, one should note lack of certainty in the future. In the middle of the previous century the organization could boast a widely developed culture, but now it is torn apart. Therefore, with the lack of proper leadership and innovations, it is highly unlikely that there will be bright future for it. There are many threats that HP recognizes. First of all, it is increased competition from other brand.

For example, Lenovo is known to have taken over many areas that HP used to dominate, including server production. In addition to that, the major players of the market like Google and Apple are known for their innovation which is surely not a characteristic feature of the contemporary HP. That is why is nothing changed the company will be pushed off the market. References Mourdoukoutas, P. (2014). Whats Haunting Hewlett-Packard? Outsourcing, Bad Acquisitions, and Lack of Innovation. Retrieved December 2, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2014/05/23/whats-haunting-hewlett-packard-outsourcing-bad-acquisitions-and-lack-of-innovation/