The Capitalist Tool Bevels the Hewlett Packard Plank
May 23, 2015
HP is not setting the world on fire with innovation in my opinion. I read “Focus Is Costly Confusion at Failing HP.” I struggled with hippy dippy headline, but there were a couple of well honed drill bits in the write up.
I circled this comment:
Rather than making new products and offering new solutions, HP has become a company that does little more than constantly restructure!
My thought was, “What do failed politicians do?” Restructure is a gentle way of saying, “Not too much. Hitting the rubber chicken circuit? Scouting around for an appointment to the election commission?”
This is another item which garnered the coveted pink underline:
Companies cannot add value unless they develop new products, new solutions, new markets and grow. Restructuring after restructuring adds no value – as HP has demonstrated. For long-term investors, this is a painful lesson to learn. Let’s hope folks are getting the message loud and clear now.
One can long for the days of yore when Autonomy was firing up the router that punched holes in traditional keyword search. I don’t think it is a problem with focus. HP has a problem handling tools and then using those tools to build sustainable revenue. Former competitor Lexmark is taking positive steps. Now Lexmark’s reinvention of itself may not work much better than HP’s firing up the buzz saw. But Lexmark is making an effort that goes beyond HP’s mixing up the clamps with the screwdrivers.
Stephen E Arnold, May 23, 2015
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