Advice to Meg Whitman on Her First 100 Days
Posted by Robert Hargrove
Return HP to Iconic Status With First Principles
On August 23, 1937, two recently-graduated electrical engineers—Hewitt and Packard—met to consider the idea of founding a new company. They put their thoughts to paper, beginning with a general statement about design and manufacture of high tech products. This was followed by a startling statement, "The decision of what to be manufactured will be postponed." Instead they wrote down the core values—The HP Way—that, when translated into strategic decisions and operational practices, would allow them to build an iconic company over the coming decades.
Today, much of the business world is trying to figure out just what newly appointed CEO Meg Whitman should do to stabilize the iconic Silicon Valley company after a decade of boardroom brawls, CEO departures, and strategic initiatives whose communication was bungled. I think that as Meg Whitman sits down to write her maiden speech, emphasis should not be placed on strategic questions, like whether to stay in or go out of the hardware business, whether to continue to build the HP Tablet, or whether to go into high-end software services.
In my opinion, the most important thing Meg Whitman could do to return HP to its iconic status is to emphasize the importance of The HP Way, which I will put in a nutshell as follows. Create an organization that is fit for human beings and demand results. Limit growth to arenas of distinctive contribution and create new arenas of growth through path-breaking innovation. Set unwavering standards for products and allow immense operating flexibility. Contribute to the community and deliver exceptional shareholder returns. Demonstrate absolute integrity.
Advice to Meg Whitman on her first 100 days:
1) Have your story from day one, as stakeholders look for important signals immediately. Manage by walking around, not just the headquarters, but make a point of visiting every HP facility and telling your story, “this is where we have been, this is where we are going.” Engage people around their questions.
2) Secure some early wins to build personal credibility and momentum. For example, put an end to all the chatter as to whether your predecessor Leo Apothecary’s deal to buy Autonomy Corp was a good idea. Complete the deal and let HP take its place in the field of high end, software service business. Decide to stay vs. abandon your PC business, the biggest in the world. When Windows 8 rolls around next year, the line between PCs and Tablets will blur and you could record big profits.
3) Attack ‘A’ level priorities that build a foundation for the future. Leo Apothecary may have made some okay strategic decisions, but he created stress and confusion because he didn’t put in place the teams. Make sure you not only have a good strategy, but an organization that can change as fast as change. Get the team and processes in place so that once a strategic decision is made, it can be executed with speed.
4) Establish a long term vision. Will HP ever be an iconic company again? I don’t know. Does it have the potential to be? Absolutely! A lot depends on your coming up with an answer to the following questions: Who do we aspire to be as a company? What would be an Impossible Future that would inspire people to wake up in the morning and go to work? And at the same time, what do we need to do to deliver on our day jobs, making sure we meet quarterly profit goals to stakeholders?