Whitman says HP turnaround will not happen overnight

Five months into the role as HP CEO, Meg Whitman is finally detailing the tech titan's turnaround plan that involves "fixing execution" and cutting costs to save cash before it ups investments in R&D. In a tough fiscal first quarter, HP ironically saw an upturn in the software and to a much lesser extent the services …

[Anonymous Coward]

I Guess She Has

..one year left. She will either mess up or be fired for having some irrelevant affair. HP board incompetence must be sustained.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I Guess She Has

These aren't mutually exclusive.....

A rather predictable "excuse" from an inadequate placement.

[FredScummer]

Same old, same old.....

Whilst I am prepared to give all new CEO's the benefit of the doubt, Meg's start to running the company hasn't produced the turnaround that the industry analysts would have wanted. And she's taken the same path as previous holders of her position in declaring that the problems that HP has got today is due to issues which were fixed yesterday.

It's very different to the days where Bill and Dave were running the company, where customer respect and employee motivation were considered just as important as maintaining a good profit profile. Unfortunately industry leaders today are focussed only on the profits demanded by the industry and whilst I'm sure Meg means well I have my doubts that she will succeed in pulling HP back from the precipice.

The best way of bringing HP back from the dead would be hire some of the people who made the company the envy of the world back in the 80's. My CV is available should it be needed.

[Nathan Meyer]

The Man Who Jumped On His Horse......

......And Rode Off In All Directions. HP needs a real strategy or they will be history in five years. In particular, they need to stop trying to develop "me too" Unix boxes and concentrate on NonStop Guardian, Pathway and SQL/MP as the lynchpin of their enterprise business. Their OSS direction just makes the NonStops into expensive and awkward Unix boxes. It's a blind alley and the exit is the dustbin.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: The Man Who Jumped On His Horse......

Wrt NonStop: See Also: VMS. Its customers (and there are still some) swear by it, and swear at HP.

But Linux is Linux whether it's on Dell or HP, same goes for Windows.

[The Godfather]

Horrid word....execute..

Another CEO uses the word 'execution' and I'll willingly oblige.. From a manufacturing perspective going back to what you did well before is not as clever as leading to where others will follow. It needs vision and bravery not comfort zones that are crumbling.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Horrid word....execute..

Absolutely, did anyone say the problem with Hurd or Leo was that they had a great strategy, but their execution was flawed? Execution, cutting operations, is what companies do when they have run out of ideas.

[bla 1]

She's a politician

She was placed there by investors, so what did you expect?

Please Wall Street and magically conjure new products to dazzle its customers at the same time in a declining market in one quarter - how?