Hurd: HP needs to cut costs, improve efficiency
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(InfoWorld) - Hewlett-Packard continues to diversify and streamline its business according to goals Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd set when he joined the company nearly two years ago. But the IT giant still needs to cut costs to achieve operational efficiency, the company's top executive told members of the financial community on Tuesday. "We are a company that is transforming; we are not a company that has transformed," Hurd said, speaking at a meeting of securities analysts in New York. Hurd acknowledged that HP's cost of operations are still too high for the company to run at its most effective, though the company has completed aÂ 10 percent workforce reductionÂ it began last year as part of a huge restructuring effort. He said that since he took over, HP has carefully analyzed its cost structure, down to knowing its IT costs by employee, site and function. "We do understand our costs now more than we did a year ago," Hurd said. But the company still needs to reduce costs and better efficiency, which Hurd vowed HP will achieve in the next several years. Complicating this aim is HP's acquisition strategy, as the company still is working to absorb companies it purchased in 2006. The company on Tuesday unveiled how it would integrate Mercury Interactive, a software companyÂ HP acquired for $4.5 billionÂ on Nov. 7. Hurd told securities analysts not to expect more acquisitions of this size in the future from HP, a comment that would appear to put an end to rumors that the company may buy security giant Symantec. Instead, the company will make smaller acquisitions as they strategically and operationally make sense, he said. Right before Hurd spoke, HP announced that it has agreed toÂ acquire business intelligence services Knightsbridge Solutions Holdings, a 700-person company, for an undisclosed sum. Hurd made no mention of theÂ boardroom scandalÂ that hit the headlines in September, and which has former HP executives awaiting their fate in an ongoing criminal case that will decide whether they used illegal means to investigate journalists. Instead, he focused on operational efficiency and other goals on which HP continues to execute, including deriving revenue from a more diverse mix of sales and services and improving its sales and customer service. Hurd also thanked HP Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Bob Wayman for his 37 years of service at the company. On Monday,Â Wayman said he would retire, effective Jan 1. Catherine Lesjak, a 20-year HP veteran who currently serves as HP's treasurer, will take over for Wayman upon his exit. From a financial and perspective, HP weathered the scandal that rocked the company this year unscathed, earning nearly three times the profits in fiscal 2006, $6.2 billion, than it did in 2005, when the company earned $2.4 billion. Hurd said HP still has more progress to make in terms of tapping its "total addressable market," which he said in 2009 will be about a trillion dollars. "After careful analysis, we've decided that is big," he deadpanned. To achieve this aim, HP continues to try to improve its sales tactics, Hurd said. He said traditionally, HP ran on the theory that "if we build great technology, customers will find it." Now, "we have this new advanced theory," he said. "If we actually try to sell the stuff, we'll actually get more revenue."
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(InfoWorld) - Last year's HP Technology Forum was chased out of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. This year, storm clouds of a different sort hang over the event. As an estimated 6,000 attendees converge on Houston for the annual Hewlett-Packard user conference, the subject on many minds is the one the company is most loathe to discuss: theÂ shakeup of HP's boardÂ and theÂ prospect of criminal chargesÂ related to a spying scandal. The California Attorney General and a Congressional committee are among the institutions probing HP's possibly illegal methods of investigating news leaks from its board. HP has until Tuesday to respond to an invitation from the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee for HP's Chairman Patricia Dunn and General Counsel Ann Baskins to testify at a Sept. 28 hearing in Washington. But at the Technology Forum, a gathering of HP user groups, partners and other vendors, HP is focusing on its business success, which is considerable. With revenue, earnings and stock price all resurgent in the last year, HP CEO Mark Hurd could rightly say, "Pay no attention to that prosecutor behind the curtain," when he delivers a keynote address on Sept. 18. In the quarter ended July 31, HP's earnings-per-share (EPS) topped analysts' estimates at $0.52 on 5 percent revenue growth to $21.9 billion, compared to the year ago quarter. Across many of its business lines, HP, of Palo Alto, California, has gained on rivals, said industry analyst Rob Enderle. HP personal computer sales have grown with its "the computer is personal again" marketing campaign, Enderle noted. IBMÂ sold its personal computer businessÂ to Lenovo Group, in 2005, and Dell has suffered negative publicity from the AugustÂ recall of 4.1 million fire-prone batteriesÂ in Dell laptops. In storage, HP closed the market share gap with EMC in second quarter numbers released Aug. 29 by research firm IDC. With EMC's 20 percent share, based on unit sales, to HP's 19.3 percent, the two are in a "statistical tie" said Brad Nisbet, an analyst with IDC. "HP has been executing well under new management," Nisbet said, referring to Hurd, CEO since March 2005. In servers, HP is a strong second to IBM, according to IDC market share numbers, but has made some errors, said Enderle. It still is using Intel's Itanium processor in its high-end Integrity servers, which rivals aren't embracing. Gartner research shows that 90 percent of the Itanium chips shipped in the first quarter of this year ran on HP servers; neither Dell nor IBM build Itanium computers. Technology Forum organizers get tight-lipped when the conversation shifts to the board scandal. "That's HP's business," said Nina Buik, vice president of Encompass, one of the HP user groups planning the event. "We're not focused on those issues unless it impacts the technology." And as long as the scandal doesn't touch Hurd personally, the customer satisfaction should be unaffected, said Crawford Del Prete, senior vice president of research at IDC. . "I don't think [the scandal] is a drag on the company's success," he said. "I have not found one customer who said 'I'm not going to do business, or I am concerned about doing business, with Hewlett-Packard as a result of this.'" HP Technology forum runs from Sunday to Thursday this week.
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By Damon Darlin  The Hewlett-Packard chairman and chief executive, Mark Hurd, has assured analysts and investors that he plans to continue cutting costs and said he does not foresee making major acquisitions to maintain growth.
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SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Mark Hurd, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, finds himself perhaps in the most awkward position among all the figures in the HP boardroom spying drama.
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By Michelle Quinn, San Jose Mercury News, Calif.  Sep. 12--Mark Hurd, chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, finds himself perhaps in the most awkward position among all the figures in the HP boardroom spying drama.
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Hewlett-Packard next year will take a fresh approach to its utility computing initiative with a product designed to lower the cost of running corporate computing systems.
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In one of his first public acts to address the burgeoning Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) spy scandal, Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd plans to brief reporters Friday about the findings of an analysis conducted by the company's law firm.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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By JORDAN ROBERTSON   Associated Press writer  SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.
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Hewlett-Packard has unveiled its storage grid architecture strategyâan approach that company executives claim is faster and more efficient than comparable products and systems on the market today.
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Hewlett-Packard may be on track to be a $100 billion company this year, but CEO Mark Hurd said there's a total $1.1 trillion IT market for it to pursue.
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Hack infiltrates Hurd's brain Comment HP CEO Mark Hurd's next cost-cutting measure could come as the company axes its entire public relations staff. Who needs PR professionals, after all, when you have Forbes reporter Quentin Hardy?â¦
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The past few years have seen companies doing everything they can to reduce costs. From outsourcing and offshoring to RIFs (reductions in force), the byword has been, âCut expenses.â But if most of the economists are right, 2005 will be a much better year, and companies will go back to concentrating on increasing revenue.
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SEPTEMBER 24, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Not expecting a rush of IT spending during the last three months of 2004, Hewlett-Packard Co.
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Computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. still has more cost-cutting ahead, even after a massive restructuring that has sliced the work force by 10 percent, Chief Executive Mark Hurd told analysts Tuesday.
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Not expecting a rush of IT spending during the last three months of 2004, Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Carly Fiorina said Thursday that IT buyers have become smarter and more discriminating in their IT purchasing than they were just five years ago, and that they now realize that technology spending can sometimes be a "bad thing."
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By Jordan Robertson Associated Press  SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Hewlett-Packard Co.
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Industry asks: But how? HP's ambitious plan to slash energy consumption in its PCs by 25 per cent by 2010 has been greeted with scepticism in some quarters.â¦