Concern as departing CEO talks of her tactical differences with the
Hewlett-Packard board.
Major corporate users will seek assurances from Hewlett-Packard
that their needs will continue to be addressed following last
week's sudden removal of Carly Fiorina as company chairman and
chief executive.
HP insisted the departure of Fiorina, who drove through the
takeover of Compaq in 2002, did not mark a change in strategic
direction. But in her resignation statement Fiorina spoke of her
"regret" that "the board and I have differences about how to
execute HP's strategy".
After joining HP in 1999 Fiorina attempted to build the company
into a rival to IBM, deliver- ing a complete set of IT hardware,
software and services. In an effort to reassure HP's enterprise
users, often acquired through takeovers, she also laid out roadmaps
for high-end products, with Alpha supported until 2011 and Open VMS
supported until 2018.
Users now fear this certainty could be at risk. Margaret Smith,
chief executive of IT directors' group CIO Connect, said a new
chief executive could take HP down a fundamentally different path.
Colin Butcher, vice-chairman of the HP User Group in the UK said,
"HP would do well to remember its enterprise heritage. It has got
all those high-end systems: there are a huge number of users that
depend on them." Users relying on HP for mission-critical work
should make their concerns known to the company at the highest
level, said Butcher.
Analyst firm Gartner said the replacement of Fiorina would not
signal any immediate change in HP's strategic direction, but it
warned that this could change six months after a new chief
executive is appointed.
However, Rob Enderle, principal analyst at research firm Enderle
Group, offered some reassurance to corporate users. He pointed out
that any new chief executive at HP would not want to alienate users
of systems that offer good service revenues.
Mike Davis, senior research analyst at Butler Group, said Fiorina's
removal could lead to further investment in the company's
enterprise strategy, where it competes head-to-head with IBM.
Robert Wayman, HP's chief financial officer, will act as chief
executive on an interim basis.
HP's expansion
1997: Compaq buys Tandem for £1.6bn. The firm
supplies high-end servers and online transaction systems to major
banks.
1998: Compaq buys DEC for £5.1bn, making it the
third largest computer company in the world.
1999: Carly Fiorina joins HP as CEO.
2002: Hewlett-Packard completes £20bn merger with
Compaq.
2004: HP buys UK services company Synstar for
£157m to boost its services and help it compete against IBM.