10/5/2010 3:10:35 PM
IT Comms news: Why did HP hire their new CEO?
Following on from my recent
post announcing HP's new CEO
Leo Apotheker, I have decided to lend my thoughts towards the
strategic decision behind this recent revelation.
According to HP's lead independent director, Robert Ryan, Leo
Apotheker is a 'strategic thinker' with 'proven operational
discipline' and is 'exactly what we were looking for in a new
CEO'.
I think this signals a brave move into software, and the Cloud,
in order for HP to realise future growth. Given Apotheker's
background in software you can't help but admire HP's move and its
underlying strategy to leverage their might, power, standing and
dollars to dominate yet another IT channel. Whether this channel is
developing their own applications, or partnering with other
vendors, only time will tell.
Gartner's Managing VP, Martin Reynolds, blogged that HP's
software business has the greatest potential for growth. Although
HP has bought a portfolio of cloud technologies, the present drive
is to cut the costs of computing, rather than new services that the
cloud could bring about.
Apotheker's appointment is certainly a departure for HP,
something that couldn't have been predicted, but it will
undoubtedly lead to other vendors re-examining their own strategies
for competing with HP.
Damian Hicklin
IT
& Communications Divisional Manager
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