HP takes a turn at re-engineering the corporation

Everyone is in the middle of IT business transformation these days.

You could call it re-engineering the corporation, downsizing, rightsizing or just plain old cost-cutting, however. Hewlett-Packard is taking “transformative steps,” said HP president and CEO Leo Apotheker last week in announcing major changes related to its mobile and PC businesses, as well as the acquisition of Autonomy.

When you think about the number of acquisitions HP has gone through in the last decade and the amount of unwinding it’ll need to do now as it is re-engineering the corporation, it boggles the mind. Certainly Apotheker is making the tough decision to get HP out of the WebOS and PC business while it still can (like IBM, when it sold off its PC business), knowing that HP can’t compete with Apple and Google/Motorola. Still, it’s amazing when you consider the potential size of the tabloid market.

But, ironically, the changes reflect the changing IT needs of its customers, which are being directed toward the very types of converged infrastructure and application transformation services that HP is supplying and focusing on for future growth.

It’s a good time for CIOs to look at their own transformation plans, and determine if HP is being a leader or a follower in re-engineering the corporation.