梅格?惠特曼該如何拯救惠普
????梅格?惠特曼做的可能是整個硅谷最棘手的工作——修復(fù)惠普(HP)。這個一度業(yè)內(nèi)領(lǐng)先的科技巨頭已有數(shù)年苦苦找不到翻身的出路。不過惠特曼卻決心帶領(lǐng)惠普扭虧為贏。 ????上周三,梅格?惠特曼在與投資者的電話會議中宣布,她將在未來一兩年內(nèi)削減27,000個工作崗位,以“精簡運營、改善流程,減少業(yè)務(wù)的復(fù)雜性?!碑斎?,即便是裁掉2.7萬人,惠普在全球依然有多達322,600名員工。況且惠普旗下還有一條巨大而復(fù)雜的產(chǎn)品線,而它的產(chǎn)品號召力也大不如前了(想想在Facebook和蘋果iPad主宰的世界里,還有多少人用打印機和PC就知道了)。換句話說,光靠裁員不能完全解決惠普的核心問題。那么惠特曼究竟怎樣才能帶著公司朝正確的方向走呢?《財富》(Fortune)就這個問題采訪了一些硅谷內(nèi)部人士,如CEO、分析師、管理專家和前惠普高管等。 投行Sterne Agee分析師吳蕭(音譯) ????“就像歷史證明的那樣,讓一家公司轉(zhuǎn)型是很難的??梢哉f只有IBM和蘋果(Apple)成功了,而且這兩家公司都曾瀕臨滅亡。不過在短期看來,我們認為惠特曼最好能做到的,就是改善惠普的財務(wù)狀況?;萜沼捎谧罱氖召彾池摿舜罅總鶆?wù)——包括收購Autonomy(一家英國軟件公司——譯注)。根據(jù)惠普最新季報,他們的債務(wù)有255億美元,而現(xiàn)金只有81億。我們認為改善財務(wù)狀況對安撫投資者很有好處?!?/p> 斯坦福大學管理科學與工程教授羅伯特?薩頓 ????“我認為現(xiàn)在梅格?惠特曼的工作是所有CEO里最難做的。公司太大、太分散,我不確定是否有任何人能駕馭得了它,也不確定是否有時間去管它。舉個小例子,我上了惠普的網(wǎng)站,想買一款打印機,結(jié)果我看到了84個選擇?;萜找呀?jīng)成了一家沒有辦法管理的公司,產(chǎn)品線的規(guī)模只是一個標志。隨著系統(tǒng)的成長,聰明的管理層總會尋找一些東西放棄掉,也就是一些從前需要,但現(xiàn)在卻成了妨礙的事,或是太復(fù)雜、太分心的事?;萏芈牟脝T或許標志著她朝這個方向做出了一些進步?!?/p> 現(xiàn)時服務(wù)公司(Service Now)CEO弗蘭克?斯魯特曼 ????“惠普需要一次文化上的改造。他們應(yīng)該重新亮出‘虎眼’,創(chuàng)建一個有意義的、吸引人的、獨特的使命。向企業(yè)注入使命感和戰(zhàn)斗精神是惠特曼的第一要務(wù)。每個人都在侵犯惠普的利潤禁區(qū),惠普到了知恥而后勇的時候,應(yīng)該開始反擊了?!?/p> 拒絕透露姓名的前惠普高管 ????“惠普需要弄明白,它究竟是一家以消費者為中心的公司,還是一家以市場為中心的科技公司。要想兩者都做到,那是極為困難的,而且公司太大了。梅格?惠特曼已經(jīng)把PC和打印機兩個部門合并到一塊,也許這只是第一步,你能看到惠特曼的改革線條已經(jīng)開始畫出來了。她可能會把公司分成兩塊,一部分是PC和打印機業(yè)務(wù),另一部分是軟件、服務(wù)和計算業(yè)務(wù)。越小越簡單可能就越好。蘋果已經(jīng)證明了只需20多個產(chǎn)品編號就能主宰世界。你到百思買(Best Buy)去,你知道你能買到的打印機有多少種嗎?我在惠普工作過,連我都沒法告訴你?;萜者@個公司比葡萄牙都大。這是一家非常龐大復(fù)雜的企業(yè),但它不必非得這樣?!?/p> ????譯者:樸成奎 |
????Meg Whitman might have the toughest job in Silicon Valley -- fixing Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). The once-leading tech behemoth has struggled to find its way for years (for more on HP's troubled history, check out James Bandler's recent piece in Fortune). But Whitman is determined to turn things around. ????On Wednesday, during an earnings call with investors, the new CEO announced she would cut 27,000 jobs over the next couple of years in an effort to "streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business." Of course, that still leaves a whopping 322,600 employees worldwide, not to mention a huge and complicated line of products that are no longer as coveted as they used to be (think printers and PCs in a world of Facebooks (FB) and Apple (AAPL) iPads). In other words, the job cuts don't do much to address HP's core problems. So what can Whitman do to get the company headed in the right direction? Fortuneasked a handful of Silicon Valley insiders -- CEOs, analysts, management experts and former HP execs -- to weigh in. Shaw Wu, analyst, Sterne Agee ????"As history has proven it is very tough to transform a company. Arguably only IBM (IBM) and Apple have done it successfully and both have faced extinction. But in the near-term, we think the best thing Meg can do is try to clean up the balance sheet. They took on a lot of debt with recent acquisitions including Autonomy. They have $25.5 billion in debt compared to only $8.1 billion in cash as of their last reported January quarter. We think improving this will go a long way with investors." Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering, Stanford University ????"I think Meg has the hardest job of any CEO I can think of right now. The company is so large and so diverse that I am not sure it is possible for any single person or time to run it. As one little example, I went to the HP website to figure out which printer I might buy. It seems I have 84 choices. The size of the product line is just one sign that the company has evolved into one that is impossible to manage. As systems grow, wise management is always looking for things to take out -- things that it once needed but now get in the way or that are too complicated or distracting. With Meg's layoffs she may make some progress in this direction." Frank Slootman, CEO, ServiceNow ????"HP needs a culture make over. They need to get that eye of the tiger back, have a mission that is relevant, compelling and uniquely theirs. Instilling a sense of mission and a fighting spirit is job one. Everybody's invading HP's profit sanctuaries, time to develop a chip on the shoulder, and start snapping back." Former HP exec who declined to be named ????"HP needs to figure out if it's a consumer-oriented business or a commercially oriented tech business. Doing both is incredibly hard and the company's too big. Maybe the move Meg has made in combining the PC and printer groups is the first step—you can see the lines beginning to be drawn. She could split the company in two, the PC and printing business and the software, services and compute business. Smaller and simpler is probably better. Apple's proved that you can dominate the world with two dozen SKUs. Walk into a Best Buy and how many different kinds of printers can you buy? I worked there and I couldn't even tell you. This is a company that's bigger than Portugal. It's a big, large complex business. It doesn't need to be." |
-
熱讀文章
-
熱門視頻