Having worked at Hewlett-Packard in its "better" years during the early 1990s, I certainly have a soft place in my heart for the company. I don't want to see it fail but I'm also a believer in the free market system. What happens will happen. When I see things in your post like "making investments in internal systems, such as the use of Salesforce.com to help improve its channel relationships; stopping the churn at the executive level of the company; increasing investments in research and development; consolidating the siloed business units; and streamlining support systems for partners." I have to wonder why they are even having to address these issues. Aren't they supposed to be the poster child for these areas of business mastery? It does appear the company has lost its direction in the past few years. But I know the markets in which they play have changed dramatically. I wouldn't want to be in charge of figuring all of that out! Like our country, we can blame our problems on former/current leadership but there's more depth and complexity to HP than we can attribute to a single person. HP is where it is today because of the sum of its people's choices over a span of time. I'm rooting for the company but not holding my breath.

Having worked at Hewlett-Packard in its "better" years during the early 1990s, I certainly have a soft place in my heart for the company. I don't want to see it fail but I'm also a believer in the free market system. What happens will happen. When I see things in your post like <i>"making investments in internal systems, such as the use of Salesforce.com to help improve its channel relationships; stopping the churn at the executive level of the company; increasing investments in research and development; consolidating the siloed business units; and streamlining support systems for partners."</i> I have to wonder why they are even having to address these issues. Aren't they supposed to be the poster child for these areas of business mastery? It does appear the company has lost its direction in the past few years. But I know the markets in which they play have changed dramatically. I wouldn't want to be in charge of figuring all of that out! Like our country, we can blame our problems on former/current leadership but there's more depth and complexity to HP than we can attribute to a single person. HP is where it is today because of the sum of its people's choices over a span of time. I'm rooting for the company but not holding my breath.