Policy and Strategy for Business - Essay Example

From this paper it is clear that Fiorina’s strategy of ‘my way or highway’ has also left the top leadership starkly deficient in senior executive positions. Surely she had fired a lot of people in key positions during her tenure. Robert P. Wayman, the interim-CEO, is not exactly in a position to make business critical decisions and time may be running out for HP. The company lacks the technological edge to compete with its US rivals like the Dell and the IBM, and the Chinese giant Lenovo, in the PC market.

The software unit of HP is a non-performer that makes a measly contribution of $122 million to the company’s kitty. The initiative of HP to emerge as a significant player in the software business by acquisition of companies has also backfired. The fact the HP lost money in software, despite the bright results of the industry in general, is a vivid pointer to its slip shod handling of acquisitions. But the most serious threat that HP faces is to its Printer market from its competitors like Dell.

Though the profits of $ 22 from printing division in 2003 was the saving grace of the company, Dell has speeded eating into its pie of low end division of Inkjet printer. Despite the bleak picture, it is only the Printing division that is the proverbial silver lining of the cloud for HP.This paper outlines that tactically the company is moving in the right direction by strengthening it and spending more into its R & D. However, the company needs to make bold decisions to rebuild its investor confidence.

The stocks of the company had plunged 8% in the market, which is enough to wake the Board up. And it is the Board alone that can save HP from its obvious dismantling. A few radical decisions, besides the more obvious one of the appointment of a full time chief, need to be made without any more wastage of time. HP needs to shed extra-baggage by disinvesting more the less profitable PC and software divisions and concentrate on printing. This way it will no longer have to defend itself on many fronts.