Heads roll at HP as Apotheker swings new broom
CEO's arrival sparks exec exodus
Posted in Management, 23rd May 2011 10:14 GMT
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Change already long past due
In fact, Apotheker said HP was in the middle of a "significant transformation" of its services business, and he took a swipe at his predecessor Mark Hurd, now president at rival Oracle, adding that a transformation in services "should have happened years ago" and declared that "it will happen now".
Apparently Iannotti was not working fast enough.
Ann Livermore, who is the executive vice president of HP's Enterprise Business behemoth – all services plus servers, storage, and networking glommed – had the Technology Services portion ripped away from her and moved over to Dave Donatelli, the ex-EMCer who was brought in to run the Enterprise Server, Storage, and Networking business two years ago.
Ann Livermore: Twice overlooked for CEO, now
interim chief of Enterprise Services
Livermore, who has been passed over twice for the CEO job herself, has been named interim chief of the remaining Enterprise Services unit. Apotheker said that HP is looking for an executive to run the Enterprise Services unit, which means Livermore won't get the job and which also means that being in charge of the entire Enterprise Business unit doesn't really add up to much. It only takes one memo from Apotheker for the executives who are running HP's ESSN, Software, and Enterprise Services groups to report directly to him, not via Livermore, for her to be completely sidelined.
Apotheker said that HP would be setting up a Business Solutions Group to "create more strategic value" for HP's customers and beef up cloud, application modernization, business analytics, and mobility services practices.
A third executive who is reportedly leaving HP is Gary Budzinski, who was the SVP and general manager of the Technology Services unit that has just been moved over to the ESSN group under Donatelli.
A month ago, Tom Hogan, the top sales guy in the Enterprise Business behemoth, which accounted for just under half of HP's $126bn in revenues in fiscal 2010, and an ex-IBMer that was hired by HP to run its fledgling Software group in 2005, decided to leave the company. Jan Zadak, who was previously managing director of HP's EMEA unit, took over from Hogan on May 1.
Michael Mendenhall, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at HP, has been shown the door as well, and Bill Wohl - who was in charge of communications at German software giant SAP - was brought in to replace him. Apotheker was co-CEO for a stint at SAP and spent two decades working his way up the corporate ladder there before departing in February 2010. ®
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COMMENTS
Come on Loe...
...show you have some balls and boot Livermore out - now! She has been an underperforming, pain in the arse for years - she knows it, you know it and all the unfortunates in her (past and present) organisation know it.
Breakout of common sense
wow - a breakout of common sense at HP. Better check it's not April 1st.
Oh wait - non of the middle-management are inline for the boot. Shame. Promising start though - maybe someone at HP has begun to realise it's the techs that build the support reputation and the products themselves (and therefore the business), not the managers....?
HP's own tech support...
...(...) had "overexecuted operationally and underinvested strategically"
I wouln't use "overexecuted" but rather "underperformed".
HP, start providing tech support that does not suck to your large accounts customers and you might see them signing new support contracts instead of not renewing the existing ones.
Right now, being treated just like John Doe who just bought his Inkjet at Carrefour (make that Tesco or Walmart depending on where you live), by the same people with the same technical expertise when you sign support contracts amounting to 6-digit figures (in Euros) per year is no longer acceptable.
HP's tech support, especially for the server blade line of products, has really being going down the drain.
How to destroy a great company
Mr. Apotheker, with no legacy to speak of, is trying to fake his way into his CEO role by antagonizing HP's talents and letting them go, replacing them with also-rans from SAP which by the way isn't at all in the same business. This won't end well for HP.
over executed ?
You can only kill your business once shurley ?
Or did he mean thow managers, not technical staff at problems in the new HP Way
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