APPLY AND ASSESS REPORT

Apply and Assess Introduction

Research Outcomes

Outcome Statement. As a result of researching the cause of Hewlett-Packards loss of revenue, the researcher will supply a guide for the company to use to ensure that it can once again be competitive in the tech industry and once again produce revolutionary, innovative new products that are in demand by consumers and that can thus effectively increase the companys revenue.

Research Question. What led to HPs loss of revenue and how can it reverse this trend?

Research Hypothesis. It is hypothesized that by getting away from its core founding principles and values, HP engaged on a losing path. By returning to its core founding principlesnamely a focus on innovationHP will be able to strengthen its brand and become dominant in the industry once more, leading it to increasing sales of in-demand products and thus increase of revenue.

Research Design

The type of research conducted was a descriptive study of the variables that led to HPs loss of revenue in the first place from the start of the 21st century, when the company was eclipsed by Apple and Microsoft, till now when HP is trying to right itself and get back lost revenue. The descriptive study approach is most appropriate as it provides a suitable means of collecting data to analyze and identify themes and issues that can help to describe the reasons for HPs loss of revenue (Houghton, Murphy, Shaw & Casey, 2015). De Massis and Kotler (2014) point out that a descriptive study should be adopted when the aim of the research is to convince someone of a phenomenons basic characteristics (p. 16). Since the goal of this research was to identify the basic characteristics of HPs loss of revenue and compare them to the characteristics of HPs earlier years when its revenue was much higher, descriptive study is a logical approach.

Review of the Literature

Outsourcing and Bad Acquisitions

HP began turning over its talent and labor to workers in other parts of the world (Mourdoukoutas, 2014). As a result of HPs outsourcing, much of its manufacturing went to other countries, and more than half of its production was done overseas by the early 21st century (Bandler & Burke, 2012). This caused big problems for worker morale in the States as no one was quite sure whose job was safe and where the next relocations would occur. There was no incentive to commit oneself to the company and no long-term vision. A revolving door of CEOs with murky led the way to HPs decline as outsourcing and bad acquisitions continued for years (Woolley, 2010). The company tried to buy its way into relevance again with strategic acquisitions that proved costly and ineffective. HP made a number of unwise acquisitions in an effort to be relevant in the tech sector. However, the company was looking backwards instead of forwards. By purchasing Compaq, Palm and Autonomy in 2001, 2010 and 2011 respectively (at substantial cost to the company), HP thought it would be able to scale in the PC, mobile phone, and software markets (Bandler & Burke, 2012).

Falling Behind Competitors

HP was constantly having to play catch-up with its competitors (Kalb, 2012a). Even when it had the opportunity to invest in a new idea, HP let the idea get awayas was the case with Apples Wozniack who offered his new PC ideas to HP 5 times before linking up with Jobs at Apple and going on to produce some of the most dynamic, ground-breaking equipment in the tech world (Ong, 2010).

Competitors like Apple, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon were arriving on the scene with new products that were changing…

APPLY AND ASSESS REPORT

Apply and Assess Introduction

Research Outcomes

Outcome Statement. As a result of researching the cause of Hewlett-Packards loss of revenue, the researcher will supply a guide for the company to use to ensure that it can once again be competitive in the tech industry and once again produce revolutionary, innovative new products that are in demand by consumers and that can thus effectively increase the companys revenue.

Research Question. What led to HPs loss of revenue and how can it reverse this trend?

Research Hypothesis. It is hypothesized that by getting away from its core founding principles and values, HP engaged on a losing path. By returning to its core founding principlesnamely a focus on innovationHP will be able to strengthen its brand and become dominant in the industry once more, leading it to increasing sales of in-demand products and thus increase of revenue.

Research Design

The type of research conducted was a descriptive study of the variables that led to HPs loss of revenue in the first place from the start of the 21st century, when the company was eclipsed by Apple and Microsoft, till now when HP is trying to right itself and get back lost revenue. The descriptive study approach is most appropriate as it provides a suitable means of collecting data to analyze and identify themes and issues that can help to describe the reasons for HPs loss of revenue (Houghton, Murphy, Shaw & Casey, 2015). De Massis and Kotler (2014) point out that a descriptive study should be adopted when the aim of the research is to convince someone of a phenomenons basic characteristics (p. 16). Since the goal of this research was to identify the basic characteristics of HPs loss of revenue and compare them to the characteristics of HPs earlier years when its revenue was much…

APPLY AND ASSESS REPORT

Apply and Assess Introduction

Research Outcomes

Outcome Statement. As a result of researching the cause of Hewlett-Packards loss of revenue, the researcher will supply a guide for the company to use to ensure that it can once again be competitive in the tech industry and once again produce revolutionary, innovative new products that are in demand by consumers and that can thus effectively increase the companys revenue.

Research Question. What led to HPs loss of revenue and how can it reverse this trend?

Research Hypothesis. It is hypothesized that by getting away from its core founding principles and values, HP engaged on a losing path. By returning to its core founding principlesnamely a focus on innovationHP will be able to strengthen its brand and become dominant in the industry once more, leading it to increasing sales of in-demand products and thus increase of revenue.

Research Design

The type of research conducted was a descriptive study of the variables that led to HPs loss of revenue in the first place from the start of the 21st century, when the company was eclipsed by Apple and Microsoft, till now when HP is trying to right itself and get back lost revenue. The descriptive study approach is most appropriate as it provides a suitable means of collecting data to analyze and identify themes and issues that can help to describe the reasons for HPs loss of revenue (Houghton, urphy, Shaw & Casey, 2015). De Massis and Kotler (2014) point out that a descriptive study should be adopted when the aim of the research is to convince someone of a phenomenons basic characteristics (p. 16). Since the goal of this research was to identify the basic characteristics of HPs loss of revenue and compare them to the characteristics of HPs earlier years when its revenue was much higher, descriptive study is a logical approach.

Review of the Literature

Outsourcing and Bad Acquisitions

HP began turning over its talent and labor to workers in other parts of the world (Mourdoukoutas, 2014). As a result of HPs outsourcing, much of its manufacturing went to other countries, and more than half of its production was done overseas by the early 21st century (Bandler & Burke, 2012). This caused big problems for worker morale in the States as no one was quite sure whose job was safe and where the next relocations would occur. There was no incentive to commit oneself to the company and no long-term...

A revolving door of CEOs with murky led the way to HPs decline as outsourcing and bad acquisitions continued for years (Woolley, 2010). The company tried to buy its way into relevance again with strategic acquisitions that proved costly and ineffective. HP made a number of unwise acquisitions in an effort to be relevant in the tech sector. However, the company was looking backwards instead of forwards. By purchasing Compaq, Palm and Autonomy in 2001, 2010 and 2011 respectively (at substantial cost to the company), HP thought it would be able to scale in the PC, mobile phone, and software markets (Bandler & Burke, 2012).

Falling Behind Competitors

HP was.......nity to invest in a new idea, HP let the idea get awayas was the case with Apples Wozniack who offered his new PC ideas to HP 5 times before linking up with Jobs at Apple and going on to produce some of the most dynamic, ground-breaking equipment in the tech world (Ong, 2010).

Competitors like Apple, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon were arriving on the scene with new products that were changing the face of tech (Felsted, 2017) and HP was nowhere to be found. It lagged in every way, from PCs to tablets to phones to automation. Apple led the way with innovative new software and hardware and Microsoft quickly caught up to speed. Amazon took tech in a different direction by linking markets, supporting cloud computing, and taking business online in a way that had never been seen before.

In its early days, HP was focused on innovation. Its humble origins were in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939, but innovation was always at the heart of the companys vision, and with the development of precision audio oscillator, which HP called the Model HP200A, the company blasted onto the scene of the tech world in a big way. The Model HP200A used a small pilot light to stabilize the devices outputsomething that made the device more effective and efficient and made businesses want to use it. The product beat competitors products in terms of pricing by more than half and brought the company to the attention of major corporations like Walt Disney, which used HPs oscillators in its theaters. Over the next several decades, HPs dedication to innovation made it into a leader in the tech industrybut when the company got way from its innovative principle (and completely missed out on advancing the designs of Steve Wozniak, who was an HP employee before going on to form Apple with Jobs) HP essentially began its downward spiral into decades of losing revenues and stagnant product lines (Ong, 2010).

No Focus on Innovation as CEOs Turn Backs on Core Founding Principle

For HP, the revenues started sliding as soon as the company began focusing on cost-cutting measures as opposed to innovations (Taylor, 2011; Kalb, 2012b; Zook, 2016). It laid off workers, and its leadership stumbled. Under Fiorina accelerated its lackadaisical approach to the tech industry: its performance declined and she was criticized for transforming a company that was an innovative market leader focused on high-growth, high-profit businesses into a company that was a market follower focused on low-growth, low-profit businesses (Kalb, 2012b). Fiorinas arrival and departure from HP cost the firm almost as much as it paid in penalty fees to the SEC for its bribery violations. Mark Hurd followed but only covered over HPs problems by cutting costs: nothing new was actually being developed and put to market. Leo Apotheker replaced Hurd and HPs value continued to decline: its stock price plummeted by nearly 50%. Apotheker completely lost sight of HPs vision and principles and employee morale disintegrated under his watch. He left Meg Whitman to clean up, but she inherited a company in 2011 that was facing extensive lay-offs, a deteriorated organizational culture, a loss of innovative focus, and a lack of principles within the organizations structure (Taylor, 2011). Whitman attempted to fix the problems that HP was facing by splitting the company into two entities (Hardy, 2014). This did not immediately solve HPs issues and revenue losses continued. The company again began looking to make strategic acquisitions, making the same mistakes the company had made earlier in the decade, by purchasing companies like Autonomy which led to a nearly $9 billion write-off.

Cutting Corners

HP among other companies violated SEC and other FTC laws in order to pursue contracts using bribes (Lawrence, Solomon & Bosworth, 2014; Saintvillus, 2014). Like so many other companies engaging in cost-cutting to save the bottom like (Hargreaves, 2010; McNulty & Pfeifer, 2010; Urbina, 2010; Mitchell, 2015; Mourdoukoutas, 2016; Druck, 2017; Gruley, Voreasco & Deaux, 2017), HP was trying to reduce spending to stay relevantbut consumers were not interested in what the company was bringing to market. Cutting costs did not bring anything new to their lives. That is why so many consumers flocked to Apple with its revolutionary new iPhone and then to Microsoft when it came out with a similar design. Innovation was the key to their success (Bloomberg, 2017). HP was not paying attention to this fact, however. Under CEO Mark Hurd, HP saw an increase in net incomebut this did not last long as his main instrument in achieving this outcome was not innovation but rather cost-cuttingwhich was not a specific core founding principle or vision of the company but rather a tool for masking over deeper underlying problems related to the organizations departure from its core values and vision as an innovator Saintvillus, 2014).

Conclusions

Summary

This research was focused on identifying the characteristics of HPs loss of revenue over the past two decades since Fiorina took over as CEO of the company in 1999. Instead of looking forward in terms of innovation to see how it could make the markets better for consumers through the development of new products, it was playing catch-up and the companies it purchased brought no real added value to the firm in the end; instead, they left HP with mounting debts (Mourdoukoutas, 2014). Bandler and Burke (2012) note that HP didnt boast a single hit consumer product even as 67% of its revenue stemmed from hardware. Competitors like Apple, IBM and Oracle were forward-looking and innovation-focused, delivering products and services that consumers were clamoring for in the new Digital Age (Kalb, 2012a; Felsted, 2017). HP was viewing the market as though it were still in the 1990s and letting its talent get away to competitors (Ong, 2010).

HP suffered from a decline in the quality of its organizational culture, which stemmed from a lack of leadership (Woolley, 2010). Under CEO Leo Apotheker, employees had become disengaged and the workplace felt traumatizedlayoffs were just around the corner, creativity had been stymied, and workers were uninspired to perform (Taylor, 2011). Indeed, workers were fatigued from more than a decade of lackadaisical leadership, from Carly Fiorina