HP's Mission, Vision Statements, And The Strategic Direction HP is a leading company in the production of computer hardware and software. Two electrical engineering students from Stanford University started it. From the history recorded, it is noted that the company began operations from a garage somewhere in California, USA. The founders William Hewlett and David Packard founded the company and gave it the name as Hewlett Packard from their personal names. In the industry, the company has made much presence to the point that it has become a household name. Much of the HP computers are being sold at the new markets in Africa and Asia. The company also commands a greater share of the international market available.

Mission and Vision Statement

The vision statement states "To view change in the market as an opportunity to grow; to use our profits and our ability to develop and produce innovative products, services and solutions that satisfy emerging customer needs." This statement is fully explanatory, showing the company's desire to have a better future by using what it has. The vision statement also sells the company's agenda for the public by explaining the many desires that it wishes to attain and showing an acknowledgement of the endowment that the company has.

The mission statement states as "To provide products, services and solutions of the highest quality and deliver more value to our customers that earn their respect and loyalty." This statement shows the actions that the company intends to achieve. This statement highlights the activities that the company intends to take to remain competitive in the market. This statement binds the company to pursue every possible avenue towards the realization of the set objectives. As a company that intends to outshine the rest in the industry, the mission statement had to be elaborate and comprehensive.

The Appropriateness of the Mission and Vision Statements

The two company statements are all in line with the company's objectives. The primary purpose that the company has relates to taking over the computer hardware market and edge out the other equally aggressive competitors that have tendered their bidding. For instance, in the vision statement, the company intends to provide products that meet the needs of the customers. This is a good way of arresting the market. The consumers are the most influential stakeholders in any business (Harrison, & St. John, 2009). The vision statement fulfils the company's objective of controlling the market.

Another objective that the company has is to outdo the other players in the industry by producing high-quality products that can sell well in the market. The management intends to do this by producing high-quality products. In this case, the production and design department conduct research and development studies on how to come up with products that can best serve the clients' needs well. In the mission statement, this intention is duly captured. The company intends to produce high-quality products that meet the expectations of the clients besides coming up with other innovations that can make the present state of products meet the demands of its customers (Riggs, 2013).

The Challenges at HP

The challenges the company face are numerous. They are mainly challenges that have everything to do with the influence of the competitors in the industry. Other companies such as Apple and Dell have already staged an onslaught to win the computers market and have created a serious challenge to HP. The company that has the most subscribed customers in this industry is Apple. The company has more clients than HP and for this case; they have proved to be the most threatening competitors than the company. For this reason, Apple can afford to sell their products at a cheaper price as compared to HP Company. This derives a price-based competitive advantage for HP that most successful companies would wish to have. In every sense, it is important to ensure that the price charged for the products is relatively cheaper, unlike other industry players. The price should also be in tandem with the quality because consumers not only fall for the price but also look out for the high-quality products (Harrison, & St. John, 2009).

Another challenge that the HP Company has is the pace with which technological advancements are taking over the computer development field. So many inventions are coming up. With the advancements in technology, HP products are getting obsolete with time. This way, they need to invest more funds to match up the development in the industry. In this case, the level of technological advancements has made the company always be up on toes with looking for ways of leveling the gap....

The challenges are not importantly able to sustain the growth in the industry. It takes a lot to develop a product while this same product lasts shortly in the market before the invested cost is even recouped. This is a counterproductive means of growth. The two challenges couple up to influence the way in which the company progresses. It has made the company encounter losses as well as incur too much cost beyond what would have been the case. It is hard to confront such challenges and still make it up to compete effectively in the industry. Companies in this industry have to struggle hard to make it to the competitive position (Packard & Kirby, 2011).
Characteristics of the mission statement

Examples

Comments

Target specific

The mission statement clearly states that the mission of the company is to reach out to appeal to the customers as well win over their attention.

When a mission statement is very specific about the objectives, it needs to accomplish, it serves the purpose well. The company has to ensure that the clients get to know everything about what the company offers. It easily serves the purpose of informing the clients what they ought to know about the company products (Harrison, & St. John, 2009).

Affirmative

The use of the word 'To' is in the affirmative. It states the company's commitment to serve the market well.

It is important that the company use an affirmative way of communication in the mission statement in order to convince the potential clients to make purchases.

Descriptive

The words used in the mission statement to describe the intentions of the company.

A mission statement is supposed to be descriptive enough to ensure that the clients get to know the intentions of the company.

Strategies employed by HP

In response to the challenges that the company has faced over time, the company has managed to formulate strategies to counter the challenge. These strategies are to do with winning the market for them. From the market situation, it has been expected that the people would appreciate every effort that the companies put to secure their market. The customers have in every instance showed a positive response to the efforts that the individual companies have been putting to safeguard their market. For instance, it has always been seen that whenever HP Company stages a marketing offensive, the clients come in larger numbers than before (Riggs, 2013). This phenomenon has motivated the company to pursue offensive efforts to win the market.

The first crucial strategy that the company has employed is the adoption of customization as a way of seeking competitive advantage. In this strategy, the customers are allowed to make suggestions and personal requests of what they want to have in the products. This ranges in matters of design and development. Here, the company can manufacture a device in response to the specifications that the clients place for the same. HP clients can request products that meet their desired needs and wishes (Packard & Kirby, 2011). Even thou customization is an expensive endeavor, the extra cost incurred in coming up with the customer-responsive products is offset by the high prices charged for the customized products. There is no single loss associated with the use adoption of the customization regime. Customization has also enabled the company to stand on a better platform than the rest of the industry. Given the case of the situation in the market, the few companies that are there can only outdo each other using such rare strategies as customization (Harrison, & St. John, 2009).

Another strategy that the company has put in place is to use a robust marketing strategy. As a way of marketing the products, HP Company uses both personal selling and social media advertizing. The objectives of the HP Company are to stage a widespread campaign on every available platform possible. As seen from the advertisement strategy, it is clear that the intention is to capture as much attention as possible. This is shown by the strategy the company uses to approach the people. Social Media is the latest form of communication and is the most widely used method of communication. Therefore, using this method of advertising has earned the company much better results than those using mainstream media (Riggs, 2013).