Growth Strategies Case Study

Case Title:

HP: CEO, Mark Hurd’s Growth Strategies

Abstract:
Hewlett-Packard, a global IT company, is into the manufacturing of wide range of products such as PCs, servers, storage devices, printers, network equipment and a software portfolio, which includes operating systems, print management tools and network infrastructure. Since 2000, the company could not generate much revenue and lost its market share to its competitors like Dell and IBM. In order to compete against these companies, in 2002, HP acquired Compaq. But, the then CEO Carly Fiorina during her reign from July 1999 to February 2005, failed to accelerate growth of the company. In March 2005, Mark Hurd (former CEO of NCR) was appointed the CEO of HP. Hurd took initiatives to cut down costs, lay off employees and went for acquisitions to expand the company globally and improve its market share. Though his strategies started reaping benefits, few analysts opined that it would be a challenging task ahead for Hurd to bring back the company on the path of growth and regain its lead among the IT companies.

Pedagogical Objectives:

• To highlight Mark Hurd’s strategic initiatives to regain its lost ground
• To discuss the several options available to Mark Hurd to transform HP's fortunes.

Keywords : Hewlett-Packard; Mark Hurd; Growth strategies; Acquisitions; PC (personal computer) industry; Growth Strategies Case Study; Compaq; Expansion; IBM; Competition; Dell; Cost cutting; Carly Fiorina