Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg Whitman is betting that refining the company’s existing strategy, rather than making radical shifts, will help reverse the fortunes of the struggling computer maker.
Whitman, a year into the CEO job, plans to sharpen the company’s focus on corporate clients with a new product lineup that includes software and tablets for businesses and a machine that combines storage, computing and networking, according to people familiar with the matter.
She’ll explain her approach to analysts Oct. 3 in San Francisco, said the people, who requested anonymity because the plans are private.
Whitman is seeking to reverse a slump that has sliced revenue for four straight quarters. Her challenge will be convincing investors that the evolutionary approach is enough to withstand threats from EMC Corp., Oracle Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. in the growing market for products that deliver computing over the Internet.
“There’s a huge movement toward using the cloud as the platform, and it’s going to be hard for HP to compete,” said Joshua Greenbaum, an analyst and principal of Enterprise Applications Consulting. “IBM and Oracle have made integration of hardware and software a key to their strategy.”
Whitman’s task is to shore up investors’ confidence in a company wracked by two years of management upheaval, accelerating competition and acquisitions gone awry.
Whitman took the reins last September from Leo Apotheker, whose 10-month tenure was marked by strategy shifts and sales-forecast shortfalls.
