14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like the slowdown of PC sales has caught up to HP the world's largest supplier of computers, whose quarterly results during the winter periods proved so underwhelming that the outfit decided on some drastic changes to its team of executive officers.
It will be a while before the IT market forgets about how suddenly AMD, and later Acer, ended up without full-fledged CEOs, and stayed that way for months.
Now, it appears that HP went through a bad enough period, in terms of finances, that it decided some restructuring was in order.
Chief Adminstrative Officer Peter Bocian and Chief Information Officer Randy Mott, for instance, are both leaving the company, while Executive VP and enterprise head Ann Livermore is also leaving her position, although she is joining HP's board of directors.
“Ann’s distinguished role as a leader of our largest business, deep relationships with our most important customers, institutional knowledge of the company and its employees, and insights on the technology industry will be tremendous assets to our board of directors,” said Ray Lane, non-executive chairman, HP board of directors.
“On behalf of HP’s 320,000-plus employees, I would like to congratulate Ann on her election and offer our heart-felt gratitude for her long service and dedication to this company.”
HP is describing its decisions as a means to better focus on the business sector (cloud services, connectivity among devices and software).
Still, it is easy to see how the drop in home PC sales might have contributed to these modifications to the so-called command structure.
“These businesses play a vital role in our continued growth and success, and as such, Dave, Bill and Jan will report directly to me and help drive the overall direction for HP,” said Apotheker.
“In our ongoing effort to accelerate our progress in executing our strategy, we will continue to make the necessary changes that streamline our operations, drive focus and agility, and position us for success.”
Basically, more of HP's direct operational executives (like VP of enterprise hardware and network businesses, Dave Donatelli, software executive VP Bill Veghte and global sales executive VP Jan Zadak) will report directly to the CEO (Leo Apotheker).