hewlett packard’ company · 2014-10-22 · hewlett packard company was founded in 1939 by bill...

Hewlett-‐Packard Company

4/29/2013

Present in this report is an overview of Hewlett Packard Company, better known as HP. HP is a technological giant in the Information Technology Industry. Unfortunately for HP, their inability to adapt to changing

markets has had them in struggling positions in the past few years.

Armin Milak, Ozzie Marrero, Amerlin Burgos, Dan Fahey, Alex Skramstad https://sharepoint.uvm.edu/sites/bsadhp/SitePages/Home.aspx


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Executive Summary Hewlett Packard Company was founded in 1939 by Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard. The

company evolved from producing oscillators to producing various products such as computers,

printers, scanners, etc. Hewlett-Packard, more famously known as HP, has grown to become the

world’s largest producer of computers. In attempts to contend with competitors like Apple and

Dell, HP has invested billions of dollars in purchasing assets to combine with their current

possessions. These investments haven’t been transformed into profits, hence why HP has

accumulated over $30 billion in debt. Poor management in the last decade has proven to be a

major concern and liability with investors. Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, has been hired

along with other notable mangers to take over the marketing, financial and operational functions

of the business. 1

The financial state of HP in the past 5 years has seen a dramatic drop in overall market

value. Consistent drops in share values have led investors to pull money out of the company.2

The debt seems to just be increasing, while the overall profitability of the company is in the

midst of a downward spiral. With new management in place, HP has taken new approaches to

finance and marketing. Spending insurmountable amounts of money on advertisements, their

new storytelling concept is in place to reshape its marketing strategy. New commercials such as

the “the magic of touch,” and “make it matter,” are at the forefront of HPs new marketing push. 3

1 This is the executive summary of your report. The first paragraph should introduce your

company’s history, from the first sections of your report. You want to include only the most important and relevant information. In the corporate world, the executive summary is at times

the only part of the report read. It also provides the reader a reference, if they desired refreshing their mind on something they read, without needing to re-‐read the whole thing.

Include things such as threats to profits, and the ways the company is addressing those threats. Make sure that you have bits and pieces of each section in your report.

2 Notice the factual format of the summary. The majority of the sentences are facts pulled directly from the report itself. Take into consideration that each sentences should be important

in regards to your overall mission of the report. For example, all of the sentences in this summary provide facts an investor would like to know if deciding whether or not buy stock

from this company. 3 A good strategy to use is compiling summaries of each group members’ individual sections. Once this is in hand, constructing a cohesive, yet informative executive summary should be a

breeze.


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In addition to a new marketing strategy, HP has been rigorously overhauling their IT

systems. The primary focus for the company is a more sleek and efficient operational system.

With how quick transitions to new technologies are made, HP is working day and night to try

and improve their adaptability. Ethical Conflicts within the company’s higher executives have

proven to be a setback in terms of the trust received by their consumers. HP settled a lawsuit for

their role in the allowance of pretexting, or sharing of information, and was forced to pay out a

substantial amount of money to the state of California. Although some states have no laws

against these practices, there is still an underlying responsibility for the company to maintain in

terms of their ethics. Although poor ethics may not directly affect profits, there is always a

chance for it to indirectly punish the company’s profitability. 4

4 Note: Your executive summary should be at most ONE page. With the addition of these

footnotes, the executive summary in this report went over 1 page.


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Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 4 Environment/Industry Analysis .................................................................................................................... 4 Company Description .................................................................................................................................. 6 Financial Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Recent Marketing Strategy ....................................................................................................................... 10 Use of Information Technology ................................................................................................................. 12 Ethical Issues ............................................................................................................................................. 14 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 16 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 17

Hewlett-Packard Products

Note: The table of contents is AFTER your executive summary. Including relevant pictures of products/services your company offers is just an extra plus, and helps your audience understand the types of things they produce and sell. It should be made using the table of contents tool in Word.


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Introduction5

Since Hewlett Packard Company was first founded in 1939, they have produced

countless amounts of innovative and revolutionary products. The HP slogan for years has been,

“invent.” This slogan describes the founders of the company, but on the other hand doesn’t

match with the current route HP seems to be running on. With all of the success that comes with

being part of HP, it comes as a huge surprise that HP is currently struggling with its operations.

A changing market, a large debt, poor management, and more combine to create a serious

problem for Hewlett Packard in the coming years. 6

With the accumulated debt and the massive consolidation of the company to come,

reporters have pronounced the dimmest fates for HP.7 Judith Hurwitz of Businessweek magazine

said, “I believe that by the end of the decade (if not before), HP will either become a holding

company or be broken up and sold off” (Businessweek, Judith Hurwitz).8 Our group has put

together an analysis of 6 different components of the company to try and funnel down what has

gone wrong with HP in the last decade. The six categories used were an environmental/industry

analysis, a company description, a financial analysis, a recent marketing strategy, HP’s use of

information technology, and finally a look into ethical/environmental issues that have soured the

taste for Hewlett Packard’s products. 9

Environment/Industry Analysis

Hewlett Packard (HP) is and has been a diversified technology giant in the world today,

but continuing poor management may prove to be a cause for concern for investors and the

5 A clear, different font colored footnote appears to separate sections. 6 Introduce the focus of your report. Here, we introduce a main point in our argument: that HP

is currently not being as inventive as they have been known for. 7 Here is a powerful statement about how HP seems to be heading into a downward spiral. This introduces our argument that we believe HP needs to make some serious changes in order to

survive in the changing market. 8 In business classes Professors will ask for in text citations along with a reference page. From

experience, professor wont specify the format desired, but will require consistency. So choose a citing format and stick to it.

9 The last sentence is a place where a transitional sentence is needed. Here, we listed all of the sections/topics that we were going to be talking about.


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future of the company.10 Hewlett Packard lies in the Information technology industry. The

Information Technology Association of America defines Information technology (IT) as “the

study, design, development, application, implementation, support or management of computer-

based information systems.” With alliance to this, HP produces various types of computers,

printers, scanners, services, servers, and software. They are also a large provider of storage, and

servers, and are continuing to invest in cloud technology. As for the size of the industry, it is one

of the biggest in the world, and it has actually continuously grown over the years. By 2002, the

computing industry was worth a whopping $220 billion globally. The market for PCs, and

subsequent products and services is of a wide range and is truly a universal phenomenon. There

are markets all over the world, including personal use and business consumption for the products

that HP provides. 11

Porter’s five forces is a great tool for describing what the current information technology

industry looks like and what possible risks that they may have to endure in the future. 12First,

there are always competitors in each industry, and the rule applies to the IT industry as well. The

main competitors for HP are Dell, Apple, Accenture, and IBM. What sets HP apart from its

competitors is the company’s ability to provide packaged deals of computers, software, printers,

and scanners. Next, HP has one of the widest ranges of customer’s the industry has to offer. It

gives quantity discounts to many businesses and even large enterprises who love HPs ability to

provide full packaged deals of products. Following customers, HP holds leverage with its

suppliers because of the high quantity of products they require to fulfill its demand. When you

hold this kind of leverage that HP has, you have bargaining power over your suppliers and are

qualified to receive quantity discounts from them. Although they hold this leverage as a benefit,

there are threats in which they must take account of, like the threat of new entrants and the threat

of substitute products. The threat of new entrants is relatively low given the difficulty to compete

10 Like any paper, topic sentences are needed. Here, there is a topic sentence identifying HP’s

place in the technology industry. 11 An Environment/Industry Analysis section is a key topic to research for a company analysis. Find information such as how big the industry is, who are the company’s competitors, and the

types of products that coincide with the industry. 12 Use Porter’s five forces to describe the industry. 1. Threat of new entrant. 2. Threat of

substitute products or services. 3. Power of customers. 4. Power of suppliers. 5. Intensity of competition.


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with the reputation HP has built. It would take an extremely large investment to compete in the

computing industry because of the level of barriers that it holds. The biggest threat to HP is the

rising sensation of substitute products. Apple has produced the iPad and the iPhone. Along with

Apple, many other companies have introduced their own versions of this new small, portable,

touch screen computing device. Apps on mobile phones produce a large threat because they have

the ability to provide the same functionality of apps on computers, but at a cheaper price, and in

a smaller more portable form (Central Penn).

Company Description 13

Two close classmates from Stanford University, Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett, started

their business from a garage in Palo Alto, California in 1939. The first product they ever created

was called an oscillator, which is an electronic test instrument that tested sounds. HP’s first big

customer was Walt Disney, who purchased 8 oscillators used in the making of the movie

Fantasia (HP Labs). Hewlett Packard has grown into the largest IT Company in the world,

whiling employing over 350,000 people, and with establishments in over 170 countries on 6

different continents (HP Labs). HP’s corporate objectives are to “maintain customer loyalty,

profit, growth, market leadership, commitment to employees, leadership capability, and global

citizenship” (HP). 14After taking massive hits to their overall profitability (to be explained more

later on), HP hopes to erase these last ten years and turn things around for the next ten. In recent

years, HP has spent millions, even billions of dollars in purchasing assets. In an attempt to keep

up to date with the latest software, HP has accumulated a $30 billion debt from their various

purchases. This has proven to be their strategy, but it hasn’t worked out for the better in most

situations. They have struggled tremendously to be innovative enough in order to keep up with

their competitors.15 As they enter the decline stage of the product life cycle, they need to be more

13 Note that each section/topic is clearly divided and easily identifiable. Your reader should

know when you’re switching topics. 14 Adding in the corporate objectives of the company in the company description section is a very good idea. What better way to describe the company than by providing what their goals

and values are? 15 Describe the company’s current position financially. Talk about what they are struggling with,

how they are trying to deal with it, and if they’re successful in their attempts.


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innovative. As they move on in their business plans, they hope to utilize their assets in servers,

networks, and services to implement a large cloud computing service which they hope will

rebuild their struggling profits (Businessweek).

Currently, Hewlett Packard Company is run by CEO Meg Whitman, who was hired in

September of 2011. As CEO of eBay, she played an essential role in the expansion and success

of the company. One of Whitman’s first objectives as CEO was to combine HP’s printing and

computing services into one. 16Together the two services account for $65 billion in revenue.

Whitman explained this combination as a way to increase efficiency within the company and cut

costs of production, as well as decrease operational costs (Businessweek). HP purchased and

merged with Compaq in 2002, and to this date that has been the most successful business move

the company has made in the past few decades. This expanded the company’s ability to offer a

full package of items to its customers. 17 Whitman is reported to have forced former leader of

HP’s printing industry, Vyomesh Joshi, out of the company (AllthingsD). Business Week

magazine reported that the combination of the two product lines may eventually lead to woes for

investors because ultimately the two may not be a good fit together (Businessweek). In a report

from the Los Angeles Times, analysts believe that management has lost control over its

operations in recent years due to the drastic changes to management, and the company’s overall

ability to adapt to the worlds changing market (LA Times). The amount of internally developed

talent in HP has shrunk enormously over the past years. Until Carly Friorina was hired as CEO in

1999, all of HP’s past CEO’s and senior leaders were lifelong employees of the company

(Businessweek). That says a lot to the recent switch in organization and management of the

company. Although HP has acquired a great deal of assets in the past few years, the

management’s inability to implement them in a way that would provide growth and profit has

clearly been a problem. If HP continues with the practices it has employed for the past 5 years I

wouldn’t count on a comeback from the IT giant (Businessweek). Along with Whitman, Hewlett

Packard hoists a strong team of executives who are looking to turn the company’s fortunes

around. Marty Homlish, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, has over 25

16 Find some information about their current leadership and talk about their impact on the

company. Good? Bad? Potential to succeed? 17 Find some of the good things the company has done in recent years. What has made them money? Is it still making them money, and looking back, was it still the right move to make?


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years of experience in marketing. 18 He spent 15 years with Sony and is responsible for unifying

the brand management of Sony’s different segments including PlayStation, Music, and pictures.

Catherine Lesjak, Chief Financial Officer, has 25 years of experience within Hewlett Packard, in

which she was responsible for the companies worldwide cash, debt, foreign exchange, capital

structure, risk management, and benefits plan administration. Bill Veghte, Chief Operating

Officer, has the responsibility to work closely with the executive council to oversee the

operational activities and overall success. Veghte has held senior leadership positions in

Microsoft, and has contributed greatly to the success and launch of Windows 7 (HP Labs).

Financial Analysis

When analyzing Hewlett-Packard over the past five years, the company has seen a

dramatic decrease in its overall market value. While quarter one for Hewlett-Packard in 2013

brought growth to the company, it is still not expected to make significant profits until 2014.

CEO Meg Whitman told CNBC that, “the financial results are going to have to underscore the

strategy and that’s why we have laid out this multiyear journey to basically be very clear to

people that we won’t see revenues accelerating until 2014” (Thompson 1). Profit margins, which

is the amount by which revenue from sales exceeds costs in a business, rest far below

Information Business Machines (IBM) and Apple who are two competitors in the same market. 19Dell however is seeing almost an identical trend as Hewlett-Packard with almost a fifty percent

decrease in profits margins since 2011. 20

18 Describing the company has a lot to do with describing their leadership.

19 Notice how the entire paper is in a really factual tone. You want to maintain this type of tone throughout the paper, and infuse analysis whenever possible.

20 Talk about the company’s profit margin and compare them financially to their competitors. Are they doing better than them? Worse? Why is the company struggling to compete, or what

makes them better than the competition?


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21

Having been founded in 1939, Hewlett-Packard has been able to make a notable name for

its self over the years. With that being said, massive companies such as Apple have entered the

market and developed new technologies that have caught the eyes of the average consumer.22

Big name companies combined with poor market adaptability have caused Hewlett-Packard to

lose some of its significance. As the return on assets and current ratio fall at a steady pace, this

company is wedged in a downward spiral. Debts and liabilities are increasing at a swift rate,

while assets are being sold off to fight their climbing debt. This in turn affects the current ratio,

which stands for the measure of whether or not a firm has enough resources to pay its debts over

the next 12 months.

21 There’s nothing better than a graph that tells a story without words when reading a long report. Add in multiple graphics showcasing important and relevant information about the company. If adding in a graphic, it's vital that in your report you explain what you want the reader to know about it. You can’t expect the reader to be able to read and understand the

information giving in graph form. 22 Constantly comparing your company to other’s in its industry is a good way to show

investor’s how the company stacks up.

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00%

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

HP

IBM

DELL

AAPL

Total Assets

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

$200.00

$250.00

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

HP

IBM

DELL

AAPL

Profit Margin

0 0.5 1

1.5 2

2.5 3

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

HP

IBM

DELL

AAPL

Current Ratio


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The technology industry is advancing at a debauched pace and with companies such

as Hewlett-‐Packard falling behind; it will be very hard to make its way back up from the

bottom. When looking at the graph, Hewlett-‐Packard has seen a dramatic decrease in net

income. What can’t be seen on this year-‐to-‐year graph however can be seen on the monthly

graph for 2012. Throughout the months of July to October Hewlett-‐Packard saw net income

plummet to negative eight billion eight hundred and five million dollars. This shocked the

company sending thousands of employs home without a job, and Hewlett-‐Packard into a

continuous flow of debt desperately trying to fix what had gone wrong. However, in recent

years Hewlett-‐Packard as seen its profit margin, net income, assets, and liabilities steadily

come back from their negative margins, giving hope to investors and employees of the

company.

Recent Marketing Strategy 23

The recent forecast for personal computers has been grim. Companies in this market have

seen their fair share of declining sales as well as falling stock prices in recent months while the

mobile and tablet markets flourish. That being said, HP has taken the biggest hit so far out of its

competitors with a daunting 24% decline in PC shipments in the first quarter of 2013 compared

to 2012’s first quarter (Fool, 2013). Interestingly enough, HP has recently spent approximately

23 What’s the company doing to sell its products? Including a section about marketing strategies is vital to understanding the success or failure of a company.

0

1

2

3

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

HP Net Income

HP

-‐10

-‐5

0

5

Jan. Apr. Jul. Oct. Jan. 2013

HP Net Income (Monthly)

HP


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$1.2 billion in advertising alone in almost all forms of promotion varying widely from cable TV,

internet ads, to outdoor billboards (Advertising Redbook, 2013, p. 438). 24This vast amount of

advertisement spending comes as no surprise considering HP is trying its best to recover and

reinvent its image into a company that can change with the market. 25

Hewlett Packard has adopted the interesting concept of storytelling to reshape its

marketing strategy and has defined three market segments it wishes to target including,

households, small to medium businesses, and large enterprises (Fernandez, 2009). 26The

objective of this change is not only to inform people of the functionality of the product and its

cost, but also engage the audience and get them interested by entertaining them. The stories HP

attempts to portray are geared toward being relatable to consumers’ everyday lives (Fernandez,

2009). This, in theory, will hook consumers and allow them to consider HP over other companies

because psychologically, consumers would feel HP knows what a normal everyday person needs

out of a computer. That being said, HP understands the growing mobile and tablet markets and

have taken strides to adapt to the business environment.

One of HP’s most recent commercials titled “the Magic of touch” succeeds at telling a

story while also stylishly showing off its notebook/tablet hybrid. The commercial is short,

engaging, and last but not least, informative about an interesting product. HP must be forecasting

the product life cycle of PCs as being in the late stages of maturity and thus, there must be a

change in the product being sold in order for revenues to rise once more. This is a step in the

right direction, yet hopefully this adaption did not come too late. Companies like Apple and

Android have had a multitude of different tablets over the years and hopefully it isn’t too late for

HP to catch up in this market and gain a foothold. One key feature this tablet has over others is

its duel functionality as a notebook as well as being a tablet. HP has reinvented the tablet into

something very intriguing and only time will tell whether this innovation will bring in the much

needed revenue or further hinder the rebound of the company. Another example of their new

story telling promotional strategy doesn’t even try to sell the consumer a specific product but

24 What kind of money has the company spent on advertising? On research and development? 25 Here you see again this reoccurring theme we have about HP’s inability to change with the market. Remember that your report needs a focus, and remember to stick with it throughout. 26 Topic sentences. Yes they do still matter in business writing. Here, the topic sentence clearly shows that the rest of the paragraph will be about this new “storytelling” marketing strategy.


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inspires the consumer to “make it matter”. This commercial has multiple scenes of people living

their lives, working hard to accomplish an objective, and even a doctor helping out a poor

community. The commercial makes the consumer feel as if they can “make it matter” by

allowing HP to help them reach their goals however big or small. 27

Use of Information Technology

Hewlett-Packard is one of the leading companies that specialize in information

technology and more specifically big data solutions. Spending over one billion dollars, the

company recently began developing their own data warehousing solutions (Henschen 14-16).

This new move is a risky investment due to the rapidly changing technology of data storage.

With competitors such as Cisco and IBM already deep in the IT environment, Hewlett-Packard

may have difficulty penetrating the market. However, HP has reported great success in their

development of new data warehousing techniques that allow business to cut costs while raising

the speeds of their systems (Analyzing More Data Faster). HP could hold the key to the most

efficient new wave of operational strategies at its feet.

Over the past three years Hewlett-Packard has been doing a complete overhaul of their IT

systems, and this ongoing project is aimed to reduce their 85 data centers to a sleek and efficient

six. (Foley 30-35) HP has been working for over two years to be able to position the company to

penetrate the data warehousing technology market (Foley 30-35). Many companies find that they

are unable to compete because of how costly this sector can be, as the technology is extremely

expensive to research and produce. Furthermore when the technology is actually developed, it

could already be out of date and behind competitors’ products (Foley 30-35). Since researching

and specializing in data storage is extremely difficult, it can be very expensive. Developing data

warehousing technology requires large and well-funded companies such as HP to create and sell

the technology, hence why Hewlett-Packard continues to ripen and vend their technologies to

other companies and consumers (Foley 30-35). HP will go to their customers’ businesses where

27 What’s the significance of their strategies? Are they working? Analyze the strategy and try to grasp the meaning behind it, and the company’s goal with the implementation of the strategy.


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they will install their equipment and show said companies how to run large data systems more

proficiently and resourcefully (Analyzing More Data Faster).

HP has broadened their ability to implement and use their new technology to help

streamline businesses that need to store and access large amounts of data. Hewlett-Packard

specializes in upgrading the existing Microsoft SQL server technology, a service developed by

their partner Microsoft (Foley 30-35). HP says that their objective is to “consolidate

infrastructure supporting business intelligence data warehouse to improve performance and

reduce cost” (Analyzing More Data Faster).28 HP reports that they have been able to create the

speed of their time of value (initially the processing speed) to be fourteen times faster than what

is considered the standard in their industry (Analyzing More Data Faster). They have also

reported a thirty percent power savings and a fifty percent decrease of required staff to support

the data warehouses (Analyzing More Data Faster). Hewlett-Packard boasts that their

technology creates a “twofold increase in productivity” due to the implementation of new

technology inside of their data warehouses (Analyzing More Data Faster).29

Technology, especially data warehousing technology, has a particularly low life span.

The industry innovates so often that many firms come and go over night and that it does not take

long for a company’s technology to be rendered obsolete (Foley 30-35). Hewlett Packard

recognizes this and often guarantees a four year lifespan of their data warehousing technology

(Analyzing More Data Faster). The company also recognizes the problem with data warehouses

quickly being outdated stating “although the data warehouse proved very useful, IT was

challenged to scale its underlying infrastructure” (Analyzing More Data Faster). HP reports that

on average their incoming data volumes increase by four terabytes each year like clockwork

(Analyzing More Data Faster). This increase in data quickly overtakes the existing data

warehouse and requires improvements to be made. HP offers what they call “scalable solutions”

that last for four years (Analyzing More Data Faster). These “scalable solutions” are basically

four year plans that help HP keep their data warehouses able to properly cope with the increasing

demand for data storage (Analyzing More Data Faster). Scalable solutions help keep HP ahead

28 Just like in any paper, the use of quotes is very valuable. You want to insert the quote, and

then explain the relevance and significance of the statement. 29 With the ever expanding IT world we live in, it’s valuable to add in how companies are using

Information technology and how it is helping their businesses.


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of the curve, they predict how technology will advance and how there will always be new

demand for more data storage. Hewlett-Packard’s new data warehousing technology addresses

the increasing demand for data storage in a time where technology changes so quickly it is hard

to keep up.30

Ethical Issues 31

As part of their mission statement Hewlett-Packard states that, “HP aims to always act

with uncompromising integrity, whether dealing with our suppliers, partners, employees,

customers, or society more broadly. Our shared values guide us to behave ethically and in

compliance with the law and to respect the rights of all our stakeholders...” (Hewlett-Packard

Development Company, 2011).32 The company places a lot of emphasis on living up to its

ethical standards. With accordance to that statement it is hard to believe that such standards did

not deter certain individuals within the company from acting in an unprincipled manner. HP

violated laws, their principles, and their ethics, hence why it wasn’t too long before the spying

scandal which took place within HP broke out into the public in 2006. The violations became

evident due to being involved with invasions of web related privacy that are considered to be

illegal.

The main spying technique involved in the case was pretexting, which consists of

obtaining personal phone records from company employees and manipulating employees

through false emails to obtain information. Investigators had been hired to pose as reporters and

company directors in order to confirm suspicions on how certain employees were leaking

confidential information to the media. At the center of the scandal was Patricia Dunn who was

chairman of the company at the time. Dunn was the person who enabled the investigation to take

place, after most board members expressed that such measures were necessary. Even after being

30 Why should companies invest in IT? Technology is always changing, so it’s important for companies to stay up to date within their industry. What is the company doing to make sure

they keep up? 31 Many companies have been immersed with allegations of ethical issues, so having a section

about your company’s ethical issues can provide a chance for you to explain why they participated, and also a chance to either defend or attack the company’s decision.

32 Most companies have mission statements in relation to ethics: adding it at the beginning can shape the way your section is written.


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taken to court, Dunn refused to take responsibility for her actions and was lucky enough to plead

not guilty. Even though Dunn recently passed, up until the date of her death she would victimize

herself making it seem as though she fell into a trap set up by the company.

Someone who actually did take some responsibility for the matter was Mark Hurd, CEO

of the company at the time, since he felt shame in allowing for these unethical activities to occur.

Hurds’ actions were brought to the attention of the media when the Washington Post reported

that along with Dunn, Hurd had carried out a deceptive operation in order to discover which

journalists were receiving private company information. More importantly, he wanted to know

which company employees were the ones providing it to them. When testifying before the

members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee subcommittee, Hurd admitted that he

should have been more attentive to what was going on since there were several questionable

activities he failed to give proper attention to.

Quoted in Journal of American Academy of Business, it is reported that at the end of

2006, “HP settled a lawsuit by the California attorney general for $14.5 million over HP's use of

private detectives to obtain private information pertaining to board members and journalists”

(Stanwick). A few months into the following year felony charges against Dunn had been

dismissed by a judge in the Santa Clara Superior Court. Dunn expressed how alleviated she was

that the matter had finally been resolved. Dunn had already been fired from the company before

any court settlements were even made, thus leaving Hurd to take over her position as chairman

while also undertaking his own position as CEO. Through this seemingly everlasting process, it

came as such a shock when negative attention was once again brought to the company due to the

actions of Hurd; an investigation related to sexual harassment had arisen. Both investors and

board members then announced that Hurd would have to step down as chairman and CEO due to

the investigation involving a female marketing contractor, Jodie Fisher. 33

Some might argue that the pretexting techniques involved in the case were not as terrible

as they were made out to be due to the fact that there is a lack of regulation on laws involving

pretexting. However, the location of HP is what made the company resort to illegal matters.

When used for purposes of identity theft, pretexting is clearly stated to be illegal according to

33 State the issue, and then state the outcome/consequences faced. Was it a huge blow to the company’s image? Or did it blow over quickly and not impact their reputation? Were there any financial consequences? Who took the blame for the company, and what happened to them?


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United States Government's Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Conversely, this document makes it

unclear whether a corporation legally pretexting phone records is legal or not. The reason HP

was scrutinized for it was due to the loose interpretation of the Act not applying to HP. The

reason being that under California state law, pretexting in general is illegal. This was not a

favorable situation for HP since their corporate headquarters is located in Palto Alto, California.

Conclusion34

As a group, we have come to the conclusion that Hewlett Packard is no longer a company

that has high opportunities for investment. The stock, haven fallen $2 in the past week alone,

seems to be on a steady decline. Their debt, of over $30 billion, is one that will take years and

years of excess profits to pay back. HP’s lowering profit margins will continue to give

management trouble figuring out how to pay all the operational costs and chip away at that debt.

The consolidation of the company should decrease operational costs and increase profits

margins, but in the long run we believe that the company will make fatal attempts to adjust to the

market and face horrid financial times which may force the company out of business. 35The

management in place right now has the experience to be able to pull it off, but we believe HP

will have a lot of work to do to catch up to the rest of their competition. We conclude that HP is

a not company that you should consider for investment, at least for the time being. For

investor’s, the best strategy would be to wait and see what Hewlett Packard has planned for the

rest of 2013 and 2014.

34 With every report, the inclusion of a summary conclusion is vital to the success of your paper. Leaving the reader with a short, but sweet conclusion can really enforce or reinforce the point you were trying to make in the report. The reader can say with confidence, “Oh so this group

wouldn’t recommend any investment in this company. ”Make it short and sweet, but effective. Recap the most important information from your sections and conclude with some advice for

people who are debating whether or not to invest in the company. 35 Note here that we included another statement about how HP struggles to adapt, and how

that ultimately may lead to their demise.


Spring 2013

17

Bibliography 36

Library References:37

Advertising Redbook. Comp. Redbook, LLC. Summit: Red Book LLC, 2013. 438. Web.

Fernandez, J. (2009). HEWLETT-PACKARD: HP takes a leaf out of Disney’s

storybook. Marketing Week, , 14-18. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com/docview/228241430?accountid=14679

Peter Waldman and, D. C. (2006, Sep 29). Probing the pretexters; congress grills

Hewlett-Packard executives over 'sleaze' investigative tactics. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved

from http://search.proquest.com/docview/399022542?accountid=14679

Piller, C. (2000, Nov 14). HP's disappointing 4th-quarter earnings hit company's shares;

wall st.: Profit, revenue rise for hewlett-packard, but the failure to meet expectations causes

concern about its strategy. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from


Stanwick, P. A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2011). The role of corporate culture in the unethical

activities at hewlett packard. Journal of American Academy of Business, Cambridge, 16(2), 47-

53. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/817185188?accountid=14679

36 As with most reports, you need to include a reference page. Make sure you ask your professor the reference style they require.

37 Splitting up your bibliography into Library/online sections is a great way to show your professor you dug deep when researching.


Spring 2013

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Online References:38

"Analyzing More Data Faster." HP.com. Hewlett Packard Development Company, June

2012. Web

Arnold , L. Business Week, (2011). Patricia dunn, former hp chairman, dies at 58.

Retrieved from Bloomberg website: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-05/patricia-dunn-

hp-chairman-fired-in-spying-scandal-dies-at-58-of-cancer.html

Computers, Hp. "HP ENVY X2 Magic of Touch - Extended." YouTube. YouTube, 07

Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

Foley, John. "Exclusive INSIDE HP's DATA WAREHOUSE GAMBLE."

Informationweek 1120 (2007): 30-35. Academic Search Premier. Web. Apr. 2013

Fool, Motley. "Microsoft Corporation, Hewlett-Packard: Is This the Death of the PC?"

Insider Monkey Free Hedge Fund and Insider Trading Data RSS. Insider Monkey, 15 Apr. 2013.

Web. 17 Apr. 2013.

Henschen, Doug. "HP's Murky Move Back Into Data Warehousing." Informationweek

1292 (2011): 14-16. Academic Search Premier. Web. Apr. 2013.

"Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ)." Stock Analysis on Net. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

Hewlett-packard co.: Dunn enters not-guilty plea in probe of corporate spying. (2006,

Nov 16). Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from


38 The split is shown here, where online references begin.


Spring 2013

19

Hewlett-Packard Development Company. (2011). Ethics and human rights. Retrieved

from http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/globalcitizenship/society/ethics.html

"Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)." HPQ. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

"HP Labs - 40 Innovations that counted - HP Labs 40th anniversary." HP Labs –

Advanced Research at HP. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

<http://www.hpl.hp.com/news/2006/jan-mar/40innovations.html>.

"HPQ: Summary for Hewlett-Packard Company Common - Yahoo! Finance." Yahoo!

Finance. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

Hurwitz, Judith. "Don't Bet on a Hewlett-Packard Comeback - Businessweek."

Businessweek - Business News, Stock market & Financial Advice. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2013.

<http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-01/can-hewlett-packard-be-saved#p2>.

Industry. "The Whiteboard: Understand H-P investor concerns with the Five Forces

model| Central Penn Business Journal." Central Penn Business Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Apr.

2013.

<http://www.centralpennbusiness.com/article/20110902/CPBJ01/110909926&source=RSS>.

Packard, Hewlett. "HP Make It Matter :60 Commercial." YouTube. YouTube, 26 July

2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

Thompson, Cadie. "Expect HP Revenue Growth in 2014: Meg Whitman." Technology.

CNBC, 22 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

Weil, Jonathan. "The TickerQuick Views on Politics, Economics and Finance."

Bloomberg. N.p., 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2013

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