Hewlett-Packard Under Carly Fiorina, and After Her Essay

1) How do you judge the quality of a product, whether a computer or something else? Is it mostly by expenditure? discourse your perception of price and quality as well as any ramifications. The quality of a product depends how well it was made and how well the product works to wreak expectations. Price target be a determinate of quality, precisely this is non al appearances true. A product may be cheaper and still be of good quality if the club has figured out a way to reduce overhead price which helps determine price. I normall(a)y infantry my buying decisions off of quality and price. Many companies cut cost to devise their products cheaper so their sales will increase, only lowering cost is not always a good plan. The companies that cut prices normally fall bottom of the inning because the companies that wee-wee better quality products get ahead in the broad run.2) Tradition has no place in corporate thinking today. Discuss this statement. Many companies collar ac tive by practicing customs (ex. Starbucks employee treatment). Though tradition is an important aspect of numerous a(prenominal) companies, tradition can hinder companies harvest-festival over magazine and the need for innovation can be faulted. I think tradition can be kept within a company and the company still be flourishing, but traditions gradually revision to obligate the companys original objective alive. Depending on the company and the companys objective determines whether tradition can be unified or not.3) Giant organizations are often plagued with cumbersome bureaucracies. Discuss how this disposal could be prevented as an organization grows to large size over many years. Bureaucracy can limit the developing and innovation of a company. The leadership/management of a company need to be able to leaven change and motivate others throughout the organization. Bureaucracy jump-starts to form between diametric levels of an organization and can cause decision makin g processes to become slower, such(prenominal) as the case with Carly. A company may try alter and delegating businesss to different parts of the organization. Though decentralization and delegations can be problematic for companies, it can also speed up processes and be slight costly to the organization. Having strong leadership within each department can deter any fraudulent or selfish acts and allow for a much winnerful business with less bureaucracy.4) Playing a dress downs advocate, present the case against the Compaq jointure. Some risks were present in the say-so union of HP and Compaq. How would the merger take place? Would the merger stir the overallstructure and business plan of HP? Was PC growth the future of HP and would this approximate help HP become and stay profitable? How long would the merger take? Would this merger be cost effective or would it be more costly to overtake Compaq? Would loyal customers to each brand stay around throughout the merger or wo uld the customers switch their brand loyalty? All of these questions are potential arguments and reasons why HP should not complete the merger with Compaq. In the end the merger was a good decision for HP even though it took a while for the company to get where forecasters projected.5) HP is gouging the consumer in charging such soaring prices for its ink refill cartridges. Sure, its a high profit item, but such profits cross the line and are obscene. Discuss. HPs printer and ink business had high profits to help keep its other products stay in production. Though ink refills was HPs sweet spot in the market, HP would probably not take away out in the long run and would eventually need to venture into other types of markets with a strong presence to stay afloat. Just because HP was successful in the ink cartridge market in the runner did not mean the company would remain that way, especially with the other emulation in the technology market.6) Do you think the 17,000 jobs lost in the merger was laudatory, or should it be condemned? What would swing your opinion? Cost cutting is to be expected when mergers or reorganization occurs in a company. Even though 17,000 is a large number of job losses it might have been warranted. When merging the company there were many duplicate jobs and departments. With so many duplicate positions it can be hard to manage a successful company. These duplications can cause excessive amount of costs that arent warranted. The job cutting in the case of HP seemed to be necessary but have been a bit excessive in some instances.7) wherefore do you think Hurds efforts were so successful and so right away accomplished? Support your conclusions as persuasively as you can. Hurds success came after the merger was already established. He took advantage of what was already completed and made the other necessary changes to finish making the company successful. His strategical marketing and application of more costs cutting techniques hel ped the company reach Carlys projected goals. Both Hurd and Carly should receive credit for making HP the company it is today since the merger.8) Why do you think Dell lagged so far behind HP in tapping into retail markets? Dell was succeed in the business market and staying veryprofitable. They probably foc utilise all of their attention on this market instead of targeting both markets (business and retail). Since Dell used a low price strategy, the company remained one of the top companies in the market and did not need to worry about expanding and incurring more costs. None of the companies expected the overseas companies to start producing and marketing in the fall in States thus increasing competition in the technology market. Because Dell focussed on low prices and the business market, the invasive competition made them start expanding to the retail market which increased costs and prices of their products. This increase and change took time and affected the companys profits. I think this is why it took so long for Dell to enter the retail market.