HP CEO Stops the Hype Cycle, Plans to Re-Brand Cool
Hewlett-Packard Lead Leo Apotheker vowed that the organization will outgrow the natural tech cycle of “overhyping” products, refusing to rely on hype points instead of announcements based in fact. The new father of the software giant certainly does not want the company to be involved in any public disgust because of broken promises.
In an exclusive interview with BBC, Apotheker stressed his decision and said, “HP will stop making announcements for stuff it doesn’t have. When HP makes announcements, it will be getting ready to ship.” He added, “That’s a simple management decision, I don’t need to re-engineer the tanker [HP] to do that.”
After the conclusive statements, he promises that products launched on February 9th onwards will be on sale just a few weeks later after announcements or teasers. The former CEO of SAP is also gearing up and planning to re-image the brand with some sort of “coolness,” whatever that means. They may be world-leaders alongside IBM and Oracle, but the fact that they are considered “old school” giants is not a good look for Apotheker and his new front.
This news surfaced along with the current HP upswing that is circulating around the hypes of their WebOS event on February 9. With a theme: “Think big. Think small. Think beyond,” people are starting to think of this will be HP’s answer to the on-going tablet wars. According to reports, this rumored tablet will run on WebOS and feature quite a number of exciting revolutions.
Talking about redesigning and restructuring, HP is set to employ 120 more employees that speak different languages, from French, German to Spanish. Earlier this year, HP scored a point over nemesis IBM and Cisco with its launch of a new business strategy that taps cloud-storage and computing for high-end projects with big business and government.
HP is starting the year according to Apotheker’s direction, which is a big shift given we’re still coming down from our CES high. Will his vision of “coolness” and “no more broken promises” work? It is for the people to determine throughout 2011.
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