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HP To Cut 30,000 Jobs
Axolotl_Rose writes with news that Hewlett-Packard is preparing to cut around 30,000 jobs, close to 10% of its total workforce. CEO Meg Whitman reportedly wants to use that money instead for new products and for bolstering the sales force. From the NY Times:
"China, which is one of H.P.’s highest growth areas, will probably be spared, as will its research and development efforts. Ms. Whitman, who became H.P.’s chief executive last September, 'is trying to build a new company,' one senior executive said of the job cuts. 'You can count this as a part of that.' The final plan is expected to be announced on Wednesday, when H.P. announces earnings for its second fiscal quarter. Considered a slow-moving giant in the tech industry, H.P. had revenue of $127 billion in fiscal 2011, but net earnings of just $7.1 billion. While it has a leading position in the sales of low-margin personal computers, H.P. has been late or unsuccessful in many recent tech trends like providing cloud computing services for big companies and smartphones and tablet computers."
An article at Forbes suggests HP should instead 'retool' those jobs by recruiting makers and hackers, TED conference speakers, and others who have experience building and inventing things.
You may not be a native English speaker, so you may not be aware of the fact that we have no gender-neutral, third person, singular pronoun for a person. One must choose either "he" or "she" or the much more awkward "he/she." I supposed one could also go with "it" but most humans take offense to being called an "it" for some reason. Being as most CEO's are men, I chose "he" in this instance. I think that's a reasonable choice.
And as for Meg Whitman, well I'm sorry if I may have offended the woman who just threw 30,000 families into dire crisis. I suppose she'll just have to live with it.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
I agree in a non-humane principled sort of way. But my bet is that it's not those 10,000 peoples faults that HP is where it's at today. Which makes me sad. 10,000 poppa's and momma's are going to have to find jobs doing something else in a depressed economy. The well to do management will experience a drop in their earnings, but they won't suffer the same way.
The only way I'd be happy is if the story stated that among the 10,000, every single "product manager" employed by HP was being terminated. In every company I've watched or been part of that has tanked in the last 20 years, it's always been accompanied by a growing role of the "product manager."
One man's pink plane is another man's blue plane.
Been working as a contractor for HP. Not a single paid hour of vacation in 8 years. I hate this place with a passion
Who's fault is all of that? Why's a contractor expecting paid vacation? If you want paid vacations, you should be an employee.
I'm a contractor. When I finish a project, I take time off, on my dime. I also don't work for anyone that won't pay me a decent wage. I don't work on stuff that I don't want to, or I think doesn't need to (or shouldn't) be done.
What's your problem? Yeesh.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit
The only way I'd be happy is if the story stated that among the 10,000, every single "product manager" employed by HP was being terminated. In every company I've watched or been part of that has tanked in the last 20 years, it's always been accompanied by a growing role of the "product manager."
As a former product manager at IBM who knows several PMs who left for HP, I can offer some insight here. I have to post as anon for obvious reasons.
First off, I basically agree with your sentiments. While I've known a couple sharp product managers who were critical in getting improved products out the door, most are self-styled "thought leaders" or MBAs who do not have a technical background, do not understand the technology, and are incapable of recognizing technology trends until they are already old news.
That said, the major bottleneck is going to be the company's executives. PMs do not have free reign to do what is best for the product. They also do not have any R&D budget. Ideally, they come up with ideas for improvements, and shepherd the whole thing through a Concept/Plan/Build/Release cycle. Every step has a checkpoint the executives can use to shut the whole project down.
Here are points from my experience:
Add this all up, and here's what you get. The PMs offer incremental improvements that are mostly business changes (e.g. sell through a new channel, offer a slightly different model). Products stagnate.
The PM is an important role, because this is the one person who is the glue binding all the other departments (sales, eng, r&d, marketing, etc.). A talented PM who is given some autonomy can do big things. But for the reasons described above, the corporate culture just sucks.