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HP Top Level Executive On Life After the Split (zdnet.com)

An anonymous reader shares a ZDNet report: George Brasher is a 26-year HP veteran who has worked in a variety of roles in the company's printer and PC divisions over the years and is now HP Inc's managing director for the UK and Ireland. We began by asking how the first fifteen 'post-split' months had gone. "If you go back to the genesis of the separation, what Meg [Whitman, CEO of HPE and chairwoman of HP Inc] said was that, by splitting into two businesses, we'd be able to have more focus -- and I think that's truly what's happened with HP Inc. What we wanted to get out of it was: could we be more focused on our markets; could we actually accelerate our pace of innovation and get closer to our customers? In general, I'd say the answer is a resounding 'yes'." [...] The second thing is -- and you can see examples around this room [the CWC] -- we're a technology company, and innovation is our lifeblood: if you look at PC and print, we've seen more significant high-quality introductions in the last 15 months than in any previous 15-month period." [...] "The proof is always in the pudding: I look at the Spectre x360, the Elite X3 and other devices -- and it's not just new devices, but also the quality of the new devices; being able to have a partnership with B&O and thinking about a new computing experience. On the print side, it's the same thing: in September we announced our single biggest rollout ever, with a set of 16 A3 multifunction devices starting in a couple of months and rolling out over the course of the year. I don't think that happens unless you have separation, because then you've got a management team and a board, and a group of employees, that are just laser-focused on driving against that."

42 comments

  1. once upon a time by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    " we're a technology company, and innovation is our lifeblood"

    That was true of HP a long time ago.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re:once upon a time by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3

      That's kind of what I thought. Once they spun off Agilent (with the old-school HP tech) in 2002, I thought that was the real "split" - everything since then has been commodity PCs and services you could get from dozens of other similar vendors.

    2. Re: once upon a time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought HP servers were pretty good but their desktops were always garbage. Same with Compaq once HP bought them.

    3. Re: once upon a time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their PCs and especially the laptops have gotten a lot better the last 2 years. Better than Dell at least. The laptop build quality is up there with Asus now.

    4. Re: once upon a time by David_Hart · · Score: 1

      HP servers were middle of the road. Compaq servers and workstations were excellent. HP servers and workstations are good today because of that merger.

    5. Re: once upon a time by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Are you talking about the HP9000 servers? B'cos as far as the Wintel servers went, I don't recall HP being among the top - that used to be IBM, DEC, Compaq and Dell

    6. Re:once upon a time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      About their PCs, an anecdote:

      I found an HP PC on the street that somebody had put out as trash, so I took it home. The motherboard had onboard video, but the case had that port plugged up so that you 'had' to use the included video card. I took out the motherboard, freeing up the onboard video, used it with my own case, disc drives, etc, running linux, and it's been a nice solid system. I kept the CPU and cooler that was on the M/B (would've been hard to remove those anyway). And, it's been a nice, solid, quiet system for a few years now. I even like the HP bootup BIOS. So, it's only one datapoint, but THAT part of the system, the motherboard, CPU, and cooler, has been pretty nice.

    7. Re:once upon a time by Cacadril · · Score: 1

      And now, after the split, could you fix the perennial "the printer is offline" annoyance?

      --
      There is no substitute for common sense. Especially, no body of rules will do.
  2. HP printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Once the industry standard for quality hardware have become junk just like the rest of the printers over the past decade.

    1. Re:HP printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Americans won't pay for quality anymore. They gladly buy the cheapest chinese garbage available while lamenting the offshoring of all of their own jobs. You can't fix stupid.

    2. Re: HP printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I oddly agree with this statement. That's why we need to end NAFTA, tariff products from overseas and promote protectionism here at home.

    3. Re:HP printers by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      Americans won't pay for quality anymore.

      They won't pay for quality that doesn't matter. Twenty years ago I had a $1000 HP printer that was built like a tank. Today I have a $50 HP printer made out of flimsy plastic. But it prints better than the old one. It is faster, quieter, and has way better resolution. It also has a built in scanner.

    4. Re:HP printers by chipschap · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And if it's a $50 laser printer, undoubtedly it comes with a "starter" cartridge that will print a handful of pages, but you can buy a regular capacity cartridge for another $100. But don't worry about buying a second $100 cartridge because the printer won't last that long.

    5. Re: HP printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree.

      I can't wait to see Walmart's prices after that!

    6. Re:HP printers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not throwing out your printer every 2 years matters for the environment if nothing else. I bought a HP Deskjet 870CSE inkjet in like 1996 for $799. It was a parallel port printer so around 2002 I had to buy a parallel to USB adapter for it, but then it just kept printing for 11 more years and I printed a whole freakin lot on that printer. The day I tossed that printer was like saying goodbye to dead pet. It hurt. I loved that printer. Now I basically throw out lousy HP printer ever 2-3 years because that's about their life expectancy. The last one was actually still functional as a printer but the scanner broke.

    7. Re:HP printers by bhcompy · · Score: 2

      That's not because we won't pay for quality. It's because ink and toner have become the profit drivers. Buying a better printer doesn't make the ink cheaper. It costs less for an inkjet printer than it does for a package of ink.

    8. Re:HP printers by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I thought that Brother has had better quality printers than HP. At least, their all in ones have.

    9. Re: HP printers by unixisc · · Score: 1

      Oddly enough, China is not a member of NAFTA. It's their WTO membership that's screwing much of the world

    10. Re:HP printers by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      It'll probably last a little longer than the drum, which will start smearing after two or three years. And the $50 (ok, $150) replacement printer will cost less than the drum for that $1,000 laser printer we're comparing it to.

      So... I don't know, but I suspect overall modern printers are vastly more cost effective than the supposedly high quality laser printers of 30 years ago. Leaving aside their higher resolution (300dpi just doesn't cut it any more...)

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    11. Re:HP printers by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      So... I don't know, but I suspect overall modern printers are vastly more cost effective than the supposedly high quality laser printers of 30 years ago. Leaving aside their higher resolution (300dpi just doesn't cut it any more...)

      HPLJ2300DN plus a postscript dimm and a 128MB DIMM (both dirt cheap now) and bingo, I can have 300 dpi at 17 ppm or 1200 dpi at... less. Duplex, I have two trays, and all I have to do to keep it running is feed it a roller kit now and again.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    12. Re:HP printers by keltor · · Score: 1

      The standard Brother that's commonly recommended today comes with a "normal" capacity cartridge and it definitely printed about 1000 pages before it was used up. We bought an XL, which lasted about 2k and we're now on our second XL. I am not having a single issue, this printer replaced my LaserWriter 8500 that I had since 2000.

    13. Re:HP printers by chipschap · · Score: 1

      Could you tell us what model this is and about what it costs?

  3. Fix your service! by gmack · · Score: 4

    Innovation is secondary. The whole advantage to HP was their service and that has been sacrificed since the HPE split.

    We had a server whose RAID controller was throwing an NMI error and the support process was a nightmare. First level tech support never wanted to escalate to second level. When they finally stopped changing motherboards and Raid caches/batteries, the actual server replacement took two weeks because our 3 year old server was "too old" to keep in stock. Our parent company has been complaining about the same level of service reduction.

    They guarunteed that the support contracts will not continue beyond this year and that the next servers will not be HP

    1. Re:Fix your service! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Servers went with HPE, not HP. Maybe you're calling the wrong customer support.

    2. Re:Fix your service! by sconeu · · Score: 1

      On "The Big Bang Theory", didn't Sheldon once spend 4 hours on hold with HP customer service to complain about their customer service?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    3. Re:Fix your service! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      On "The Big Bang Theory", didn't Sheldon once spend 4 hours on hold with HP customer service to complain about their customer service?

      It took me over 24 hours (in total) on the phone to HP support as well as two failed "technician" visits to get a replacement for an HP Elitebook with a three-year corporate extended warranty. Never again, HP. Never again.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. Shocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Top level exec says things are going great and CEO's moves were right.

    1. Re:Shocking by MountainLogic · · Score: 1

      Indeed. Calling the new HP a technology is like calling the Forrest Service a technology because they use the technology known as "Forrest Fires." This puffery by executives really explains why the likes of the new HP are dinosaurs on life support just waiting for their outsourced supplies to cut out the middleman and sell their stuff directly to the customers. Heck these factories can even buy up an idle brand name and use it. Whatever happened to PamAm, Instamatic, Berm-a-shave, Gleem and Zenith? Too bad Twinkies and Ding Dongs have comeback from the grave or they could have been a cool smartphone name.

    2. Re: Shocking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Forrrrrrrrest Serrrrrrvice
      Brrrrrrrrainnnnnnnssssssss!

  5. The Machine.... by xeoron · · Score: 1

    What happened? They had said 2 years ago it was hit market last year. We have heard no real updates since.

  6. Not for everyone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Probably good only for those at the very top. Individual contributors, not so much. What about those at HPE who were jettisoned off to other companies?

  7. only 16? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    16 large format printers? Good, better, Best. A little better than good, A little better than that last one but still missing something, a little better than better, .....

    Seems like an awful lot of variations. Meanwhile my antique color HP keeps plugging along (sloooowly) but I am running out of toner as it all starts to go bad :(

    The monochrome Laserjet 5 will run til the heat death of the universe I believe....800,000 pages and counting

    I hope at least one of those 16 pretends to be old-school!

    1. Re:only 16? by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      I hope at least one of those 16 pretends to support Linux

      FTFY

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  8. Lame infomercial by snookiex · · Score: 1

    What were you expecting? "We are shit-scared, HP carcass is falling apart and everyone's in panic. If you have a vacant position, even to clean toilets, call me, please".

    --
    Open Source Network Inventory for the masses! Kuwaiba
    1. Re:Lame infomercial by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1

      That is what he was saying. We live in a "post truth" world now.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  9. This is called progress by ghoul · · Score: 2

    20 years back manufacturing was in the dark ages. People really had no idea of how much material is needed to get a target life period. Since they didnt have good statistics, Quality teams or computers to simulate material fatigue they overbuilt evrything. This made stuff last for years and was a good thing if you were one of the few rich people who could afford overbuilt crap but it sucked for most of society who were locked out of having their own printer and had to go to printing shops to print. This would be like car manufacturers only selling Rolls Royces and if you cant afford a Rolls Royce you can travel on the Rolls Royce Bus.
    Now with scientific manufacturing techniques manufacturers know exactly how much to spend on materials, training and QA to make sure 95% of the printers reach their guarantee date with no problems and the other 5% are covered under warranty. Prices are much lower as a result. Stuff dies when it is obsolete instead of hanging around like zombies and is cheap enough so that a larger section of society can use it.
    Overbuilding is a waste of resources, a crime against the poor and a burden to technological progress.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re:This is called progress by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      20 years ago was when dot matrix impact printers were mostly gone from the market because print quality was too poor, and color ink-jet printers had become affordable.

      --
      Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
  10. I guess my mind just went dark... by mr_mischief · · Score: 1

    I guess my mind just went dark, because I first read the headline as "HP Top Level Executive On Life Support After the Split".

  11. So, the company is better... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And are the printers still being stubborn about (overpriced, locked-in) ink cartrdges?
    As a business plan, it is Machiavellian, almost....
    No more HP prnters for me.
    As for PCs, ASUS has been good since before HP declined... and I like mine!

  12. Good ole Compaq by n0w0rries · · Score: 1

    I remember we had a Compaq Proliant 1600R, and I had one of our level 1 support guys go get it and bring it to my office from the server room across the campus. The guy parks a metal cart with the server on it at the top of a staircase to help a UPS guy at the elevator. Cart rolls down the stairs, launching the server. Stairs are concrete and steel.

    He brought the bent up server in and told me what happened. After inspecting it and re-seating everything, we turned it on, and it booted right up.

    A short time later the big wigs at corporate decided we needed to switch to the new Dell servers because they're cheaper. I asked the Dell guys if we could roll one of their servers down the stairs to see if it would still boot, but they wouldn't do it.

    Guess you can't get the 4 hour support like you used to anymore? What a shame.

  13. HP's biggest biggest mistake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HP should have stuck with calculators and test equipment.

    That's what they really knew how to do, and they did it as well or better than anyone else.

    1. Re:HP's biggest biggest mistake by rfengr · · Score: 1

      Well the old Apollo workstations were built like tanks, and the other computers that were specific for technical computing.