Hewlett Packard Case Study

Great Essays
The key strategic issues facing Hewlett Packard as it seeks to generate and sustain competitive advantage.

The objective of any organisation is to

"Create and sustain long term competitive advantage" get quote
…show more content…
- In light of these issues, how does Hewlett Packard create value and why?
- How are these values organised and managed?
- Does this value enable Hewlett Packard to sustain competitive advantage?

Hewlett Packard operates as a market leader in the fast changing, highly competitive information technology market and was renowned for its collaborative and decentralised structure-directly influenced by the two original founders. In recent years however, a rapid economic slowdown and the end of a ‘boom' in demand for computer products and downturn in consumer spending, has seen Hewlett Packard having to evaluate their external environment, internal structure and processes in order to generate competitive advantage over their rivals, and refrain from:

"Slowly declining into mediocrity and irrelevance" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1168012.stm

A brief examination of Hewlett Packard's external environment is necessary in order to fully understand the current pressures of their marketplace, and enable an analysis of the organisation. To aid this, I will be using Porter's ‘Five Forces' framework:

- Threat of New Entrants
- Threat of substitutes
- Bargaining power of
…show more content…
Alliances with retailers ensure that the product is accessible, as said retailers receive a percentage of the profit when the product is sold. In this case, store salesmen take the responsibility of the direct sell to the consumer, so there is no need for an ‘HP store' in which to sell the product, reducing costs for the organisation. Furthermore, other services such as troubleshooting for computers, and buying individual parts for HP hardware, is all done either on the internet or phone, with the aforementioned relocation of the sales and customer services departments ensures that costs are kept to a minimum. As the majority of both advertisements and sales are transmitted through conversations, or through the medium of television and the internet, HP is able to run a ‘paperless' operation, further reducing

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