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| The 3000’s GM Harry Sterling has new duties on top of managing CSY Commercial Systems Division (CSY) general manager Harry Sterling gained additional leverage for the HP 3000 as a result of the April 6 reorganization at HP. Sterling, who picked up the 3000 business from a standing start in 1995, is picking up responsibility for HP’s business intelligence (data warehousing) solutions as well as the technical software solutions such as CAD. Janice Chaffin is now head of a new HP Business Critical Computing unit, and she’s tapped Sterling to manage the Business and Technical Solutions Division, which includes the HP 3000 division. Sterling said he’s still passing out his CSY GM business cards, and will be attending the big 3000 reseller meetings in New York City in late April instead of attending an HP internal sales meeting scheduled for the same time. CSY will be getting more access to events like the R&D meetings across HP with Sterling’s promotion, he said. Working with data warehousing gives CSY’s R&D teams better access because data warehousing is offered across HP’s value chain. The moves appear to eliminate some of the HP separation between its business units. Sterling was confident that his CSY managers will be able to take up the slack as he takes on the other duties. “I have a very strong team. Christine [Martino, the new marketing manager] is fully on board and very engaged, and with Winston [Prather, the R&D chief] we’re very pleased with the results of our R&D programs,” he said. “He’s done a great job in getting those programs in place. They’ve really stepped up to taking more responsibility and helping me with the 3000 business.” Sterling has gotten used to wearing other hats. In October he took on GM duties when his division bought Open Skies, an HP operation that will be gaining its own HP manager in the next month or two, Frank Barker from HP’s Professional Services Organization in Geneva office. Moving Open Skies out to another manager will give Sterling a chance to get educated about the many technical computing solutions in the HP channel. “I’m still kind of drinking from a firehose in learning about all this,” he said. Sterling’s move is typical of the way HP has reorganized its businesses to align with a value chain. HP named four more CEOs to go along with Lew Platt, who dropped the title of president. Ann Livermore is now president and CEO of her Enterprise Computing Solutions group and Duane Zitzner is president and CEO, Computer Products. HP also named Antonio Perez as president and CEO, Inkjet Imaging Solutions; and Carolyn M. Ticknor, president and CEO, LaserJet Imaging Systems. HP wanted the press, customers and investors to see the moves as moves “to increase authority and accountability in HP’s four computing and imaging businesses.” But HP’s moves on April 6 continue to decentralize the company, giving each of those new CEOs as much autonomy as Platt had in the old organization. HP anticipated questions from the press and customers about the loss of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard’s HP Way, since employees have been mourning the loss of consensus-building decision making in the new setup. HP is talking internally about the HP Way 2.0, a pretty strong message that things aren’t going to be the same any more. It’s not defined, but some people have connected the HP Way 1.0 with slow decision-making. This unfortunate linkage is doing damage to a great company wide asset. HP knows that it’s not the HP Way that needs tuning, it’s some practices that HP picked up that have nothing to do with the core values that comprise the HP Way. HP knows it needs to fine-tune these practices — like fast decision-making, excellent and speedy execution, and a willingness to sometimes jump into risky or uncharted territory. But that’s exactly what Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard did so many years ago. One significant change
is that different HP businesses — the four groups with new CEOs —
will be run differently. HP is looking at changing the way it funds R&D
by business. Some of the businesses will beef up their R&D at the
business level, relying less on the centralized HP Labs. The businesses
will support a corporate infrastructure including the Labs, but that
support will vary according to each business need. HP believes it will be
freeing up businesses to invest when and where it makes the most sense
— and sense is something that can change quickly in an Internet-speed
market. |
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