HP (惠普) 執行長換人了，這原本沒什麼大不了的，似乎早就應該換了，當消息傳出當天，HP 在華爾街股市的股價還因此漲了 7%。不過，今天讀到 David Churbuck 在 GiGaom 的專欄 〈At HP, the broad board problems〉，裡面的幾點看法值得深思。
HP 有著輝煌的歷史
Churbuck 認為 HP 從過去輝煌的歷史來看，曾經或現在正在主導資訊產業，像是印表機、PC、Workstation (工作站)、medical diagnostic (醫療設備)、還有最早的計算機。但是，
HP was never the hippest company.
HP 根本就不是一間「酷」公司，他不像是 Apple、Google、Facebook 那樣調調的公司。但，
… it was the most solid and mythic, a place that capitalized on smarts and research and innovation…
HP 的本質是一家嚴謹、值得信賴、創新的「科技」「硬體」公司。Churbuck 還呼籲 HP 應該找回曾經引以為傲的 corporate culture (企業文化)，也就是 「The HP Way」。
HP 應該認清現在的處境
Churbuck 忍不住為 HP 開了藥單，他先提出 HP 董事會一直不願面對的真相，以下我列出來，也值得國內幾家電子大廠思考：
1. The PC is dead. (PC 已死)
It has another decade in the corporate world, but the game over in PCs. Apple won and tablets are the new form factor. HP made its bid and failed there.
Apple 贏了，平板已經成為另一種型態的隨身裝置，並鯨吞蠶食 PC 市場。雖然有人說：「PC 不死，只是躲到雲端後去了」，但，整個來說，PC 還是面臨一大挑戰。
2. The Wintel standard is irrelevant. (Wintel 已無關緊要)
Microsoft and Intel no longer call the tune. Operating systems are irrelevant in the cloud. WebOS was nice looking, but too late in the Apple, Android, Windows race.
WebOS 一開始就知道來不急了，更不用說現在已經不是 OS 競爭的時代了。
3. HP dictates few standards, has no APIs, has no developer community. (HP 出一張嘴，沒有 API，沒有開發社群)
4. Printers are the last mechanical appendage. (印表機是最後的機電產品)
Think about it. Once hard disks stopped spinning and went solid state, the last thing with a motor is the printer. Printers are a means to an end, not a future.
硬碟機從探針式到固態硬碟，含有馬達這個元件的產品只剩下印表機了，印表機呀，沒有未來了。ㄟ，其實還有光碟機、藍光播放機啦，不過，似乎都指向同一條路了。
5. Crisis communications. (危機不斷)
Beginning with the CNET wiretapping, the Hurd scandal and this summer’s string of can’t-shoot-straight missteps, the once golden credibility of the company is very tarnished and tattered.
從竊聽風波到這一次草率的決策過程，這家老字號公司沾染了不屬於他們榮耀的累贅。
6. Marketing. (行銷大將的轉台)
Once Lenovo snagged David Roman — the marketing rock star that gave HP its awesome “The PC is Personal Again” campaign — the air went out of HP’s creative consumer balloon.
行銷大將轉向 Lenovo (聯想)，似乎註定 HP 主軸議題的消失。
7. China and emerging markets. (輸了新興市場)
Nowhere near as nimble or familiar as Lenovo and Acer.
就是聯想和宏碁啦！
給新 CEO 的藥單
Churbuck 的三帖：
1. Revive R&D. (加強研發)
The game is about smarts and vision and innovation, not balance sheets.
亮麗的財務報表固然人人欣羨，但根本還是要回到設計研發上面。
2. Get a better board. (重整董事會)
It sounds like a shit fight in the monkey cage at the zoo inside of HPs board. The CEO needs to stack the deck with allies and advisors, not glory seekers who pull down each other’s pants.
真是傳神的形容！HP 的董事會被批得很慘，聽說是內鬥得很嚴重，整個董事會看起來就像是「一群在動物園猴籠裡的猴子打群架」一樣。
3. Become the builder and integrator for customers — not a supplier of boxes and cables. (為客戶設計，帶來價值，不要只剩下 box 和 cable)
It’s a cliche to say services are the future – a third of HP’s business is from services now. IBM under Gerstner retreated to services, divesting themselves of the PC business and other commodity hardware plays like printers. But the demand for a big bad ass builder with a vision, who can quickly and elegantly bring a non-tech global customer into this very weird, very tipping-point-world of clouds and tablets and HTML5 and content-anywhere driven by NetGen Millenials is huge. The kernel is there with EDS, but not the panache and glory.
軟體服務是下一波主流，作為 HP 營收第三大的軟體服務還有很大的發展空間。以 IBM 為例，當年 Gerstner (葛斯納) 帶領整個 IBM 放掉了硬體製造事業，成功轉形成為轉體服務公司。但是現今的全球趨勢多變詭譎，爆炸的資訊、推陳出新的雲端應用、平板電腦衝擊 PC 市場、每個人不斷在創造內容，也同時取用內容，這對 HP 來說，一點都不輕鬆。
結語
反觀台灣的 PC 產業，有多少公司願意反省自己所處的險境。很多人跟我說：「都經過那麼多年了，年年說不好過，還不是年年過，不要反應那麼大。」或許吧，但是看看身邊的朋友同事老闆，愁眉苦臉的多，歡喜快樂的少。如果有一天，大老闆在被 Balance Sheets 壓得喘不過氣來時，低頭一看，原來答案就在每天經歷過的每一件事情上時，台灣的 CEO 們或許可以少走一點 HP 所走的路。
