Alto, Calif.-based PC and print giant whose President and CEO, Enrique Lores, is transforming the vendor into a hybrid work powerhouse, thanks in large part to its blockbuster $3.3 billion acquisition of Poly last year. “For us as a managed collaboration services provider, we look at providing managed services from that earpiece through the desktop to the cloud to the end user and back, so I think we’re in alignment on that vision and how that plays out,” Scaturro said. To Lores, Poly represents a key pillar of HP’s future and one of the many growth opportunities for HP channel partners in the long term. He says the pandemic-induced rise of hybrid work not only influenced his decision to acquire Poly but also influenced the way many HP products are now designed. The company is also looking at ways to integrate Poly’s technologies with others under HP to support the future of work. “Because of the many opportunities that we have to continue to grow the business—by modernizing our core businesses, accel-
is experiencing a significant slump in demand, particularly with its PC business, due to a variety of economic factors, including inflation and high interest rates.The company’s personal systems business dropped 24 percent year over year in its 2023 fiscal year’s first quarter, which ended Jan. 31. But Lores believes partners should remain “optimistic” and make plans now for how they will take advantage of a thriving economy when growth returns to the broader markets. “We don’t know when, but we know that there is going to be an economic recovery and, therefore, we need to make sure that through this period we position ourselves in the strongest pos- sible way,” he said. The ‘Future Ready’ Plan To Lores, the best way HP could prepare for a brighter future during an economic downturn involved some tough decisions. This resulted in a three-year restructuring initiative HP is calling
the Future Ready plan. Unveiled last November, the plan calls for a major reduction in spending, which includes making up to 6,000 job cuts, by 2025. At the same time, the company has vowed to invest in growth areas like hybrid work offer- ings, peripherals and
erating our joint businesses in services, whether it is for small business or for enter- prises, [and] expanding into adjacencies—all this is going to create multiple opportunities for us and for our partners to continue to grow,” said Lores, who joined HP as an engineer- ing intern in 1989 and was named to lead the company in 2019.
‘We don’t know when, but we know that there is going to be an economic recovery and, therefore, we need to make sure that through this period we position ourselves
in the strongest possible way.’ — Enrique Lores, President, CEO, HP
gaming, where HP’s latest acquisitions will play big roles. “It’s really about making sure that the company is investing in the areas where we see opportunity and where we see growth,” Lores said. While these investments may not replace the entire 6,000 posi- tions HP could cut over the next few years, Lores said, the vendor will make a “significant” number of hires in these growth areas. Since channel partners drive more than 90 percent of HP’s annual sales, Lores thinks it’s crucial to ensure they get the sup- port they need during such a massive restructuring effort, and that is a message he said is felt throughout the entire organization. “An internal theme that we have now is that everybody works for sales,” Lores said. “And especially in these difficult moments from an economic perspective, whether you’re a [research and development] engineer working in the labs, a manufacturing person working the line support or the CEO, the role of all of us is to support the sales team.” With partners acting as the front line of HP’s sales machine, this means the company’s entire organization must keep the channel top of mind, according to the CEO. “Everybody at HP is really working to support our channel partners,” Lores said. With this edict, HP’s global channel chief, Kobi Elbaz, is expand- ing the company’s two-year-old Amplify partner program to open
With an expanding portfolio of products and services, Lores said, HP’s channel-driven business model hasn’t changed, as part- ners are more important than ever to drive future growth for HP. This is why HP plans to bring Yorktel and the rest of Poly’s partners into the HP Amplify partner program this November, when its 2024 fiscal year begins. It’s also whyAmplify will expand to cover distribution partners and two other acquisitions orches- trated by Lores in the past two years: gaming accessory designer HyperX and remote computing software provider Teradici. The integration of HP’s new businesses and distribution part- ners into the Amplify program is part of what Lores says is the vendor’s recommitment to the channel, which also includes initia- tives to speed up the way partners do business with the company, to strengthen and diversify its supply chain, and to bring more partners into services and sustainability opportunities. “It’s to show them that whether it is in the businesses where we lead today or in the businesses where we are going to be in the future, we are a channel company. Channel is at the core of how we build and design our plans.And we want to continue to work with them to expand our business and to grow together. That’s the key message,” Lores said. In the short term, however, HP faces some big challenges. Like many other companies in the tech industry in early 2023, HP
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