Describe supertrends that are driving HP to change.
Technological progress is the main supertrend driving HP to change. The company mainly sells technology-related products and services that are also provided by most innovative companies like Apple, Facebook, and Dropbox. The innovations from the top competitor companies have plummeted HP’s revenue, with a drop every subsequent year since the peak in 2011. HP is trying to adapt to the super trend of companies being able to withstand disruptive innovation by locating the market segment that shows the highest growth potential. The survival of disruptive innovation has also led the company to upgrade its sales processes.
Assess which forces for change are causing HP to undertake major organizational change .
Internal forces play a major role in HP’s organizational change. For example, the survey of the company’s employees downrated the company’s sales processes. The survey results indicate that the decline in revenue growth is due to faulty sales mechanisms, driving the company to review the entire sales process. Another internal force is the management-employee relationship and behavior. Whitman decided to remove the barbed wire separating the parking lot and to work from a cubicle. These changes are aimed at fostering the management-employee relationship.
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Recommend how Meg Whitman could use Lewin’s and Kotter’s models of change to increase the probability of achieving positive organizational change.
The unfreezing phase of Lewin’s change model and Kotter’s first four steps emphasize on creating the motivation to change and imparting a sense of urgency. Whitman could have first established these by being frank with all company stakeholders about the amount they are losing each fiscal year. The second step in the models is creating a guiding coalition. Whitman could have established a team(s) consisting of manages and trust-worthy employees who would have spearheaded the change process. The next step is developing a vision and strategy. This could have been achieved through the feedback received from being transparent about the company’s declining revenue growth. Whitman would also publicly reward those committed to achieving the goals and strategies.
Determine how HP is following the four steps for fostering innovation.
The company first recognized the problem by acknowledging the declining revenue growth, identifies opportunities through consultations and devices solutions to problems, e.g. by removing the barbed wire fences separating the executive and general employee parking lots. Whitman then attempts to gain allies by traveling the world to meet company partners and customers. HP is not fully utilizing the third step – empowering and rewarding employees. Exemplary employees are not identified and appreciated. HP is also not fully applying the fourth step of effective management. The company’s employees are not satisfied with most of the processes.
What has happened with HP since this case was written? Determine whether the implementation of these changes has been successful. Explain what could have been done differently.
Hewlett-Packard split off the PC and printer business. The PC and printer retained the name HP Inc., while the service business took the name Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. The company’s annual revenue declined by 6.27% in 2016 and 9.16% in 2015. However, the company has seen tremendous revenue growth since 2016. The success of the implementation of the changes was slow, but the success has now taken a steady rise. The company would have first sought to implement changes that are least threatening to the employees’ welfare instead of starting with the most threatening changes, i.e., laying-off of employees.
