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New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Juergen (CH) - 06-18-2005

From Financial Times (www.ft.com):

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Morale at Hewlett-Packard seems surprisingly composed for a company poised to announce a cost-cutting plan that could eliminate as many as 15,000 jobs, or 10 per cent of its workforce, within the next few weeks.

It would be one of the first significant moves by Mark Hurd since his appointment as chief executive on April 1. For two months he has been studying the challenges facing the computer and printer maker, and devising a plan to wring growth from the group's diverse collection of businesses.

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Releasing employees to save cost: a really good and new idea! What about developing outstanding, innovative, and high-quality products?

Releasing employees always results in loss of know-how, and in such a high-tech business, this may be disastrous. This is short-term money saving, but in a long-term view this strategy will not pay off...

Ciao, Juergen




Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Namir - 06-18-2005

Juergun,

My brother-in-law was a carrier Honeywell salesmanager. He spent the last 8 years in their international division in Phoenix, Arizona. In the last several years they systematically laid off people. He left last year. I often talked to him about this topic and how Honeywell and others like it (HP in the case you mention) seem to bleed themselves of talents that can work against them. Imagine how happy TI might feel at getting some of the good talents leaving HP!!

The policy you discuss is very miopic. Short term gain vs long term suicide.

Namir


Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Raymond Del Tondo - 06-19-2005

Hi,

>Imagine how happy TI might feel at getting some

>of the good talents leaving HP!!

>

Unfortunately that already happened in the 2nd half of the nineties.

Some people of the HP-48 design team went to TI after HP moved

portable computer development from Corvallis to Singapore.

I don't know all by name at the moment, but amongst them were

Diana Byrne and Charlie Patton. AFAIK Diana was team leader.

Charlie wrote very much of the operating system and math routines of the HP-48,

and he and his team members (Ted W. Beers, Jim Donnelly, and others) did a phantastic job.


Raymond


"RULES" on the HP-48/49 - Karl Schneider - 06-20-2005

Raymond stated,

Quote:
I don't know all by name at the moment, but amongst them were Diana Byrne and Charlie Patton. AFAIK Diana was team leader. Charlie wrote very much of the operating system and math routines of the HP-48, and he and his team members (Ted W. Beers, Jim Donnelly, and others) did a phantastic job.

"Diana", "Charlie", "Ted", and "Jim" can be found in crossword-puzzle form by entering the command "RULES" (no quotes) on the original Hewlett-Packard HP-48 models. These names are conspicuously absent on the HP-49G "RULES" display.

-- KS




Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Namir - 06-20-2005

Anyone knows what happened to Bill Wicks? When I first met him in 1980 he was a professor of Phsyics at the University of Maryland (College Park). He got a job with HP (thanks to his spearheading synthetic programming) in Corvallis. I believe he was behind (not sure to what extend) with the new multi-level stack in the HP-28C and subsequent machines.


Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Wayne Brown - 06-20-2005

Quote:
Anyone knows what happened to Bill Wicks?

The last I heard, he still was working for HP, though not in the calculator division.


Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - Eddie Shore - 06-21-2005

It is the favorite technique of American companies run by Republicans (and some Democrats, but mostly Republicans). "We don't care about labor, inginuity, or progress. All we care about is the bottom line and my bonus for cutting costs" - your typical average CEO

Sorry guys for going off tangent, but I too sick of this happening to every company.


Re: New chief prepares for job cuts at HP - John L. Shelton - 06-22-2005

Reminder: corporate profitability is a good thing. It indicates that the company is meeting the needs of its customers. A well-run board doesn't give big bonuses to management unless the impact on the company owners (shareholders) is substantially bigger.

Wise management delivers good things to customers else the company gets trounced by better companies. The bottom line recognizes products that meet customer needs.

Cost-cutting is dangerous business, since it often leads to problems later, such as loss of innovation, customers, etc. While it's too hearly to tell about new CEO Hurd, he has a long-enough track record and experience to presume that he's investing for HP's long-term ability. Recent articles indicate HP's special interest in innovating their way out of a slump; in particular, they want other sources of profit besides printer supplies. HP is investing heavily in new technology and building their services group, for example.

As an individual, you try to maximize profits: you seek high wages and low costs. Why can't a company do the same? As long as you deal with others voluntarily (without force or fraud), all is well.

Further OT:
Both Democrat and Republican administration/legislators want as much of your money as they can get, but perhaps for different purposes. Short-sighted corporate management is not strongly aligned with either party.


Demopublicans and Republicrats - bill platt - 06-22-2005

In other words, they all feed at the same corporate trough.

Its a one party system with two names.


Nothing wrong with making money... - Eddie Shore - 06-22-2005

but I believe people would be making a lot more money if they support their employees instead of thinking of them as just cost numbers.