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Technology Stocks : Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elwood P. Dowd who wrote (638)	5/27/2002 6:42:47 PM
From: PCSS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4345

New chief reassures over HP/Compaq deal By Fiona Harvey in London May 27 2002 21:39 The integration of the cultures of Hewlett-Packard and Compaq Computer will not be problematic, according to Peter Blackmore, the incoming president of the merged companies' enterprise systems group. Rather, he believes that shareholders need have no unease because the idea of corporate culture is just trotted out as an excuse for not getting processes right. Mr Blackmore was executive vice-president of sales and services at Compaq before his appointment to head enterprise systems. The group comprises all of the merged companies' server hardware and software. It accounts for $18bn a year in revenues, and employs 40,000. Mr Blackmore argues that the culture argument has been used as a cloak, while the real question is the introduction of new business models. "If you talk to people who have done large mergers it's not that people don't get on. They do. But people say: 'We used to do things this way, that's the culture' and they push and pull about what is the best business model. "You have to put the word culture in the context of commercial sense." Most people, according to Mr Blackmore, are pragmatic and will accept management decisions and move ahead to implement those decisions. Thus, talk of a culture clash is misplaced, as the real clash is between different processes. HP and Compaq have put their faith in an "adopt and go" system whereby all of the companies' business models and processes are examined and the best of the two chosen. "That's better than having parts of one and parts of the other," Mr Blackmore says. He also says that the loss of 15,000 jobs as part of the merger will not cause a dip in morale, as people realised that cost-cutting is necessary for the company and its shareholders. His trenchant views contrast with HP's oft-cited focus on people culture, known as "the HP Way", which centred on the HP founders' ideas of management by walking around. Mr Blackmore says enterprise systems will just break even this year and become profitable in 2003. He declined to say what proportion of the merged company's profits would come from the group, nor how many jobs would be cut. In common with rivals, the company expects to see little growth in the rest of the year, though a more detailed forecast will be made to analysts on June 4.