HP boss outlines strategy for growth

HP chief executive Mark Hurd

HP chief executive Mark Hurd outlined a three-pronged strategy for the firm's future in New York yesterday.

The company will focus on high-growth markets such as enterprise virtualisation, data storage, data centre consolidation, high-end printing and mobility.

Hurd maintained that companies are shifting towards increased data centre consolidation and storage area networking, and that HP's high-end printing initiatives will focus on photo lasers and multiple services.

Meanwhile HP's strategy for mobile computing services will be to allow customers to access data securely from wherever they want.

Suggesting that the firm had turned the corner Hurd said: "We do not think that the fourth quarter was an ultimate victory.

"I believe that HP is aligned with trends in the market. We have strong assets that we can leverage in our core businesses, and there are opportunities in adjacent markets we can leverage."

Hurd predicted revenue growth to $91bn in fiscal 2006, up from $89.5bn the previous year. In fiscal 2007, beginning in November 2006, profit margins are expected to grow to eight per cent, up from 7.5 per cent the previous year.

Since taking over from former chief executive Carly Fiorina, Hurd has cut jobs and costs. He has reduced the workforce by 15,000 in the past six months and has restructured the business, eliminating a sales division and re-organising IT systems.

Hurd repeated previous statements that he has no intention of spinning off parts of the business. "I am not working on spinning off the PC business, the printing business or the server business," he said.

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