'New' HP much like the old HP

Customers will see a Hewlett-Packard (HP) post merger with Compaq that closely resembles the HP of old, except is faster moving, according to its chief executive Carly Fiorina.

Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference in Manchester yesterday, Fiorina revealed that prior to merging, senior managers from both HP and Compaq had been asked to draw up a list encapsulating the values the newly formed firm would require to succeed.

"What came out was the 'HP Way' with one addition - speed; the need to deliver technology faster," she said.

The 'HP Way' was first coined to describe the values that HP's founders believed underpinned their business. To breed a culture of innovation, all employees were to enjoy the same status, and open communication.

The views of business partners, customers and employees were vital to ensuring HP pursued the right strategy and delivered technologies wanted by its customers, said Fiorina.

This process would be crucial to ensuring that the new HP would be able to win business in the future, she added.

"Only about ten per cent of the world is currently in a position to use our technology. If we want to win business in the developing world, we need to talk to those communities and understand their needs," she said.

The desire to maintain open communications was essential to the merger with Compaq, she said. Months of 'cultural due diligence' had informed the process, Fiorina told delegates, starting with asking 138 managers from both firms for their views on whether or not to merge, long before it was made public.

In a speech primarily devoted to "good corporate citizenship" in the wake of the Enron and WorldCom scandals, Fiorina also hinted at her vision of the IT industry.

"There is a fundamental shift in IT away from firms that provide point solutions to companies that can put together end-to-end solutions," she said.