by Doug Millison for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Hewlett-Packard gets the cover of this week's BusinessWeek.

Bottom line: "Hewlett-Packard still needs to prove it can execute its broad strategy. If not, pressure will build to break up this Silicon Valley icon."

Possible solutions?

BusinessWeek has interviewed more than 100 people, including past and present HP employees, investors, customers, partners, and competitors, to explore the issues and potential solutions. Suggestions abound. Some call for Fiorina to hire an operations ace to manage the company's far-flung divisions and get them working in sync. Others call for the company's PC division to retreat from its global network of retail distributors and to ape Dell's super-efficient direct-sales model. And many opine that HP should gobble up software and tech-services companies to better compete against IBM. The risk? If the company adds to its portfolio without first tackling the operational issues, the already daunting complexity could multiply. "Carly has to prove she can execute and it just hasn't happened yet," says a former HP vice-president who left earlier this year. That view is widely shared by many others interviewed by BusinessWeek.

by Doug Millison for SiliconValleyWatcher.com

Links:

Carly's Challenge, BusinessWeek, 13 December 2004.

What's the story? Doug Millison also edits OnlineJournalist.org, "on a need-to-know basis"