Global CIO: HP CEO Leo Apotheker's Agenda: What Will He Do First?

"The first thing I did when I joined this company was to reach out to each member of the senior executive team; we have talked. These are great professionals."

He also said, "But the first thing I really want to do in this new job is I intend to hear and learn a lot from the HP people and I am going to do that in the next following weeks and even months. I am going to travel around the world. I want to meet with as many HP people as I can. I want to learn from them and listen to what they have to say. I want to do the same thing with our customers and, of course, with our shareholders as well, so that is my first focus."

What do you think of Oracle's hardware + software strategy? "I would like to give you maybe a little bit of a broader view on what is happening in the entire technology stack, which is I think the more important question, because HP is acting along all of the parts of the stack and the entire value chain of technology. We see and I think we all agree on this at HP, we see that there is massive disruption happening along all of the value chain and all of the components of the technology stack.

"We believe at HP that this is a great opportunity for us. We have the capability, we have the skill set, we have the know-how, we have the strengths, we have the R&D capabilities, we have the talent in-house to be an effective driver of not only each layer of the technology stack interchanges but also to try to pull it all together into a cohesive strategy for our customers and clients worldwide. That is what we are going to focus on and I am sure Oracle will focus on their own strategy as well."

Apotheker also said, "The technology industry is being fundamentally reshaped today. The various [servers] of the data center, service, storage, networking, and software are converging. I think given HP's diversified products and services portfolio, its financial strength, and its leadership position across markets, no other company is as well positioned to drive the changes on the way in the marketplace."

What do you bring to HP that will help it move forward? "HP is a company that has great talent and HP is grounded in the hardware business, and there are few companies, if any, on the planet that could even come close to HP's capability when it comes to hardware. I bring to the table an asset that HP is less grounded in, even though it's a great company in this business as well, and that is software and to a certain extent high-added-value services.

"I would like to bring that personal value to HP so that we can actually create that mix and as a team have an even broader portfolio of capabilities that we can bring to bear in the market. I bring to HP my experience. I bring to HP a lot of international and global experience. And as you know, HP is very much focused, and Cathie said this during the analyst meeting as well, to expand its markets. We want to grow way faster also in the new emerging markets and we will focus on that, and I have a lot of experience in those."

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