Hewlett-Packard SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Hewlett-Packard is a global technology company and after its merger with Compaq it
became worlds biggest computer hardware and peripherals company in the world, ranking
20 in the Fortune 500 list. Company is doing business in more then 170 countries
including the ones that are developing and under-developed. Being a large company gives
HP many advantages like dominating the market for printers, both laser and inkjet, and
both for consumers and companies using the economies of scale. The company is also
taking an active role in developing the capacity of new markets all around the world,
engaging with other multinational corporations, non-governmental organizations and other
world governing bodies to reignite the competitiveness at home and abroad through
policies and strategies that can support free-market economies. This is one of the reasons
that makes HP a leading technology company in the growing IT markets (HP Annual
Report, 2003).
Hewlett-Packard generated nearly $6.1 billion in cash flow from its operations and
increased its cash and equivalents by 3 billion in 2003 (Datamonitor, 2004). Debt levels in
this year were also very low which was significantly lower then the previous year. This is a
great advantage which enables the company to increase its investments.
HP always recognized the need to compete in global markets. Product diversity of the
company is another big advantage that enables the company to hold its position even in the
times of recession. As long as the products are good and have reasonable prices there will
be a demand. Company has a product span from calculators to laser printers , from
notebook computers to servers. The company has a long history of inventions and
innovations until it came to this stage. Research and Development (R&D) is foucused on
key growth areas like rich digital media, mobility, management softwares and security. HP
knows that enterprises and consumers might have different needs, but the technology
requirements to meet those needs are usually the same. HP labs continue to research future
technologies such as nanotechnology to ensure that the company is investing in longt-term
growth and competitiveness.
After the acquisition of Compaq the new company formed four new divisions including
enterprise systems group, imaging and printing group, HP services and Personal systems.
This gave the opportunity to the company to broaden out the product line so that it could
have a compelling offering against (International Business Machines) IBM and (enterprise
content management) EMC companies (Connor, 2002).
There is a shared sense of mission among the employees at HP. The company is also one
