梅格•惠特曼该如何拯救惠普

    梅格•惠特曼做的可能是整个硅谷最棘手的工作——修复惠普（HP）。这个一度业内领先的科技巨头已有数年苦苦找不到翻身的出路。不过惠特曼却决心带领惠普扭亏为赢。

    上周三，梅格•惠特曼在与投资者的电话会议中宣布，她将在未来一两年内削减27,000个工作岗位，以“精简运营、改善流程，减少业务的复杂性。”当然，即便是裁掉2.7万人，惠普在全球依然有多达322,600名员工。况且惠普旗下还有一条巨大而复杂的产品线，而它的产品号召力也大不如前了（想想在Facebook和苹果iPad主宰的世界里，还有多少人用打印机和PC就知道了）。换句话说，光靠裁员不能完全解决惠普的核心问题。那么惠特曼究竟怎样才能带着公司朝正确的方向走呢？《财富》（Fortune）就这个问题采访了一些硅谷内部人士，如CEO、分析师、管理专家和前惠普高管等。

投行Sterne Agee分析师吴萧（音译）

    “就像历史证明的那样，让一家公司转型是很难的。可以说只有IBM和苹果（Apple）成功了，而且这两家公司都曾濒临灭亡。不过在短期看来，我们认为惠特曼最好能做到的，就是改善惠普的财务状况。惠普由于最近的收购而背负了大量债务——包括收购Autonomy（一家英国软件公司——译注）。根据惠普最新季报，他们的债务有255亿美元，而现金只有81亿。我们认为改善财务状况对安抚投资者很有好处。”

斯坦福大学管理科学与工程教授罗伯特•萨顿

    “我认为现在梅格•惠特曼的工作是所有CEO里最难做的。公司太大、太分散，我不确定是否有任何人能驾驭得了它，也不确定是否有时间去管它。举个小例子，我上了惠普的网站，想买一款打印机，结果我看到了84个选择。惠普已经成了一家没有办法管理的公司，产品线的规模只是一个标志。随着系统的成长，聪明的管理层总会寻找一些东西放弃掉，也就是一些从前需要，但现在却成了妨碍的事，或是太复杂、太分心的事。惠特曼的裁员或许标志着她朝这个方向做出了一些进步。”

现时服务公司（Service Now）CEO弗兰克•斯鲁特曼

    “惠普需要一次文化上的改造。他们应该重新亮出‘虎眼’，创建一个有意义的、吸引人的、独特的使命。向企业注入使命感和战斗精神是惠特曼的第一要务。每个人都在侵犯惠普的利润禁区，惠普到了知耻而后勇的时候，应该开始反击了。”

拒绝透露姓名的前惠普高管

    “惠普需要弄明白，它究竟是一家以消费者为中心的公司，还是一家以市场为中心的科技公司。要想两者都做到，那是极为困难的，而且公司太大了。梅格•惠特曼已经把PC和打印机两个部门合并到一块，也许这只是第一步，你能看到惠特曼的改革线条已经开始画出来了。她可能会把公司分成两块，一部分是PC和打印机业务，另一部分是软件、服务和计算业务。越小越简单可能就越好。苹果已经证明了只需20多个产品编号就能主宰世界。你到百思买（Best Buy）去，你知道你能买到的打印机有多少种吗？我在惠普工作过，连我都没法告诉你。惠普这个公司比葡萄牙都大。这是一家非常庞大复杂的企业，但它不必非得这样。”

    译者：朴成奎

    Meg Whitman might have the toughest job in Silicon Valley -- fixing Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). The once-leading tech behemoth has struggled to find its way for years (for more on HP's troubled history, check out James Bandler's recent piece in Fortune). But Whitman is determined to turn things around.

    On Wednesday, during an earnings call with investors, the new CEO announced she would cut 27,000 jobs over the next couple of years in an effort to "streamline our operations, improve our processes, and remove complexity from our business." Of course, that still leaves a whopping 322,600 employees worldwide, not to mention a huge and complicated line of products that are no longer as coveted as they used to be (think printers and PCs in a world of Facebooks (FB) and Apple (AAPL) iPads). In other words, the job cuts don't do much to address HP's core problems. So what can Whitman do to get the company headed in the right direction? Fortuneasked a handful of Silicon Valley insiders -- CEOs, analysts, management experts and former HP execs -- to weigh in.

Shaw Wu, analyst, Sterne Agee

    "As history has proven it is very tough to transform a company. Arguably only IBM (IBM) and Apple have done it successfully and both have faced extinction. But in the near-term, we think the best thing Meg can do is try to clean up the balance sheet. They took on a lot of debt with recent acquisitions including Autonomy. They have $25.5 billion in debt compared to only $8.1 billion in cash as of their last reported January quarter. We think improving this will go a long way with investors."

Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering, Stanford University

    "I think Meg has the hardest job of any CEO I can think of right now. The company is so large and so diverse that I am not sure it is possible for any single person or time to run it. As one little example, I went to the HP website to figure out which printer I might buy. It seems I have 84 choices. The size of the product line is just one sign that the company has evolved into one that is impossible to manage. As systems grow, wise management is always looking for things to take out -- things that it once needed but now get in the way or that are too complicated or distracting. With Meg's layoffs she may make some progress in this direction."

Frank Slootman, CEO, ServiceNow

    "HP needs a culture make over. They need to get that eye of the tiger back, have a mission that is relevant, compelling and uniquely theirs. Instilling a sense of mission and a fighting spirit is job one. Everybody's invading HP's profit sanctuaries, time to develop a chip on the shoulder, and start snapping back."

Former HP exec who declined to be named

    "HP needs to figure out if it's a consumer-oriented business or a commercially oriented tech business. Doing both is incredibly hard and the company's too big. Maybe the move Meg has made in combining the PC and printer groups is the first step—you can see the lines beginning to be drawn. She could split the company in two, the PC and printing business and the software, services and compute business. Smaller and simpler is probably better. Apple's proved that you can dominate the world with two dozen SKUs. Walk into a Best Buy and how many different kinds of printers can you buy? I worked there and I couldn't even tell you. This is a company that's bigger than Portugal. It's a big, large complex business. It doesn't need to be."