The case of Hewlett Packard shows that to be effective, marketing requires more than a consideration of corporate effort alone. It needs an integrated plan that takes into account both government policy and the competitive position of participating American businesses. The role of corporate leader is critical. The actual distribution of products tends to follow geographic boundaries. For economic efficiency, however, marketing activity should cross national boundaries.
Communication through jets and satellites certainly helps to hurdle boundaries, if not to make them disappear. Marketing then tends to become multinational. During her tenure, Carly Fiorina made a number of decisions which had a negative impact on the company. During crisis Fiorina ignore the negative market sentiment. Also, she proceeded with the merger with Sun. The result was that HP shares dropped and Walter Hewlitt and David W Packard opposed Fiorina’s plans and strategies. the strategic choice to acquire another company was successful for HP, thus it should be delayed to overcome economic pressure and crisis. “Statistics show that while turnover was near 30 percent among tech firms in the Valley during the late 1990s, it never rose above 5 percent at HP” (Sappendfield 2006).
Also, the company had to lay of 16,000 of employees in order to save financial resources and profitability. Cost cutting strategies were not effective because they created a negative publicity for HP and did not solve its main problems. under Fiona, “HP was progressive. It was egalitarian. And it eventually became the pioneer of many aspects of the modern American workplace” (Sappendfield 2006).
The successful strategies applied and adopted by Fiorina were innovations and creativity in all sphere of life and product development. The decision maker brings nothing to the actual choice by way of experience or marketing information that helps in selecting among choices. This situation is an unrealistic one and is closely approximated in marketing by an absolutely new product with no marketing-research information available.
Fiorina underlined that customers want new products; they desire change. Although cultures differ as to their rate of acceptance of change, innovation is a means of satisfying the customer’s basic needs. Sources of innovation were internal (top management and executive leaders, sales and other operating units) and external (management consultants and advertising men). It appeared that HP had a greater opportunity to take defensive action against other new products than to create totally new ones, and the programming of counter innovation becomes. This strategic choice was effective because it allowed the company to sustain a strong leadership position on the market.
Growth was accompanied by JP, both internal and external, that place pressures on coordination and integration. As the growth process continues, HP shifted to product, divisional, or functional areas to ease pressures on coordination. The case of Fiona’s leadership shows that the greatest degree of marketing control may be exercised over those factors in the mix that are internal, including decisions on the amount of advertising expenditure, the number of salesmen, and the geographic territories to cover. The least control is exercised over customers, when companies try to influence and persuade them but the power lies in the customers’ hands.
Yet even the customers are greatly affected by factors outside a company’s sphere of control such as the host of environmental factors previously discussed. The tenure of Fiona was marked by positive changes and creative solutions although she made poor strategic decisions which had a negative impact on the company. The efficacy of marketing control depends on both the availability of relevant marketing intelligence and management power to adjust parts of the marketing program and objectives.
Works Cited
Markets, family decline Fiorina’s offer. n.d. Web.
Sappendfield, M. A controversial merger and the ‘HP Way’. 2006. Web.