On the Mark

Help slay the dragon. That’s Mark Hurd’s rallying cry to solution providers attending Hewlett-Packard Co.’s Americas Partner Conference in Las Vegas recently. But HP solution providers have a big question for Hurd as well: What do I get in return if I make a greater commitment to HP?

After almost three years at the helm, HP’s chairman and CEO has transformed a company in disarray into the world’s largest IT company. In a conference call with reporters following the company’s first-quarter earnings report, Hurd said that based on anticipated cost savings and share gains in key markets, HP was raising its fiscal 2008 revenue estimates to between US$113.5 billion and US$114 billion. HP had originally anticipated fiscal 2008 revenue of US$111.5 billion.

Meanwhile, in a one-on-one interview in the boardroom of HP’s Palo Alto, California headquarters, Hurd minced no words in what he expects from the vendor’s solution provider partners as he chases a bigger share of what analysts expect to be US$1.2 trillion global IT market by 2009.

“We need quality partners,” Hurd said. “If we have partners that can’t get it done, I don’t want them helping us. I don’t need bad partners. I need good ones. I need great ones. I need ones that will help us slay some dragons. I want some that can go help us compete. I want some that are willing to put skin in the game and willing to be just as consistent, just as simple, just as excited, just as fired up as we are. And if they’re not, they should go partner with ‘insert name here,’ some of our competitors, and mess them up.
“And if all they want to do is whine about channel compensation, and they want to do the same thing they did 10 years ago and get paid more for it, go find some other place to partner with,” Hurd continued. “If you want to get on the cutting edge and kick some butt and go get something done, then come hang around with us.”

In return, Hurd said HP is willing to shift more money to its most loyal partners. “We’re taking money away in areas that we don’t think are of value,” he said. “We’re not trying to say all partners are going to always be the same. There are some partners that are willing to
step up. And our point is, OK, if you’re going to make that commitment, we’re going to make that commitment, too.”