Abstract

This case study looks at the complex concept of corporate culture, the principal components of organisational cultures, how they are created and sustained, their impact on the management of organisations and their effect on corporate performance and longevity. It focuses on one US company, Hewlett-Packard, who has placed the management of its corporate culture at the forefront of its organisational and HR strategies for more than forty years. Keywords

Managing organisational culture; organisational change and renewal; corporate longevity; strategic human resource management.

Introduction

While many computer companies struggled in the 1980s and early 1990s, one American company, Hewlett-Packard (HP), enjoyed the most successful period in its history. Founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard in 1937, the company manufactures computers, calculators, medical electronic equipment, instruments for chemical analysis and other solid-state components. In 1993, it posted a 100% increase in revenues whilst cutting its prices by 40%. Profits rose at an average of 23 percent a year between 1984-94. It was the only major computer company to remain consistently in profit during the last world recession. In early 2001, HP employed 85,000 staff and had 104 divisions operating in 120 countries (please refer to the last section of the case study for information on the companys plans to takeover Compaq in 2001). It has often won awards in most admired company surveys in Fortune over the last decade. It has also had a long-standing reputation of being one of the most benevolent and forward thinking companies in the world, renowned for its progressive personnel policies and its innovative and intrepreneurial organisational culture. During times of job instability and downsizing in the 1980s and 1990s, HP also prided itself on being a company that offered its staff jobs a high degree of job

security. It has also had one of the lowest documented rates of labour turnover amongst the Fortune Top 500 companies over the last ten years. It continues to be one of the top employers of choice for the best science and engineering graduates at American Universities. The management of HP has had a tremendous impact on the way companies all over the world are managed. It is regarded as one of the most visionary and successful companies of the 20th Century (Collins and Porras, 1996). 1n 1997 HP was admitted to the Dow Jones list of 30 elite US companies, on whose performance the daily value of the American Stock Exchange is measured*. Why was this company so successful over such a long period of time? The answer may well lie in the management of its corporate culture The HP Way Hewlett-Packard Company has over one billion customers and a presence in 178 countries worldwide. Providing consistent, high-quality product content is essential to HPs business. 90% of its customers buy based on content, not on touching the product, according to Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Content and Product Data Management.1 This case study describes how HP has deployed a digital content management infrastructure in order to serve its global customer base, reduce costs, and increase efficiencies. It outlines the content management business processes that connect HP content owners with content consum-ers in local languages that enable commerce. It details how HP uses rigorous and repeatable regionalization, translation, and localization practices to interact with its customers. Finally, it lays out the results that HP has achieved to date. The story starts in 1999 with product content for a single website in Japan. It ends with annual content globalization savings of approximately $6 million, dramatically reduced costs of intro-ducing new products, vastly improved customized product content for business customers, improved sales force efficiency, and lower infrastructure costs. Hewlett-Packard Company Background Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE, NASDAQ: HPQ) provides technology solutions to consumers, small and medium size businesses, enterprise organizations, and institutions in both the public and private sectors. HPs technology portfolio includes IT infrastructure, computers, printing and imaging devices, consumer electronics, and global services. HP revenue totaled $79.9 billion for the fiscal year ended October 31, 4004. The company is ranked number 11 on the Fortune 500.

HPs mission is to invent technologies and services that drive business value, create social benefit and improve the lives of customerswith a focus on affecting the greatest number of people possible.3 To execute on this mission, HP spends nearly $4 billion annually on R&D. The company generates on average 11 patents a day worldwide. From its inception, HP made a commitment to good citizenship as well as to innovative technology. Last year the company contributed more than $62 million in support of education initiatives, community programs, and nonprofit organizations throughout the world. The content globalization programs and initiatives described in this case study are managed within the Content and Product Data Management (CPDM) Organization, headed up by Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Content and Product Data Management. This organization is one of seven groups reporting into eBusiness, Customer and Sales Operations (ECO), under the direc-tion of Senior Vice President Olivier Kohler. ECO reports into Global Operations and Informa-tion Technology, headed by Gilles Bouchard, Executive Vice President. Bouchard reports to the President and CEO. The point of describing the reporting structure is to illustrate the strategic importance of product content management at HP. This function is on par with other critical processes such as supply chain management, sales operations, and strategy, planning and communications. Content glob-alization is not treated as a hodge-podge of back room, skunk works programs. It has high visibility within the enterprise and is viewed as strategic to HPs market leadership, competitive advantage, and brand value.