Strategic Management - Hewlett-Packard Co.

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Running Head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

Strategic Management
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Strategic Management
Hewlett-Packard Company is a multinational information technology corporation commonly referred to as HP, having its headquarters in California in the USA. The company was founded by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard which provides an explanation of where the title of the company originated from. Hewlett-Packard Company specializes in the production of products which can be used by medium sized business, manufacturing industries, delivery services, and designing software. In the year 2010, HP Company posted net revenue of $126.3 billion in comparison to the $115 billion which was posted by the company in the year 2009 (IBIS World, 2009). Out of this net revenue, $40 billion came from the services offered by the company. In the year 2006, HP faced a stiff competition from IBM which is the company's major competitor. However, the competition tipped in the favor of Hewlett-Packard Company resulting in it posting revenues of 91.7 billion dollars compared to that of its competitor (IBM) 91.4 billion dollars in the year ending 2009 (Hewlett-Packard Company, 2008).The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the external business market and the influence it has on the strategic business continuity plan of Hewlett-Packard. In addition to that, the paper provides an analysis on the general competitor and industry environment. Moreover, the role of business ethics in capturing the intelligence on a competitor is also captured in the paper.
There are several factors in Hewlett-Packard's external market which can be analyzed and a conclusion drawn on how they influence the external strategic business continuity plan. The first factor to take into consideration is the political factor. Intensive competition has characterized the international information technology and electronic industries resulting to a constant review on the achievements made by the industries and the competitors so as to come up with better business strategies that ensure sustainability of the business in their efforts of outdoing their rivals in the industry (Sacconaghi & Chiang, 2002). HP and Compaq merger has increased the rate of competitiveness existing within the industry as it facilitates the strength of the company in outdoing their competitors through the provision of provision of higher valued products and services which provides even better customer satisfaction. This has directly resulted to the increase in the economic competitiveness of HP in the international industry of information technology.
In addition to this, the merger between HP and Compaq results to an increase in strengthening of the social activities carried out by the company. The new customer bases, new market opportunities, new market trends and technological infrastructure have been available for utilization resulting to better social activities by the company. After HP Company merged with Compaq, the rates of innovation increased resulting to the generation of new contracts by HP and their suppliers which has further resulted to the provision of new contracts as well as raw materials required by the company.
The hyper competitive environment is one of the threats ...