While calling FY 2013 as a year to ‘fix and re-build’, Meg Whitman, CEO of HP acknowledged the past troubles and the period of management instability, but ensured that the company had now sorted and is headed for a strong committed strategy for future growth. Whitman’s keynote at the Global Partner Conference, held recently in Las Vegas, was directed to instil confidence in the company and to uplift the sentiments of its partner community. The general sentiment being echoed was ‘We mean business’.

FY 2013 will be all about addressing the challenges and investing in R&D and internal systems. Elaborating on her future strategy for the company, Whitman termed FY 2014 as the year for recovery and expansion, leading up to acceleration in FY 2015. “We are making many positive changes and will start seeing the results of that this year,” said Whitman.

HP spent FY 2012 doing diagnosis and building the foundation. This included getting a deep and realistic understanding of HP’s strengths and challenges. With the constant change in its leadership, the general sense that prevailed was one of instability. “Last year we put together a great leadership team and re-structured our business, which has brought consistency to the company,” said Whitman. To further re-iterate the promise on stability, Whitman assured during her keynote that she is there to stay, while also hinting that the next HP CEO should come from within the company.

The re-structuring exercise undertaken included the merging of the printer and personal systems groups and creating a new enterprise group, indicating more orderly operations going forward.