Mark Hurd ran NCR and came up through the data warehousing division (Terradata). He was at NCR for 23 years. In his CEO tenure there, he has improved the financial results of the company, but maybe not its strategy. What an interesting choice – and how very different from Carly Fiorina. In terms of diversification, some may consider NCR to be a mini-HP for its broad range of product lines and offerings.

But I’m worried that HP is really trying to go to the same ‘strategyspace’ as IBM. That’s a good way to destroy value. Think about HP’s collaborative culture (see Regional Advantage book that describes the rise of Silicon Valley vs. Route 128 on the East Coast), HP is not adept at monolothic operations, never has been. Its history is in product innovation. The question is how can you continue to be known for innovation when you operate across many product lines.

My answer is that HP needs to re-evaluate its overall strategy and start moving up the value curve in innovation. See the ManyWorlds whitepaper on Frontiers of Innovation. Products should not be its focus, instead move up the value chain, through services, solutions and go to business model innovation. Perhaps that sounds too conceptual, but I think HP could bring it off. Let me explain, don’t try to follow the IBM way of trying to be everything to the customer, instead it should concentrate on tackling big needs of customers with unique value propositions. Surround the customer with multiple tailored solutions for them, delivered by HP units in collaboration with other smaller, innovative companies. Yes, its a challenge managing things in a network, but wouldn’t you rather work with a company who could truly say it had in-sourced the best in the world…