Product details

With the frequent leadership changes at the top level and a global decline of Personal Computer (PC) shipments, Hewlett-Packard Company (HP), one of the world’s leading Information Technology (IT) companies, was faced with a difficult situation to turnaround its PC business in China and India, markets where HP was once a dominant player. In the financial year 2010, Asia Pacific region contributed 18% to HP’s total revenue, signalling increased importance of this region for HP. In August 2011, HP’s Board of Directors decided to evaluate an strategic alternative for its Personal System Group (PSG) business, specialised in selling commercial personal computers, consumer PCs, workstations, and handheld computing devices, sending ripples among HP’s competitors in the PC business. But, industry analysts were perplexed when in October 2011, HP announced on its official web portal that the company had evaluated various strategic alternatives and decided to retain PSG business. The case presents a dilemma whether HP was able to turnaround its shrinking position in the Chinese and Indian PC market at a time when top management was faced with the uncertainty of spinning-off its PSG business.