Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard

Main Pitch:

What it means: Tools for creating, managing, sharing and delivering digital content for all needs grand and small. That's essentially the HP promise. Given its expanse, it's little wonder HP has the broadest portfolio in IT. From servers to handhelds, printers to software, services to financing, HP does it all.

VARBusiness' View: Having completed the largest merger in tech history, CEO Carly Fiorina launched the new HP in May 2002. With that behind her, she faces immense obstacles integrating Compaq and HP. Give her credit for overcoming a huge number already, but HP needs a vision. Fiorina has said she thinks technology needs to evolve. At a February 2002 Goldman Sachs technology conference, she told investors that the pure product era is over. "Customers want solutions that encompass digital content delivered as services. It's not just a question of having a server here and storage there. Fundamentally, it's about having servers and storage and networking-management capabilities working together seamlessly to produce an infrastructure that is as reliable as electricity or water," she says. Does HP have all the right necessary pieces? Well, printing, imaging and storage remain strong businesses, but the No. 1 PC-maker in the world is struggling in commodity products. Servers, software and services also need a boost. While HP has many great assets, it has yet to articulate how it will combine them to make the company the best in IT.

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