Stephanie Dismore, SVP and Managing Director of HP

Translating challenges into opportunities in hybrid

Hybrid world hasn’t just thrown challenges internally, but it’s a matter of how internal and external management happens. Managing roadblocks and turning those into one of opportunities has been HP’s strategy in this new hybrid environment. IT decision makers have faced the frustration over security in a hybrid world and how they would manage devices in end-to-end lifecycle management. “Making sure that people show up looking the best, sounding the best, managing devices end-to-end” are important, and the “series of acquisitions over the last fifteen months to build upon existing products and solutions” are big moves. Recent acquisition of Poly, “a big part of our portfolio” as Stephanie calls it, is set to complement what they are already trying to accomplish.

“We believe that they will totally complement what we’re trying to do, in this new hybrid opportunity, and we sync that up with some of the other acquisitions that we’ve done as well like hyper X, focused on the gaming enthusiast. It really aligns with our our brand Omen, our gaming solutions as well, then all the way up the stack to an acquisition we did with Teradici.

It’s a great little company, based out of Canada, and this whole idea of of being able to work from anywhere, whether you do even high end, things that you would do on a workstation …And how do you actually collaborate and work together remotely…Teradici does an incredible job with remote management and PC.”

Bring the heartbeat of HP to its people, AND thrive

Given the unprecedented uncertainty with the hybrid work, Covid pandemic, and the work-life home-life balance, HP is bent on providing a work culture where its people can thrive. Offering flexibility by announcing flexible vacation options, ramping up training opportunities and growth are some focus areas of the company’s people first approach. “So that’s number one, people. The second thing we’re focused on, is training our people, and really having this idea of school of talent, where we’re always providing opportunities for growth, whether that’s training or skill sets, or promotions, or rotations. If that’s your base layer, then we get into innovation, right? That’s where we get really excited about how can we continue to create products and solutions that help people create, help people produce, help people’s work and personal lives be seamless with the use of technology. We see some areas that are in our core business. Then we also see some exciting areas that we call our growth areas where we’re going to double down on and it’s the areas where you’ve actually seen us make some acquisitions. And I think we’re gonna continue to drive in that area.”

Roadmap for internal innovation (aka HP Labs)

The need for system security couldn’t be more paramount than what it is in today’s context. With different areas where network and systems can be highly vulnerable, the iconic role of HP Labs, and the drive, innovation parameters take centerstage.

“We just continue to drive, and look for ways that we can continually try and make changes. We’ve launched some products called HP wolf security, which is, everything that’s embedded into our PCs and printers, that gives us the right to say, hey, we have the most secure PC in the market, based on our security levels, that, you know, we’re operating below, at and above the bios.What we’re trying to do with our HP wolf security, is really provide a resilient defense against malware and hacking. But what we hear from our insights, is that you need all this to happen in a seamless way. And we also want to reduce the time it takes for those updates, and allow users to stay productive and continue working during the BIOS and the firmware updates. Those are some of the proof points that our team has been able to execute.”

Looking ahead into 2025 and beyond, Stephanie reflects and emphasizes on the need to be more customer sensitive and foster an environment to shop, that exceeds the needs of every customer. Be it targeting through value-added resellers (VARs), Managed service provider (MSP) models or a direct to consumer approach – “wherever you want to purchase it, whatever your ‘shopping journey or buying journey is’, we want to be there whether you choose to buy it direct, or if you choose to buy it through a VAR or an MSP, great, we want to have the best experience for you to purchase and get not only just the purchase, get the support, get the insight, get the advice, get the customer service that you’re expecting, and even over deliver against that; if you want to pop into a retail store, we want to make sure that experience is better than your expectation there. And then online.”

It’s indeed a smart move to meet the customer where they are ! Tone and consistency in messaging and delivery is crucial.

“A big focus for me in North America is really making sure that we are managing our channel and our direct business in a way that we show up consistent across all platforms. And I think that’s the focus; we don’t really have a focus to say, we want to have our mix driven this way or that way. We just want to make sure that we’re managing it as such that it’s the best experience wherever you choose to buy.”

Pivoting towards outcome based solutions and not just sell transactionally; focusing on sustainable outcomes have all been well on this leader’s realm. About 3.5 billion dollars in sales in 2021 had a sustainability focus. Turning something like the weather catastrophe in Haiti that resulted in a huge influx of ocean bound plastics, into reworking the supply chain to source those as raw material deserves a huge pat on the back. And that is to say the least. “It’s a goal to be the most just and sustainable company by year 2035” is how Stephanie Dismore describes HP’s vision going into the future.