Forced split

HP is about to be split into enterprise and mass market.

Reminds me of the old Ma Bell break-up ( which took down Bell Labs with it).

Long ago, we bought into the economy of scale, to vertical integration (ITT).

Now, the pendulum swings in the opposite e.g. IBM spinning off its hardware computer to Lenovo.

Agile, flexible and adaptive.

Key words for survival in the new age.

Meet the need.

They got in line to buy I phones.

Doesn’t take brain to see that and infer from it.

When was the last time anyone get in line to buy anything? (Mostly to return a purchase).

Car buying used to be painful.

Now it’s easy with the likes of Auto Nation and Carmax.

In Warren Buffett.

GEICO anyone?

Marketers were supposed to complete that feedback loop to the back room (technology) who tweaks and tunes the product to consumer’s liking.

Now, it’s technology which leads the way.

Slimmer, smaller and smarter.

Black Berry is not good enough.

Netflix has to bend over backward for the money.

And Amazon, now looks more like “the remains of the day” as Wall Street new darling, Alibaba, made its debut.

Paypal also split.

HP split.

The atom split.

Market fragmentation and segmentation.

It’s a plea, for marketers to do their jobs – having taken the backseat since Ad sense and Ad words took over.

We need observing eyes and “boots on the ground”.

Marketers were supposed to get in line with Apple fans, to feel the thrill of I-phone 6 anticipation and passion.

The were supposed to ride in the van up and down the coast (the way Bell Labs team used to test cellular signals, and Lexus team used to test the Toyota soccer-mom van).

The problem is, big corporations like HP have gotten their priorities wrong. They put low emphasis on marketing efforts, almost like an afterthought.

Hence, suffer the decline. At the tune of 50,000 lay-offs, than sliding in another 5,000 while at it. It’s the HP way to hide its mistakes: a technology company in the age of hyper-marketing.

The trend was there (smaller, more nimble, software and service driven). IBM got it. HP did not. Until now. Until it’s too late, at least for 55,000 dedicated workers soon with the pink slips.