Hewlett Packard External Environment Analysis In today’s constantly evolving business world, it is essential for organizations to fully master and incorporate strategic management theory into decision making processes. As the world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services, and IT infrastructure to solve customer problems (Hewlett Packard, 2010). “HP is well positioned to outperform the market. The strength of HP’s portfolio is leaner cost structure and accelerating market momentum that gives the confidence to raise the full year outlook (Hurd, 2010)”. One of the most important aspects of Hewlett Packard’s strategy building is an analysis of the external business environment that they operate in. As pointed out in the text Strategic Management. Concepts and Cases Competitiveness and Globalization, “The firm’s understanding of the external environment is matched with knowledge about its internal environment to form its vision, to develop its mission, and to identify and implement actions that result in strategic competitiveness and above-average returns.” (Hitt, Ireland, and Hoskisson, 2009) In this paper, there will be an analysis of Hewlett Packard’s external business environment and its impact on the firm’s strategic business continuity plan, including examination of the three components of the external environment, the general environment, the industry environment, and the competitor environment.
External Environmental Analysis Before analyzing Hewlett Packard’s external influences, it is important to highlight the specific processes in an external environmental analysis. This analysis is performed so that firms can correctly identify potential opportunities and
References: Dell. (2010). Dell 2010 Analyst Meeting. Retrieved from http://content.dell.com/us/en/corp/d/business~large-business~en/Documents~financial-analyst-meeting-dell.pdf.aspx (n.d). Hewlett-Packard Company. Retrieved from MarketLine database August 7, 2010, from:http://140.234.17.9:8080/EPSessionID=2179167c12e5c88f6a22b3b893abc0/EPHost=www.marketlineinfo.com/EPPath/library/iProduct_product.aspx?R=41192B57-8248-4EF9-93C8-ABE35E30A2E6&s=IDAK2QO (n.d.). Hewlett-Packard Company. Retrieved from IBISWorld database August 7, 2010, from: http://www.ibisworld.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/industryus/default.aspx?indid=739 Hitt, M., Ireland, D., & Hoskisson, R. (2009). Strategic Management. Concepts and Cases Competitiveness and Globalization. New York, NY: Wiley and Sons. Hurd, M. Hewlett Packard. (2010). Retrieved on August 7, 2010, from www.HP.com