John Gallant: HP's Apotheker lays out new vision for HP. Details to come?

15.03.2011
SAN FRANCISCO - In 1993, after his first 100 days as CEO at ailing IBM, Louis Gerstner was being pressed to reveal his "vision" of the new IBM to come under his leadership. He famously responded: "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision."

Instead, he said, what the company needed was "a series of very tough-minded, market-driven, highly effective strategies for each of its businesses -- strategies that deliver performance in the marketplace and shareholder value."

Even as he was implementing those specific, tough changes, critics harped on the "vision" thing and wondered whether Gerstner really had a blueprint for rebuilding the humbled computing giant. We know how that story ended.

By contrast, after four-and-a-half months as CEO of , Leo Apotheker stood before scores of journalists and analysts here on Monday to reveal his vision for the new HP -- a vision that encapsulates a lot of today's hot buzzwords but was surprisingly thin on dates or details.

Apotheker, who took over in the wake of former CEO Mark Hurd's sudden departure, said HP will "provide seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for the connected world."

What does that mean? And, more important, how does that differentiate HP from the other major players in the tech business?