Corporate Planning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Corporate Planning - Essay Example The Approach: Building an alliance with the Business School, at university of Plymouth, the company sought a knowledge based partnership to identify strategic diversification opportunities for enhancing their service offerings, and reach. After extensive market study and audit of internal competencies, a three-year strategic business plan was formulated. Specific actions to double the presence of Pendennis staff in Boat Shows at Moscow and Dubai was taken. A new Marketing Information System (MkIS) to support the client relationship management was also implemented. The company also participated in Super Yacht tour of excellence in 2005, sponsored the Falmouth week, and built professional linkages with Cornwall Marine Network. The Background: HP is an old company which started in 1938 and was subsequently incorporated in 1947. In year 2000 (pre-merger with Compaq), HP reported a revenue of $48,253 millions, employee strength of 84,400, and was ranked 13th in Fortune 500 companies (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500_archive/full/2000/). Compaq around that time (in 1998) was in financial difficulties with 15000 layoffs (http://www.enotes.com/biz-encyclopedia/layoffs). Some major problems ailing HP pre-merger were: (a) shrinking margins (b) slow in technology adaptation (c) needed strong complementary business lines. The Approach: The famous merger of technological giants (HP and Compaq) received worldwide accolades and criticism, but attention, nonetheless. The merger process went through many steps (Burgelman & McKinney, 2005): The Outcomes: Literature reveals varied viewpoints, from success to horror stories. Despite the criticism, HP used the $25 billion merger to address key operational concerns in an effort to better react to a fundamental shift in customer values. In the five years since merger, HP has more than doubled its shareholder