HP's Hurd Hurls Sales Challenge

How can success mean failure? That's the question some observers might ask about recent goings-on at HP.

Yesterday, it emerged that Mark Gonzalez, senior Americas VP of storage and server sales, is leaving his post to pursue other interests, despite a solid performance from the vendor's Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) division.

Yet in its first quarter results released last night, HP's ESS revenues were up 9 percent year-over-year, largely fueled by sales of blade servers, although storage revenues grew 10 percent compared to the same period last year.

HP execs on a conference call last night highlighted in particular the performance of the vendor's midrange EVA systems, which saw a 14 percent revenue hike over the previous year. Even HP's nearline storage business, which has declined for a number of quarters, grew 4 percent compared to the same period last year.

OK, maybe Gonzalez decided he needed a change. But it isn't the first time HP's apparently successful attempts to breathe life into its storage business have opened the revolving door.It looks like the latest storage progress isn't enough for HP CEO Mark Hurd, who used last night's conference call to voice his concern about HP's ongoing sales efforts. The addition of over 2,000 salespeople to HP last year hasn't completed the mission to his liking.

"We have improved the situation, [but] that said, there is more work for us to do," he explained in response to an analyst's question, adding that the vendor's sales operation is nowhere near where he wants it to be. "We're dramatically under-covered -- we're not off by 10 percent or 20 percent, we're off by more than that [and] we have to beef it up."

Hurd is said to be cracking the whip with special vigor over his storage division, as he looks to boost sales even further. But other changes may be afoot throughout HP. "Much of it is in emerging markets, but not all of it is," Hurd said. "The U.S. is one of the markets where we're not as distributed as we would like to be."

Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.