HP has posted a transcript of a recent talk Carly gave to an investor
conference.  The link was found on HP's home page, but oddly not on
the page that links to "all" of her speeches.

   http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/ceo/speeches/sgcowen.htm

Following are some quotes that I found interesting.


   We're also a $15 billion computing systems and Internet infrastructure
   business, delivering enterprise servers, storage, software, and PCs to
   business customers. We're seeing double-digit revenue growth in this
   business. Last quarter, profits doubled over the year prior.

That sure puts sales of the lowly e3000 in perspective.  Then again,
if this is weighted towards PCs, then given the razor-thin margins of
the commodity PC business, an extra penny of profit may have contributed
significantly towards the doubling. ;)


   [W]e are the largest consumer IT company in the world, occupying
   10% of the world's retail shelf space.

Clearly, this is misleading.  I'm sure she meant 10% of the "consumer IT"
shelf space.  I wonder how HP figured this, since the "consumer IT" space
must be less than consumer electronics, but more than PCs.  In any case,
its significance is lessened by the purchases made over the Internet (say,
from outpost.com), where the retain shelf space is zero.


   In fact, Superdome represents an entirely new approach to delivering
   value in this market ... so different ... that we believe it changes the
   rules of the game.

We'll have to see how this plays out over time.  Personally, I'm not too
keen on buying a product, then paying more if I use its potential.  That's
like buying a Ferrari, then getting billed each time you reach 40mph in
less than 8 seconds, or exceed 60mph.


   In Q3, our consulting revenues were up 46% and we added 600 new
   consultants to our practice.

600 consultants, not counting the proposed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
management consulting purchase?!  Holy cow!


   A final point I'd like to make around the PwC deal surrounds press and
   analyst reports I've seen that characterize this deal as an attempt to
   mimic IBM's Global Services business.

   Actually, the strategic rationale is quite different.

   We're not building a services business to make up for a declining
   hardware business.

Hehehe.  (c) Art Bahrs


Anyway, it's an interesting read.

--Glenn