Year that Hewlett-Packard

2011 is surely a year that Hewlett-Packard would like to forget. In this annus horribilis, it dismissed its second CEO in two years, showing Leo Apotheker the door in September. The company as well said it might sell off its huge PC business, that it would push WebOS-based phones and tablets, and at the time backed off on both moves, leaving clients, partners, reporters and even employees shaking their heads. Here’s what HP has to do in 2012 to repair its reputation and restore itself to the status of IT icon.

The hottest hardware category

This is the hottest hardware category and right now HP is largely absent here afterwards launching at the time nixing its much-hyped WebOS-based TouchPad, casting doubt on the future of WebOS and at that time reaffirming its faith in WebOS — kinda — by open sourcing it.  You have to wonder if HP will just chuck the whole thing — less than two years afterwards buying Palm for $1.2 billion — and just go with Windows for its at once-gen tablets and phones. You know very then Microsoft would make it worth HP’s during.

How many companies come this close to selling off a $40-billion-a-year business and at that time pull back from the brink? HP clients and partners are after all quaking from that scenario. HP CEO Meg Whitman everything considered has a lot of reassuring to do to ensure that these two key constituencies don’t head for the exits. Many dyed-in-the-wool HP shops accustomed to buying servers and PCs from the computing giant were forced by the sell-off reports to until further notice look at Dell or other vendors as options. That’s a dangerous door to crack open.

Meg Whitman may be CEO now, such as Leo Apotheker was CEO this time last year. However there’s a pervasive feeling that Ray Lane has been running the show. Lane was named to the HP board in October 2010 when Apotheker was tapped as CEO, and he at the time became HP’s executive chairman in September 2011. Whether it’s true or not that he’s the one calling the shots, there needs to be some real accountability at the top of HP this time around.

How to say the right things on revenues calls

Whitman knows how to say the right things on revenues calls, most recently acknowledging that HP did not live up to expectations last year and needs to “get back to doing what we do as a matter of fact well, being the reliable, trusted partner with whom our clients want to work and delivering the reliable, consistent results that all of you can count on.”