Hewlett-Packard chief executive said on Dec. 12 that more cost cutting was on the horizon despite major layoffs at the U.S. technology giant in the past year. "The good news and the bad news for us is the same," Mark Hurd told industry analysts at a meeting in New York City. "We still have opportunities to reduce costs, and we still have costs we need to get rid of."
Hurd depicted the company as being in a similar situation to the one it was in a year earlier in regard to the need for reducing expenses and improving efficiency. "We have a lot more costs to take out and we have to become as efficient as possible," Hurd said. "We are a company that is transforming. We are not a company that is transformed. We have a lot more work ahead of us."
HP previously reported that the reorganization launched in July of 2005 would result in 15,300 jobs lost by the end of October this year. Three levels of management were eliminated at HP and department's trimmed, making the company "nimbler and faster," according to Hurd, who said HP costs last fiscal year tallied $84.3 billion.
HP was working to bolster its weak sales force and was aiming for sales growth of 4%-6%, Hurd said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
