Hewlett-Packard's (IW 500/9) (HPQ) announcement yesterday that it is cleaving itself in two and laying off 5,000 workers in addition to the 50,000 previously announced raises myriad questions from all over the business map.
One key question is: What will the workforces of the two resulting companies look like? And that query inevitably comes coupled with an anxious corollary: Are even more layoffs coming?
Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman is playing those cards close to her vest. But if you watch her interview yesterday with CNBC, the answers appear to be: We're still figuring out what those respective workforces will look like; and yes, at some point there will be more layoffs.
Efficiency, Whitman says, is a "watchword for companies today."
"We live in a very competitive market," she says. "We have to have the leanest, most effective organization that we can have. So when we see opportunities, we obviously need to take advantage of them. It makes us stronger, and it makes us a more competitive company."
Or two.
