Our friend Meg was interviewed by Marketplace (NPR) yesterday. The interviewer asked some tough questions… Too bad I only listened towards the end.

The questions were along the lines of (paraphrasing) “what is it that HP does?” Or, “can you explain to a consumer, in a few, plain words, what HP is?”

Meg answered that HP has two types of customers: households (consumers) and CIOs of large corporations.

Eventually, the question was “Tell us in 5 words, what is it that HP is.” Meg starting saying that (again paraphrasing) “HP is the largest hardware and software company that can solve all your needs as a consumer or as a corp…”

“That’s more than 5 words!” the interviewer cut her off.

So, there you have it. Meg admitted that HP is not very clear on what their objectives are. Unless the objective is to be everything for everybody. But we know that hasn’t worked well in business before…