Jim Lyons, Senior Analyst, Lyra Research
When news broke yesterday (March 20) that HP was considering a consolidation of its PC and printer groups, with Todd Bradley taking the leadership role and Vyomesh Joshi (VJ) leaving the company, it was not difficult to get that “déjà vu feeling all over again.”
A little search of The Hard Copy Observer archives confirmed some dates for me. I wrote about what seemed to be VJ’s imminent departure (as reported by the Wall Street Journal) in September 2009 (click here), in what seemed to be reality catching up with the amiable leader of HP’s legendary Imaging and Printing Group since assuming the top executive position in 2001. He had been the subject of many rumors prior to the “official rumors” sprouting up that fall, and I noted hearing them from multiple internal and close-to-internal sources since the beginning of 2008. Now with the revelation from All Things D (an organizational cousin of the WSJ) and confirmation this morning from HP, it appears the die is cast and that Joshi’s time has finally come, two-and-a-half years later (or four, depending on who’s counting).
More how I remember VJ - we didn't always wear ties "back in the day"!
In that piece, titled “An HP Insider’s Perspective on the Potential Departure of Vyomesh Joshi,” I paid personal tribute to the executive with whom I shared many years as fellow IPG managers, before like all IPG employees I reported to VJ from 2001 until my departure in late 2005. At the time, I stated, “If Joshi leaves HP, whether to a CEO position elsewhere or to pursue some other interest, his stamp on HP’s printer business and the overall company is undeniable, and he goes down as one of the printer business’s biggest personalities ever. Joshi is a one-of-a-kind, oozing technical credentials and HP-insider ‘street cred,’ while at the same time serving as the printing business’s most inspired spokesperson.” And these statements still hold true today, even after covering VJ from the journalist/analyst side and despite noting a slight decline in his trademark enthusiasm over the years after weathering myriad staff cuts and other less-than-heartening business results.
Vyomesh Joshi is retiring from HP after 31 years with the company
While the years from 2009 to 2012 have not been easy for most of us in the printing and imaging business, in terms of the “up and to the right” growth that many had grown accustomed to since the 1980s, VJ continued to stay the course, spouting enthusiasm for the potential of HP’s ePrinters, managed print services, and graphics-arts initiatives, among others.
(It also should be noted there was a move to combine HP’s PC and printer businesses that had favored Joshi. As my 2009 article points out, “in what was seen as a move of desperation by [ex-CEO Carly] Fiorina,” the popular VJ was appointed to be the new head of a combined unit in January, 2005. Shortly after, Fiorina was out, Mark Hurd was in, and the units had their independence restored.)
Why would now, March 2012, be time for VJ’s to lose out the top leadership spot to his PC counterpart? As recently as Sunday, in a San Jose Mercury-News article by Brandon Bailey entitled “Meg Whitman steadies HP but big challenges remain,” the CEO points to “three buckets” of issues she has been facing. One has to read no further than the first bucket, “operational issues,” to find fodder for what might be seen as redundancy in management of businesses that share customers and channels, like PCs and printers. So let the trimming continue, one could say philosophically, even in light of IPGs relatively direct affront on the other two more strategic buckets.
My last direct interaction with VJ was at an “Influencers” event at the company’s Dublin, Ireland facility in September 2011, when he and I had the opportunity to briefly reminisce about our shared “good old days” and remark on how far the business had come.
While the 1:1 time was special, I was even more touched by VJ’s presentation to the entire assembled group earlier in the day, when his usual enthusiastic presentation was sprinkled with many references to the time since 2001 and all the progress the IPG business had made since then. Aside from being a nice round number, I thought privately a bit about the significance of using the 10-year span, as opposed to something that would go back to some significant product event (first LaserJet for example). And by the time our small group breakout session came, a bit later, I realized the answer, which VJ confirmed in response to my leading question. The 10 years was his number, never overtly stated, but the length of VJ’s 10-year IPG leadership, since he took the reigns from another personal friend and legendary leader, Carolyn Ticknor.
The fact that VJ used this base for his metrics, but was modest enough to not openly tout it, but instead his more-or-less own little secret, struck me as, I will say it, “sweet.” With unmatched pride and passion, VJ led the business through many unchartered waters and kept a phenomenal business story, the massively successful HP printer business, alive and well. He can look back on that achievement, as well as his other more modest but not insignificant accomplishments as an HP engineer and manager at all levels in the business, with appropriate satisfaction and honor, regardless of the outcome of HP’s latest organizational shakeup.
