HP’s Strategy Remains ‘Rock Solid’ Amid CEO Transition, Shortages: Partners

Solution provider executives tell CRN that HP Inc. continues to be well-positioned for growth, even amid the departure of CEO Enrique Lores and challenges from component shortages.

HP Inc. remains well-positioned for growth amid the AI boom—with a strong, channel-aligned growth strategy—even as the company faces the departure of CEO Enrique Lores and challenges from component shortages, solution provider executives told CRN.

Following the announcement of Lores’ departure Tuesday, executives from top HP partners said they were surprised, but in no way shaken up, by the disclosure at the PC and printer giant.

Lores, who has stepped down to become the CEO of PayPal, is leaving behind a “rock solid” strategy for HP’s growth going forward, said Harry Zarek, president and CEO of Richmond Hill, Ontario-based Compugen, No. 65 on CRN’s Solution Provider 500 for 2025.

“They have really positioned themselves in a leadership role in a lot of the components that make up the endpoint experience,” Zarek said—with HP’s portfolio spanning PCs, printers and Poly conferencing devices.

Looking ahead, HP is also poised to capitalize on the increasing demand for devices that can run lightweight AI models, known as small language models, he said.

“Being able to host [AI models] securely on your personal device will be a big game-changer, in terms of how we measure work productivity in the future,” Zarek said.

All in all, HP is “really carving out a unique position for themselves,” he said. “This is not about commoditization. This is absolutely the opposite—which is, how do you infuse enormous value in the device?”

‘Long-Term Partner’

In its announcement Monday, HP disclosed that board member Bruce Broussard has been named the vendor’s interim CEO while the company conducts a search for a permanent chief executive.

Regardless of who the next CEO might be, solution provider executives said they are not expecting a major shift in the company’s channel strategy.

HP Inc. is “a trusted, long-term, dependable partner,” said Mark Romanowski, executive vice president and general manager at Port Washington, N.Y.-based Agilant Solutions. “I don’t see a change in leadership impacting that.”

While the announcement certainly came as a shock, in part that is because Lores had spent the entirety of his 36-year career so far with HP, solution provider executives said.

Lores initially started with HP as an engineering intern, working all the way up to becoming CEO of the company in 2019.

The departure, however, doesn’t change the fact that HP is a “very solid company,” Romanowski said. “I don’t see this impacting the way they work with the channel [or] see them changing course.”

Zarek echoed the sentiments, saying that HP has generated high trust in the channel over the years with a major focus on “partner alignment”—something that a shift in CEO is unlikely to affect.

HP is “an organization that is deeply committed to not only working with the channel, but improving how we interact with them, how we reduce friction, how we simplify, how we bring more value,” he said.

Ultimately, “they are well into their transformation,” Zarek added. “They’re doing really well. And my view is, there’s no need for disruption at all.”

Component Shortages

While shortages of components such as memory, as well as price increases, have roiled the PC market, HP has consistently prioritized communication with partners about the issues, solution provider executives said.

“HP has always been first to sound the alarm and communicate what’s going to happen,” said Mike Turicchi, vice president for strategic relations and marketing at Manassas, Va.-based NCS Technologies.

“With any price changes that are coming down the pike, they’ve been very forthcoming about it—and very open about why they’re raising their prices,” Turicchi said. “We see it in the news every day—but for them to acknowledge that and work with us, I think, is fantastic. It shows real, true partnership.”

Notably, this open approach by HP on the issue has made a big difference when it has come to communicating the situation to end customers, including government agencies that have fixed-price contracts, he said.

HP representatives have in fact taken part in some customer calls to help reinforce that this is an industry-wide issue, Turicchi said.

“For them to be willing to get on the phone with the contracting officer at an agency, it just shows that they’re invested in the relationship,” he said.

This level of transparency from HP is also good to see given that the shortages may last for some time into the future, Agilant’s Romanowski said.

The situation is in some ways even worse than the Covid-era shortages, given that it’s a “man-made” crisis this time around, he said.

“We’re building data centers, and there’s no end in sight,” Romanowski said. “I definitely don’t see any stability [in the market] this year, and probably next year as well.”

Still, HP has been “communicating very, very well,” he said. “They’ve been out front with everything.”

Compugen’s Zarek said he is “confident that the trust that they have built up over the years will help them through” the current memory-related crisis.

“I think they’ve got a well laid out strategy to try and help mitigate any customer shock about what’s happening,” he said.

AI PC Expansion

At the same time, experts such as Circana’s Mike Crosby have suggested that many AI PCs should still have memory available even if the broader PC market is under pressure.

Kobi Elbaz, senior vice president and general manager for global revenue operations at HP, told CRN on Monday that because of this dynamic, “I think we’re going to see that the mix of AI PC going to increase in the overall [market].”

Ultimately, HP sees “increased demand” for AI PCs, and “I do believe this will continue to fuel the PC industry revenue growth,” Elbaz said.

The move to AI PCs also suggests that the CEO transition at HP may actually have some upside at this point in time, according to NCS Technologies’ Turicchi.

“I think Enrique has done a fabulous job over the years, and I think he was a well-respected leader within HP,” he said.

“But with the AI PC starting to take off, I think the timing is right [for a new CEO],” Turicchi said. “If they’re going to have a big change like this, I think this is a good time for it.”