Slide Show: Hurd Sounds Off On HP's Channel

"It would be improper for us to say we are going to be the industry leader in profitability. That's not our objective. As you go up in attach and portfolio our gross profit goes up. Partner profitability has to mirror ours."

"I have to think of the partners no differently than [an HP badged person]. That's what I keep saying to partners; you're me and I'm, you. I'm coming to you channel partners saying I want you to be as loyal to me as I am to you. I want to have that relationship where I can bank on you, and the more you do with me, the more I can bank on you. I want partner loyalty."

"We're going at it hard from a product perspective. We are going at it hard from a distribution perspective. We have put channel programs in place and we have channel partners with more investments on the line to get more aggressive in HP storage this year. We're working hard on product rollouts."

"You could see us do some more. I'm not trying to make any predictions. But HP's bought about 24 companies in the last three years and we'll continue to look at things that make sense. Storage is one of those areas."

"Casual acquaintances don't help me near as well as friends. For me to go around and have a gazillion channel resellers, that gets you an answer, but does it get you the optimal answer? Are you better off with fewer great ones than less average ones?... We need quality partners. Sometimes getting 1,2,3,4 or 5 is not a worse thing than getting 10 or 15. There are a lot of quality partners that could do more with HP."

"We need quality partners. I need good ones. I need great ones. I need ones that will help us slay some dragons. I want some that can go help us compete. I want some that are willing to put skin in game and willing to be just as consistent, just as simple, just as excited, just as fired up as we are."

"If we have partners that can't get it done, I don't want them helping us. I don't need them. I don't need bad partners. If all they want to do is whine about channel compensation and they want to do the same thing they did 10 years ago and get paid more for it, go find some other place to partner with."

"Here's the economic problem: I've got to get that number [HP's share of the 2009 $1.2 trillion global IT market] as high as I possibly can get it and we can't do it alone. I can't hire enough humans. The only way I can get there is that I have to have friends. I have to have friends of HP. What I'm looking for is to have the best friends I can get."

"We are partner friendly at every turn. There is no economic advantage or difference to us. And in my view this is channel favorable. Any time you say to the sales force you can partner or go direct, they always want to partner because it's easier. They get more help. We are very much of that mode. Our channel business is growing at least as fast if not faster than the company is growing."

"We don't have a super secret strategy to move everything direct. There is no super secret compensation scheme. There is no behind the walls meeting where we say, 'Hey we said this publicly but internally let's go do it this way.' We have one story. The reason we have one story is so that we can all remember it. We're too big to have three stories or four stories or five stories. We have one story. And that's the fact that we want more of this $1.2 trillion market [global IT market projections for 2009]."