CRN Exclusive: CEO Dion Weisler On The New HP Inc., The Hewlett Packard Legacy, A New Smartwatch And Future Innovation

Silicon Valley's Original Startup

HP Inc. CEO Dion Weisler formally launched the new HP Inc. on Nov. 2 by paying homage to Hewlett Packard's legendary founders, Bill Hewlett and David Packard.

"Bill Hewlett and David Packard started as friends," said Weisler. "They were technologists who looked towards creating the future. They challenged all of us to continue to make a larger contribution to society. Ultimately, they created a company that has made a profound impact on the world as we know it."

The embrace of the company's founders is part of the invent and reinvent culture of the "brand-new" HP Inc. -- Silicon Valley's original startup. Weisler, in fact, celebrated the launch with a dinner that included members of the Hewlett and Packard families.

Weisler spoke with CRN about the legacy, the launch and the future. Here is an excerpt.

How does it feel to launch the new HP Inc.?

I feel really humble, very proud. This is an amazing group of people. Our whole community, our partners, our ecosystem partners and our employees have got so much energy. They live for this company. You cut them and they bleed blue. We get to bleed blue for the next 75 years.

Talk about your meetings with partners and what you are seeing in the channel.

We have got some partners that have been with us for 25, 30, 35 years. This is amazing. Think about that for a second. They are really energized and thrilled to be celebrating with us. They understand that we operate in great markets in both printing and personal systems in our core, but there is really opportunity for long-term growth in natural adjacencies and creating our future.

You are going to dinner with members of the families of the original founders Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. What does that say about HP Inc.?

What that says is that we are really connected to our past. There is such great DNA here. The legend lives on. We just get to kind of remake it and reincarnate it. It is awesome.

Talk about some of the future technology that you previewed from HP Labs during the HP Inc. launch.

It is a bit of a sneak peek both in the short term, medium term and longer term. That is the responsibility of HP Labs; it is what they have done for so long. They are the tinkerers. They are the inventors. They are the dreamers. We have got the commercial version of Sprout coming up. We are excited about that. We have got an amazing ecosystem of software partners that have developed software specifically for the Sprout platform that will bring it to life. It is a very, very powerful platform. We are really looking forward to that.

Talk about HP Inc. doing the first woman's smartwatch.

We have been working with big brands around the world. Our name does not have to be on it [the smartwatch]. We have the power to put our technology on the inside and put it on somebody else's brand and then it comes to life that way. That is terrific as well.

Talk about partner commitment from HP Inc. going forward.

They are at the core of what we do. Here we are day one -- we are celebrating and they are with us. They are an extension of us.

Many HP Inc. partners are seeing significant growth. What does that say about the company?

While there are some parts of the market that are in decline there are other parts of the market that really have growth and that is what we are tapping into, choosing where we want to play, pulling ourselves into natural adjacencies. And there is growth in this business.