HP looks beyond price discounts1

摘要

When Rob Falivene joined Hewlett-Packard 18 months ago as vice president of global procurement,he was tasked with creating a new worldwide function that combined the company's indirect spend with its services spend.The leverage resulting from the combined 16.5 billion spend helped Palo Alto,Calif.-based HP to attain price discounts from suppliers.But Falivene,whose background consists of operations and supply chain management experience with consumer goods and energy companies,knew right away that would not be enough to sustain long-term competitive advantage for HP,especially in an uncertain economy.Those price discounts would soon erode and so would any benefit to the company.