????上周，思科公司（Cisco）宣布即將裁員上千人。這無異于自揭傷疤，將麻煩纏身的事實昭告天下。

????接著，本周一，《彭博新聞》（Bloomberg News）掌握了思科的競爭對手惠普公司（HP）首席執行官李艾科的一份備忘錄。在備忘錄中， 李艾科指示屬下10名高管說，惠普需要控制成本，限制招募新人，勒緊褲腰帶，準備挨過“下一個艱難的季度”。由于此次泄密事件，惠普被迫于周二公布了季度業績，這比原計劃提前了一天。

????惠普本財季的成績尚可，但前景不容樂觀。在4月30日結束的財季中，贏利增加了5%（好于預期），營業收入增長了3%（與該公司自己預計的相差無幾）。但是，惠普降低了其2011年的預期值。在那份泄密的備忘錄中，李艾科吩咐公司高管道，惠普“在開支方面必須斟酌每一分錢，并將招聘成本降至最低。”惠普這個上世紀90年代的IT寵兒，緊步思科后塵，已經成為最新一個出局者。現在，它只能眼巴巴地向里張望，眼瞅著移動計算、云計算以及社交計算領域內發生的革命，已經幾乎完全與自己擦肩而過。

????惠普自認前景慘淡，并將原因歸咎于消費者對個人計算機的需求減弱（盡管商用個人計算機需求好于預期），其服務業務更是步履維艱，目前正在重組。

????惠普服務部門困難重重，一方面，與群龍無首有關；另一方面，該部門亦無像樣的策略出臺。李艾科在面向分析師召開的電話會議上表示，服務部門還需要近半年的時間，才能與客戶簽署基于云計算等高利潤產品的合同。（備注：這是否意味著惠普服務部門的客戶即將“破財”？）

????說到服務，李艾科禁不住譴責公司前任首席執行官馬克?赫德。去年8月，赫德離開了惠普，李艾科于同年11月接任。“過去，我們總是大談特談策略，但從未成功地將之付諸實踐。”李艾科本周二對《華爾街日報》（Wall Street Journal）表示。

????此外，某種程度上，惠普還將消費類個人計算機市場趨于疲軟一事歸罪于日本大地震。該公司表示，這不僅因為日本市場的銷量下降了，而且地震還中斷了產品的供給線。并且，該公司又提及，個人計算機銷量下降，亦與消費者對平板電腦的需求增加有關。惠普希望消費者屆時能購買自己即將上市的平板電腦TouchPad。該產品搭載WebOS平臺，將于今夏交付使用。

????本周二，Gleacher & Co.公司分析師布萊恩?馬歇爾向客戶提交了一份文件。文件中有段措辭尖銳的評論：“昔日，惠普以其一貫的上佳表現和卓越的運營而聞名業界；如今，它已成了不受歡迎的代名詞（諸如管理層的更迭、領導力的降低、泄密等等）。”投資者“希望其投資對象既能做到始終如一，同時又要盡量減少意外變故。”馬歇爾繼續寫道：“不幸的是，惠普最近哪樣兒也沒做到。”

????論及惠普的未來，財經評論網站Breakingviews的克里斯托弗?斯萬總結道：既然惠普已經公布了其“慘淡的前景預測”，現在面臨的問題就是“惠普能否迅速地從個人計算機和打印機業務轉向平板電腦、移動計算和云計算。”

????譯者：大海

????Last week, Cisco's troubles were made painfully apparent when the company announced there would be layoffs, likely in the thousands.

????Then on Monday Bloomberg News got hold of a memo from Leo Apotheker, CEO of Cisco's (CSCO) rival HP (HPQ), telling 10 of his top executives that they need to control costs, to limit hiring and to gird their loins for "another tough quarter." The leak forced HP to issue its quarterlies on Tuesday, a day earlier than planned.

????The numbers look OK; the outlook doesn't. Profits in the quarter ending April 30 were up 5% (better than expected) and revenues were up 3% (about what the company had forecast). But the company lowered its 2011 outlook. In the leaked memo, Apotheker told execs that the company "must watch every penny and minimize all hiring." Like Cisco then, HP is the latest big tech darling of the 90's to find itself on the outside, looking in at a revolution in mobile, cloud and social computing that has largely passed it by.

????HP blames its worsening outlook on weak consumer demand for personal computers (though business PC demand is stronger than expected) and, mainly, trouble with its services business, which it is in the midst of restructuring.

????Part of the problem is that the services unit has no chief. It also doesn't seem to have much of a strategy in place. In a conference call with analysts, Apotheker said it will take perhaps six months to get the services unit to sign customers on to higher-margin contracts for such products as cloud computing. (Side note: does this amount to a signal to services customers that they are about to be gouged?)

????For this, Apotheker seemed to blame former CEO Mark Hurd, who left the company last August (Apotheker took over in November). "We talked strategy, we just failed to execute in the past," Apotheker told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

????And the company is also blaming the Japan earthquake, in part, for weakness in the consumer PC market -- sales are down in Japan, it said, and the quake had disrupted supply lines as well. The company also cited consumer demand for tablets eating into PC sales. The company is pinning its consumer hopes on its own forthcoming tablet product, the TouchPad, built on the WebOS platform. That product is due this summer.

????Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall issued a note on Tuesday including this biting passage: "Historically known for its consistent performance and operational excellence, Hewlett-Packard is now associated with more undesirable attributes (e.g., management changes, lowering of guidance, internal leaks, etc.)." Investors want "both consistency and lack of surprises from its portfolio companies," he continued. "Unfortunately, Hewlett-Packard is delivering neither" lately.

????As for the future, Breakingviews' Chrisopher Swann concluded that, having issued its "grim forecast," the question now is "whether HP can move quickly enough from PCs and printers to tablets, mobile and the cloud."