Managing global citizenship

Add to my report Go to my report

Effectively managing global citizenship across an organization as diverse and dispersed as HP requires vision, commitment, skill and trust.

First, global citizenship must have the support of leadership. Global citizenship is one of HP’s seven companywide objectives. It is not simply an ideal to strive for, but a source of opportunity and growth. Many of the world’s most urgent issues—climate change, growing energy needs, improving education and protecting human rights, for example—offer HP new areas for innovation and leadership.

Second, it must be embraced by employees. Global citizenship is embedded in our company values that help guide our employees’ actions. We must motivate our people and harness their innovative ideas and talents to meet our global citizenship commitments.

And third, it must be present in our daily work. By acknowledging the impact of our global citizenship programs on individuals, businesses and communities, each of us at HP can better recognize our contributions to improving how people live, work, learn and share. This helps make global citizenship integral to our company’s planning, operations and business.

	Forces affecting global citizenship at HP

As part of our business strategy, HP is capitalizing on significant trends in our industry. These include the proliferation of digital information and content; the intensifying demand for technology that empowers creating, processing, managing, storing, viewing, sharing and printing content; the dramatic increase in the number of computer and Internet users in emerging markets; and the growing volume of discarded technology products that must be disposed of.

These trends raise concerns among our stakeholders. HP recognizes we must address these concerns by helping to protect companies’ and consumers’ online data and privacy; by ensuring our products and services are accessible to people worldwide; and by meeting the growing demand for products that use less energy, contain fewer materials of concern and are easily reused or recycled. To learn more about how HP prioritizes these issues, visit Managing global citizenship.

Of these concerns, energy efficiency ranks as most important with many of our stakeholders. Our products and services must not only meet our customers’ needs for simple, valuable and trusted technology, but also save energy, reduce related greenhouse gas emissions and lower operating costs (see Climate and energy—products). These requirements all represent opportunities to differentiate our product and service offerings and are central to the business case for global citizenship.

"Being environmentally responsible is not just a trend. It’s not just good to do. It’s good for business."
—Mark Hurd, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President

Our global citizenship activities are also affected by internal forces, including our values, employees and business objectives. HP has long recognized that a company has responsibilities beyond making a profit for its investors. We strive to be an economic, intellectual and social asset to each country and community in which we do business. This timeline identifies important global citizenship achievements in HP’s history and demonstrates how established some of our initiatives presented in this report are.

We focus our global citizenship strategy on three priorities. We believe these are most critical to our business and stakeholders and offer us the greatest potential to differentiate the HP brand. Last revised in 2006, they are:

• Supply chain responsibility
  
• Climate and energy
  
• Product reuse and recycling

	Strategy and planning

HP strives to lead the way in global citizenship. Beyond creating opportunities for growth, it helps set us apart from competitors while affording us greater opportunities to develop valuable relationships with partners.

We periodically review our global citizenship strategy to confirm it supports our business goals while addressing customer needs, industry trends, and the evolving interests and concerns of stakeholders and society. We consider:

• Customer perceptions and expectations, which we gain through surveys, requests for proposals, industry analysts and other resources
  
• External standards and regulations, such as the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct, the UN Global Compact and emerging environmental legislation in countries around the world
  
• Input from stakeholders, such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and our Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC), which we formed in 2007 to encourage dialogue, solicit feedback and gather suggestions
  
• Employee input, including ideas for new programs and improvements to existing initiatives
  
• Risks and opportunities associated with our supply chain responsibilities, social investments and public policy priorities, among other areas (see table below for more information)
  
• Media coverage, which provides insight into how large societal issues are affecting the perceptions and priorities of consumers and companies

	Governance

HP’s Executive Council (EC) has overall responsibility for global citizenship as part of our business strategy. The EC is advised by HP executives responsible for managing our global citizenship programs and initiatives.

Leadership for our global citizenship strategy sits within the HP Office of Technology and Strategy, which works with our business units and other relevant functions to manage and measure performance against clear goals. Regularly monitoring our core programs is important because it:

• Drives overall performance improvement
  
• Identifies successful programs as well as those needing review
  
• Supports transparent reporting to stakeholders
  
• Allows comparison with others in our industry

In 2007, we formed our Stakeholder Advisory Council (SAC) comprising respected experts from a variety of nongovernmental organizations. The SAC serves as an interactive forum to discuss and advance HP’s global citizenship strategy and performance.

We also maintain councils focused on key issues such as diversity, the environment, ethics, privacy and our supply chain. These councils are made up of employees from our business units, regional organizations and functions with expertise in relevant areas. Each council meets periodically to make sure HP’s global citizenship strategies are being effectively implemented and to establish goals and measure progress.

	Managing risks and creating opportunities

Though there are great opportunities in how we implement our global citizenship strategy, there are risks, too. We must regularly monitor, manage and measure our activities, making sure we are taking into account continuously evolving market conditions, legislation and regulations, customer and stakeholder needs, and other forces.

The table below summarizes examples of potential opportunities associated with our global citizenship activities.