CRN Exclusive: HPE CEO Neri On The Intelligent Edge Opportunity, Innovation And Growing Up In Argentina

HPE's Next Advantage

Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Antonio Neri says the Next initiative, an ambitious plan which he architected centered on simplification, innovation and execution, is aimed at providing the company with the ultimate competitive advantage.

"My inspiration is to provide an industry leading, second to none experience for our customers and partners," he told CRN. "Over the next nine quarters you are going to see the transformation we are driving and obviously the ability to simplify our supply chain is something we are going to execute in 2019."

That Next transformation is going to pay big dividends for HPE solution providers, said Neri. "For the partners that means predictability and consistency in execution which they need," he said. "It is about the partner experience, the way partners configure, quote, get pricing, the way they get the products. It's about providing better self-enablement for partners with a mobile and cloud first approach. I always say I treat our partners as if they are part of my direct sales force. So whatever self-enablement I give to my sellers, pre-sales and solutions architects, I will give them the same thing."

What is the opportunity around the intelligent edge?

The future is going to be all about the edge and distributed cloud. The cloud has to move closer to where things are happening. The digital transformation really starts at the edge. Sixty-plus percent of the data is generated at the edge. Two years from now, we are going to have twice the amount of data we generated in human history. That is a massive opportunity, but the connectivity is required at the edge. The analytics and AI are required at the edge. The compute capacity at the edge in the form of cloud architecture is going to be a significant opportunity for us. That is why I am very bullish about the future of HPE but, again, we need the right innovation and the right talent. That is my job as CEO: to focus on the right innovation and the right talent to deliver the value customers are asking us for.

What are your feelings about HPE innovation?

I always say we are going to win in a market moving at lightning speed with the best innovation and the best people. Obviously, I love innovation. I am an engineer, and I have been in the forefront of many of the innovations that are now paying off in our results. The fact that high-performance compute is growing the way it is is because we had a strong vision about that business with HPE Apollo and we had a tuck-in acquisition with SGI. Think about composable infrastructure with HPE Synergy and HPE OneView and in-memory computing. These are things that have been in the making for a long time. When I think about the future of memory-driven computing, I think it is something that only Hewlett Packard Enterprise can go and do to radically change the way we run our businesses from a data center perspective.

What are your priorities as CEO?

At the core, I have only three priorities, starting with the culture of the company. The culture of the company is key. There is probably no one better than me to come from inside and understand that culture. If you have not lived that culture, it is very hard to understand. To me, it is how we make this company strong again. We have a strong heritage from the engineering perspective.

We have very strong values: partner, innovate and act. We have a clear purpose, which is we bring the brightest minds together to solve the customers’ most complex problems and we advance the way we live and work. At the core of that is all our employees, the way we treat them, the way we give them the ability to make a contribution and to allow them to grow in their professional career. The second is our customers and partners. We are here because we have customers and partners. This is about listening to them. It is about helping them and delivering the values they expect from us. The third one is innovation, innovation, innovation.

Talk about the HPE Next initiative and what kind of impact that is going to have on the company?

HPE Next is the initiative I put in place last summer to rearchitect the company from the ground up. It is about simplification, execution and innovation. That simplification is key. Whether it is reducing management layers, platform SKUs or number of comp plans. That is all coming together, but what excited me is the ability to transform the company from within and create a competitive advantage for our business.

Listen when you grow up in this company for 23 years unfortunately you know every system, every process for better or worse. That gives me a sense of where we need to accelerate.Our systems are too complex. It is not just about experiences. It is about capturing demand at the right time. Despite the fact we have done very well I would argue we can do even better.

What kind of impact the Next initiative is going to have on customer and partner experience?

This is about the ability to be more efficient and drive that customer and partner experience to a new level. There is no one that provides a great experience. My inspiration is to provide an industry leading, second to none experience for our customers and partners. Over the next nine quarters you are going to see the transformation we are driving and obviously the ability to simplify our supply chain is something we are going to execute in 2019.

What's the Next initiative focus for the second half of 2018?

The second half of 2018 is all about laying the foundation with IT. That is a big lift because we are going to have a global SAP instance that will run in multiple geographies, but it will be one system. That alone will allow us to drive integrated quote to cash and the ability to have a simplified back end supply chain. For the partners that means predictability and consistency in execution which they need.

It is about the partner experience, the way partners configure, quote, get pricing, the way they get the products. It's about providing better self enablement for partners with a mobile and cloud first approach. I always say I treat our partners as if they are part of my direct sales force. So whatever self enablement I give to my sellers, pre-sales and solutions architects, I will give them the same thing.

How did your early days in HP’s Amsterdam customer support center influence your view of customer service?

The customers first, customers last mentality is absolutely critical. You have to understand what customers are experiencing when you talk to them. My job at the time was to make sure that I not only represented our brand by providing a great customer experience, but helped them achieve the business outcomes they were looking for with our technology. That sense of urgency is key. Even today I subscribe to our internal management alert so I know when there is a customer issue. We have a massive installed base in so many countries, and there are always going to be issues every day. Somebody has an outage or is having a problem and it comes through my email. I see it all and read all of it. I can tell you I am probably the fastest to react to that.

How did you respond in those situations with the HPE emphasis on a bias for action?

I send a note directly to the general manager of the business, asking them to look into it. I want to know why we are not stepping in or not providing alternative workarounds to the problem.

My brain is trained that way. That gives me a strong customer culture foundation, and the partners are also the ones that help us deliver that experience.If you talk to the partners -- and I know many, many of them -- they like the fact that I am always approachable and reachable and I act with a sense of urgency. I never procrastinate on anything. I just want to resolve whatever issue we have and then move to the next thing. We don’t have the time to mess around in today’s environment.

What was it like when after 23 years working at HPE you became CEO on Feb. 1?

For me, Feb. 1 was a moment of pride. It’s not every day you become the CEO of an iconic company that has ’Hewlett’ and ’Packard’ in the first two words of the brand. I reflected on the fact that I was the fifth president and CEO that came from within the company. If you go back in time, the company has almost 80 years of legacy even though Hewlett Packard Enterprise was really established Nov. 1, 2015. Bill [Hewlett] and Dave [Packard] were the founders, and they ran the company for 50 years living the HP values and the HP way.

For me, being the fifth CEO that came from within the company is an enormous honor with a lot of prestige. It is a big responsibility. I don’t take it lightly. This is a legacy we are going to build over time. As a 23-year veteran, I always remind myself I am in transition here. How long that transition is going to last is going to depend on many things. I am focused on making sure that this company is relevant to our customers and partners. We built this company with our partners. We are going to continue to enable them with innovation and the best experience we can provide to deliver business outcomes for customers and to grow our business with our partners.

What was it like growing up in Argentina?

I went to middle school in Argentina while I was working. Not many people do that and I was in a war. Unfortunately, I was part of the British Falklands in 1982. I was on a military base repairing the radars and sonars of the ships and one of them was sunk, which was the [ARA General] Belgrano ship. When I became CEO, I looked back at all the sacrifices I made -- always with integrity. Now it is a good moment for me and my family and my friends. When you talk to my friends in Argentina they are like, ’Holy smokes, this guy is running a Fortune 500 company and he started with us and grew up with us in Argentina.’ They are all very proud. I have a big responsibility to take it very seriously every day.

What is the secret to your success?

I think it starts with curiosity -- a desire to learn every single day. That is something I carry with me. I have always said the day I am not interested in learning, I will be done. That sense of how to learn new things -- how to improve your personal and professional life. Secondly, it is all about focus, focus, focus and making some big sacrifices. When I started to go to middle school, I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning, travel 30 miles every day, get to the military base, start work at 6 a.m., get done at 1 p.m., and then walk two miles out of the military base to go to school, and then go back home and be home by 7:30 p.m. It was a long day.

You have to make sacrifices. Learn everything you can. I always learn everything I know through real-time experiences. I went to college in the evening as well between 7 p.m. and midnight because I was working. That gave me a strong foundation. Curiosity. Focus. Sacrifices. And also you have to take risks. Nothing happens because you are just sitting there because you think this is going to fall into your lap. You have to take risks. Then you have to have a group of people that really care about you. I grew up with the best and brightest of the HP family.

What is your relationship like with HPE board member and former CEO Meg Whitman?

Meg and I have a unique relationship which transcends the professional side. She has been an incredible mentor for me. I had the honor to work with her and learn from her. We were both very complementary. Meg is more business-minded. I am more technology-minded. But I am a strong operations person, too. We both have a tremendous passion for winning, and passion for our employees, partners and customers and an incredible sense of urgency. I always say we would not be here if it was not for Meg. She had a very tough hand put in front of her. Now I get an opportunity to run something that stands up on its own. She and I worked together on the strategy of the company for the last 18 months [preparing for the succession]. The board felt at this point in time we needed to return to our technology roots and have someone who understands the culture of the company from within. Being in the right place at the right time always helps.