'Printing and imaging is the new service opportunity'

Vyomesh Joshi is executive VP of the $24 bn Imaging and Printing Group at HP
with worldwide responsibility for all printing, scanning and digital camera
platforms. He also led the HP company-wide initiative on digital imaging
appliances, infrastructure and services. The man who narrowly missed becoming
ex-HP boss Carly Fiorina's successor shares his views on a range of issues
with Ibrahim Ahmad. Excerpts:

Why Vyomesh Joshi was not made the big boss of HP, after Carly Fiorina
moved out?

I think Mark is a great guy and I really believe it is the best thing that
could have happened for the company.

Where do you see the impact of imaging and printing devices on business?

The first impact is that we have been very fortunate to have very high
growth in the business part. The information explosion will help us figure out
how to tell the stories. Say, in digital photography, it would help us tell the
story of a family. For a small and medium business, how you tell the story when
you are growing. I think the business we are in, that of storytelling, would
become a very big opportunity for us.

The second thing is that we are into inkjet technology business where we
develop material, where we develop nanotechnology for inkjet cartridges; it is
actually a micro fluid device-we will be able to take our core technology and
apply it to different fields.

The third thing is the explosion of the Internet. Because of imaging and
printing capabilities, we would like to directly connect to the Internet. Every
imaging and printing device would have an IP address. We will be able to solve
customer problems in a very different way. In my view all the trends which I
talked about would help us grow; that is why I am so confident of my business
growth.

You have also talked about home printing. Do you think as a customer with
budget constraints, such as in markets like India, printing photos at home would
really take off?

I think the important part is convenience. I would give you a simple example
of the Polaroid, which was not of excellent quality. But because of instant
gratification, that of getting the photograph right there and then, it became
very popular. So the value proposition of instant gratification of printing the
photograph right there, in a very easy-to-use fashion, will make people in India
also use it. But the important part is that it has to be affordable, fast, and
easy to use. So that is what we are looking at, even in emerging markets. I
believe it makes sense to be affordable in countries like India and China.

You said imaging and printing would become part of people's lives. Can
you explain further?

Let me take you back to 1995 and give an example. During our study on why
people take pictures, we found that it is all about story telling. When you sit
down with your grandma, she will tell you how things were thirty years ago. That
is storytelling. That has changed now. It is now done through photos albums. You
flip through pictures. My technology will help you to tell that story very
differently. So, basic storytelling about life and history, and sharing it with
friends and family is never going to change. So, with digital photos, with
camcorders, with Internet, this will become part of life. Because connecting to
family life and sharing is a part of human life.

In this whole game plan, what else do you have in store?

Think about what I have told you about storytelling by the consumer. For
small and medium businesses you want to look like a big company but don't have
the resources to be like a big company. If HP technology can help them in
storytelling, they can do the same thing, even better than a big company. I
believe printing is one way of storytelling, depending on how you use technology
to do this. Let me take a different example. We have started working with
DreamWorks. Jeffery Catsenberg, who is the CEO, bought a company in England. As
DreamWorks is based in Northern California, in LA, he used to travel every week.
He asked if we have a way by which he won't have to travel. Not like
videoconferencing, but something more real. Like you are sitting there and I am
here and we are talking. So that is what we worked on together. We are calling
that whole technology a big launch, where you can see us providing customers
technologies where they need not travel.

How large is this business for HP?

For imaging and printing business, I can't tell you the exact figure, but
it is something more than $200 mn contract. These are worldwide numbers.

What about manufacturing in India?

We think that we should be where we can be world class and...

...You think you cannot go world class here?

I am not saying that. I am saying that it is the approach we take,
evaluating all the countries-India, China, Russia, and Western Europe. Let me
make one thing clear-from the imaging and printing point of view, clearly,
there is lot of opportunity on the consumer side-big opportunity on the
commercial side as far as Indian businesses and enterprises go. I just want to
make sure that for imaging and printing, the growth is just not only on the
consumer side. You would see also many opportunities...