HP Innovation Journal Issue 13: Winter 2019 | Page 12

You are leaving HP’s digital manufacturing
journey to become the company’s first CCO.
With responsibilities spanning customer
and partner needs, and maximizing growth
opportunities for HP, how did your previous
role prepare you for this challenge?
There are certainly parallels with the challenge ahead.
Like 3D Printing, the Commercial Organization’s success
depends on quickly adapting to emerging trends and placing
the customer at the center of everything we do. It’s also
an opportunity to reposition how we go-to-market, which
requires fresh thinking and an entrepreneurial spirit.
The Center of It All
A Q&A with Christoph Schell,
HP’s chief commercial officer, about
his new role and the company’s new
commercial organization.
Christoph Schell is the head of HP’s new commercial
organization, the transformative operating model and
structure taking HP into the future. Comprised of 10
geographic markets, along with sales operations and
centers of excellence, it will meet HP’s customers and
partners’ changing needs while maximizing profitable
growth opportunities across HP.
Christoph is responsible for sales, revenue and margin
generation, sales strategy, and GTM across all geographies
while fostering more effective collaboration between global
and local teams. Christoph has a deep understanding of
country and market management having relocated to six
different markets during his more than 20 years at HP
where he held senior management roles across the globe,
most recently as president of 3D Printing and Digital
Manufacturing, leading all aspects of this global business
unit. Previously, he was president of HP Americas where he
was responsible for HP’s North American and Latin Ameri-
can business across all products, services, and go-to-market.
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HP Innovation Journal Issue 13
One could say, however, that my entire career has prepared
me for the CCO role. Throughout my combined 20+ years
with HP, I’ve relocated to six different countries and served
in a variety of go-to-market leadership positions—in all
three regions and across Print, Personal Systems and
Solutions & Services.
During my time leading the Americas, HP’s largest revenue
generating region, we laid the groundwork for several
critical components in our global transformation; includ-
ing pricing discipline, supplies stabilization, omnichannel
and marketplace management.
One of the key advantages of my position as CCO is our
ability to drive a more consistent approach to how we
go-to-market globally. The importance of driving one
consistent value proposition to customers in an ever more
transparent market is key. We’ve received feedback on this
topic from our customers and partner ecosystem as we
operated, until now, in a much more decentralized setup.
I’m super excited to take on my new role serving as a
champion for our customers and partners, focused on
meeting their evolving needs while maximizing profitable
growth opportunities across HP.
HP is shifting from three regions (Americas,
EMEA and Asia Pacific) to a single centralized
Commercial Organization. What does this
mean for HP and our customers?
HP’s shift to a single commercial organization with 10
geographic markets will drive more seamless integra-
tion and alignment across many aspects of the customer
journey. By reducing the number of management layers
in our go-to-market (GTM) process, we will drive faster
decision making and increase flexibility and authority at
the local level, where it counts most.
The new model better positions us in a landscape of
accelerated innovation and changing needs. This will
also enable tighter coordination across our sales and