Meet Savi, HP’s new Chief Strategy And Incubation Officer
Now that he’s had a few months to settle into his new role, HP Chief Strategy and Incubation Officer Sarabjit Singh (Savi) Baveja recently sat down with us to chat about his career, day-to-day responsibilities, and vision for HP.
Tell us about how you made your way to HP. What most excited you about the role and the company?
I’ve known HP over the years as a consultant and thought partner. With Enrique’s new leadership, I became excited about the untapped potential across HP, such as new business opportunities and the opportunity to pivot business models and pursue adjacencies. I loved the idea of thinking of HP as a growth and value creation engine.
In addition, I’ve known a bunch of HP executives over the years, and I love the culture and people at the company. I admire the sense of constant learning, openness to new ideas, collaboration, and humility that virtually all HP people bring with them.
What does your daily work look like in your role?
Right now, I’m focused on three things.
I spend a lot of my time learning and building relationships. It’s still early days for me, so I’m eager to continue building relationships, meeting new people, and exchanging ideas with everyone at HP.
I focus on how my team and I can be effective change agents for the rest of the company. We spend a lot of time talking and thinking about how we can be better-thought partners for the Executive Leadership Team, leaders, and their organizations.
There are many exciting initiatives underway around rethinking our digital and new business ambitions. The third chunk of my time is spent diving deep into these initiatives to understand how we can accelerate and unlock value from these efforts.
What excites you most about the future of HP and our current transformation journey?
What excites me most is the opportunity to create new engines of growth.
Whether that’s applications of microfluidics to molecular diagnostics or animal health or environmental sensing, or whether it’s applications of 3D to orthotics or molded fiber or athletic shoes. Or whether it’s tapping underutilized software assets to create new and interesting business opportunities for the company.
I get excited about creating a repeatable engine where we’re constantly churning out new, valuable businesses every year—to get us to a place where our customers and shareholders start to believe, “Man, this company knows how to crank out new engines of growth that generate hundreds of millions of dollars every year!” That’s what gets me excited.
What’s surprised you most about HP so far?
I was surprised by how easy it was to integrate with the company. My Executive Leadership Team colleagues and everyone across HP have been incredibly open, welcoming, and eager to engage. I’ve really felt embraced by many parts of the company.
Another surprise was that this value creation opportunity that got me excited to join is even bigger than I expected. For example, I had not previously realized how much progress the company has made on software and digitization. Coming in, I think some tremendously interesting things have been built and achieved in those areas.
What philosophy do you bring to your work?
My philosophy is to “bet on yourself.”
The best risks to take are the risks you take on your own growth possibilities. That leads me to a mindset of always learning and growing. I’m willing to take risks with my career, to push myself and push the people around me. It’s a mindset I hold, and I encourage everyone around me to embrace it as well.
How do you define innovation?
I define innovation as understanding an urgent problem that a customer has deeply enough to generate a 10x solution: a solution that solves the problem way better than the next best alternative that the customer has. My definition is deeply rooted in understanding the customer’s pain and creating a “wow” to solve it. If you can achieve that, you are an innovator.
That’s what it’s like to be part of HP.
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