Today we launch Episode One of Season Two, focused on board readiness, with Alex Cho, President of Personal Systems at HP. Alex leads global teams delivering innovative computing solutions that enable work, learning, and connection in a hybrid world. Known as a purpose-driven leader, he has driven sustainable growth, award-winning design excellence, and HP’s industry-leading sustainability and digital equity initiatives. Having lived and worked across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Alex is currently based in Palo Alto.
3:15 – Employee Engagement as a lever
4:15 – Work Relationship Index at HP
7:25 – EE metrics at HP (28%)
9:00 – Management Index
10:36 – Connection to company & its mission – enabling a workplace for growth & fulfilment
13:32 – Engaged Leaders & Unplugged sessions
16:34 Global Implications & Business Outlook
17:43 Post-Covid – sparking growth ambition
18:34 – helping employees engage via video
20:33 – Employees & Customers as Levers
22:44 Customer Focus Orientation
24:34 AI and leaders of the future
26:40 Fueling innovation at HP
27:28 Alex’s journey at HP
29:36 Alex in Paris
32:00 Reach Alex Cho on LI
Transcript (provided utilizing AI tool)
Maureen: Alex, welcome to the Get Hired Up podcast.
Alex: Thank you. It’s great to be here, Maureen.
Maureen: We’re so happy to have you here. And as a launch to our conversation today, I would love to read a quote by John Clifton, who is the CEO of the Gallup organization, in a report, State of the Global Workplace 2025 report. I’m going to read this as a little bit of a backdrop because I think you and I both have a particular interest in employee engagement. So John says, we are witnessing a pivotal moment in the global workplace, one where engagement is faltering at the exact same time artificial intelligence is transforming every industry in its path. While few employees have harnessed AI’s full potential, its rapid advance will force every organization to adapt, whether they are ready for it or not. This presents a defining challenge for leaders and managers.
Will they seize AI’s opportunities to energize their workforce, or will they risk falling behind? The question is, how to master AI in ways that spark growth, equipping managers and teams with the resources to excel, offering abundant opportunities for development, and reconnecting everyone to a shared mission? Alternatively, if mishandled, AI could diminish engagement by severing the vital human bonds, friendships at work, a sense of being heard, and genuine care from colleagues that keeps teams thriving. So with that little bit of an intro, I would love to get your perspective on employee engagement as a lever in the business.
Alex: I don’t think you planned it that way, but there cannot be a topic that’s more very much on my radar, our radar as a company at HP, because this topic around employee engagement really is probably one of the most important things for teams, companies, really nations, I think, during this time. Maybe I can use the occasion to share with you some of the studies that we’ve been leading here and you’re going to find it. surprisingly complimentary, but also some of the opportunities I think that it presents. We actually have finished a second year of a large body of work that we commissioned across the world so that we could better understand employees’ relationship with work. In fact, it’s called the Work Relationship Index, and it’s pretty broad.
We have 13 ,000 plus employees from around the world on multiple different companies and sectors who are responding to it. And it’s really been both, I would say, bad news and good news. The outcome was that only 28 % percent of employees have a healthy relationship with work. And, you know, as a starting point, that’s pretty sobering.
Maureen: That’s very sobering, Alex.
Alex: I mean, Maureen, I think, you know, I have four children. I was thinking about this. This is not one of those data points that you read about and then you move on to your next activity. I have four kids. That means one of them, on average, has a healthy relationship with work and my other three wouldn’t. That’s certainly unsettling as a parent. It’s not great for my family. I will tell you as someone who leads a business here, that’s not good for this business. It’s not good for our company. It’s not good for countries. So that’s really the starting point. But the second part, and we have a lot of data that has been added to it, is that one of the largest drivers of this work relationship index is confidence in skills and confidence in yourself. Particularly as you think about what the future will need.
And interestingly enough, one of the most important and pivotal elements to the confidence is AI. In fact, those who are regularly using AI, they score 11 points higher on average in terms of their work relationship index. So that’s kind of the other side we see is the good news is that while the relationship that employees have with work is really low, that it is something that, given all the change in technology and AI, serves as a great opportunity for companies like ours and other companies out there to enable employees to be more equipped, able to use AI that builds their confidence and builds their overall engagement and their work relationship. So that kind of is the big body of work that we’ve been learning from and is very consistent with what you shared from Gallup.
Maureen: There’s more here, and I’ll just read this other piece, and we can discuss this as well, because this is also interesting. Management engagement fell from 30 % to 27%. Individual contributor engagement remained flat at 18%. So it says here, no other work category, male or female, young or old, experienced as significant a decline. However, two types of managers were particularly affected. Young, under 35, manager engagement fell by five percentage points. Female manager engagement dropped by seven points. And it said in the last five years the typical organization has experienced disruption at every level post pandemic retirements and turnover, a hiring boom and bust, rapidly restructured teams, shrinking budgets, disrupted supply chain. new customer expectations. And that’s one I would like to discuss as well, because I know the customer is at the center of what you do. So I wanted to come back to that as well. The next bullet is digital transformation and AI tools, as you’ve just said, and new employee desires regarding flexibility and remote work. So we know that there’s a trend away from the hybrid model. And maybe we can talk a little bit about that. But I would love to learn more about the study that you refer to.
Alex: Yeah, and I think at the heart of both of these studies, and I think the fact that they’re so consistent is a reflection of the fact that it is true. And that is, we’re at this very interesting time in industry in the world where work is changing. The nature of work, the value of work, people’s, the value that they get out of it. And I’m not talking about the monetary side, but it’s about feeling as though that you’re connected to the mission of the company, that you are engaged and connected to that mission, that you have the tools and the skill sets and the environment to feel successful in it. It’s such a key part. And there’s a lot of data also out there that an engaged employee drives more innovation, that drives more longer term value for the company.
And all of that is true and I think very important as business leaders, but I think there’s still even more a fundamental, maybe I can call it a call to action for everyone out there, and that is how do we enable the workplace to be a place where people feel as though it’s a place for growth and fulfillment, which right now is more challenged than ever. And for us, again, we look at this as both sobering starting point, but an opportunity for us. And quite frankly, I think there’s a lot of opportunities for leadership in this time, because this is a time when leadership will be more important than ever, shepherding employees, workforces, companies through this time when employee engagement is both important and also at a low and changing.
Maureen: Absolutely. And I spoke to someone who’s a technology leader in a big organization this morning, and they are preparing for layoffs. And she’s not at the C -level, but she’s pretty close to it. And she is trying to do the best she can to serve as a role model for her own employees. I mean, she has a young family. She is uncertain about what’s going to happen. But her number one priority at the moment is helping to reassure her staff and to serve as a role model. Where others on her team are a bit more reactive, they’re doing things that I don’t think that are altogether helpful for them. But just given the state of the world events, not to dwell on those, because there are lots of opportunities as well. How do you see those engaged leaders who are engaged, what are they doing differently than those who are not?
Alex: I’ll give you some observations that I’ve had. I think first is now’s the time where communication is more important than ever, and that communication is particularly important to not only share the facts, I mean the facts of the economic environment, the broader geopolitical environment, you know, must be shared. Yes. And in general, there’s probably more areas for uncertainty and concern than not. Then as well, I think getting to the second level, and that is, what is the implications of that? Being able to share with employees around areas that are less clear, but also areas that the companies navigate through.
And also personally, I find that, and I’m not sure it’s because we’ve all worked in while many are returning to the office, even when you’re in the office, you’re spending a lot of time on Zoom and Teams. But I think people’s ability to convey more than what the agenda requires, but around themselves, how they’re responding, what they’re thinking about. I think the occasions are literally less in a more video conference environment and the need is higher, particularly where there’s change. And I find that in general, the leaders who are providing more, um, let’s say leadership or engagement to their employees are the ones who are showing up, spending time talking to their employees, doing it in a little bit more of a unplugged form. In fact, yesterday, I had a meeting with all of our leadership within our personal systems organization, which is a computing organization.
I called it the unplugged session, where they can hear from me about what we’re doing and where we’re doing well and what we need to focus on, but they can also just hear from me on my thoughts about them. I think that the ability to do that with our employees is important. The second thing that I find has been really useful is not only just communication, but I think giving people a little bit of bandwidth to also discuss and digest and talk about things in their environment. Our schedules are so busy. most people’s Outlook calendar are filled from beginning to end of day. And especially when you have a heavy video conferencing type of calendar, then it’s meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting, creating some time and space for people to have that conversation.
Maureen: Just to catch their breath and recalibrate for the next meeting or the next thing. So you mentioned that you had this event. What are you hearing in general terms from your people? What are they concerned about? Or what stories are they telling you?
Alex: Things that I’m hearing are, they’re very much around, they start with the observable and the specific tariffs. Have a good following. Tariffs and what is the latest on tariffs from what country, et cetera. That’s kind of the observable and the factual, if I could use those terms, but then it’s what the implications to it around the economy, around market growth, around confidence level of customers? Because we as HP sell to customers, and if the economy, if confidence of business leaders are becoming less certain, that also obviously impacts their spend and confidence in spend. And then they get to So what does that mean in terms of our business outlook? And does that mean that we’re going to be going through a time where the outlook is going to be more favorable or less favorable? So then what does that mean for our team and for me? And people have a lot of questions in that space, which are very natural. And that applies whether or not you’re in our computing business, which I lead, or in our printing business, or you’re outside of HP. I think that’s pretty universal.
I also think there’s a lot of dialogue. that’s happening around people just being tired. COVID, there was a big transition to figuring out how to live and work from home. Then there’s been this period of time of trying to navigate a hybrid schedule in the office, at home. Now there’s, in general, more of an emphasis on returning to the office, right? What hasn’t changed is the amount of work, for the large part, the intensity of it, and just layering in an ambition to want to grow. And I think what that has left for many employees is a sense of just energy levels and their endurance that they’re checking in on. So those are some barriers for us.
Maureen: Yes. It’s interesting. My practice now is to give people a choice on whether they want a video and it’s different with a team. It’s more difficult with a team. But if it’s a one on one I like to give people the choice of either phone or zoom, and whether you use video or not. because some people find the video, the camera exhausting.
Alex: We are in that business, and there’s a lot of interesting learnings. I’ll give you my reactions to that, Maureen. Well, first, clearly video is now the new norm in many ways. And you’re right, some people are finding it exhausting. There is that somewhat humorous statistic that people tend to stare at themselves in the camera. And so that’s why turning off self -view is one of the key recommendations people ask so that you don’t stare at yourself.mAnd in fact, staring at yourself is what’s driving a lot of interesting fatigue. But I think what’s interesting is that while there may be some fatigue, as you say, in terms of video, but people also have a need to understand and feel connected with others, and that you convey so much more of who you are and what you’re thinking through your body language. So there’s a lot of technology, we’re developing it, innovating, but around the world, around helping people to see other people better, in richer, higher fidelity, in a more natural way, and to see more of them. Because if you see only the face, you convey a certain amount of information to the other person. If you see a broader part of their body and you see their gestures and their body position, you get a lot more than just the words would have conveyed or what the words and looking at their face would have conveyed. So there’s directions that point in both directions. The value of just having a discussion without video, because maybe the distraction, the fatigue, but also having great video so that you really feel like you’re connecting with another person.
Maureen: Yeah, the connectivity is so important for sure. At Westgate in my firm, we are very, very focused on employee engagement. I’m very, very interested in employee engagement. and what kind of strategies and practices that leaders employ to engage their employees. I wrote this down as I was getting ready for this conversation. I see two huge levers, and I’m sure there are many more, but there are two levers that I think of as it relates to business success. And one is the employee and the other one is the customer.
Alex: I would agree with you. You know, what we talk about here at HP is like, number one, We create a lot of products. I mean, I ship millions.
Maureen: I know. I have one right here. I have one right here on my desktop.
Alex: Excellent.
Maureen: It’s one of your laptops.
Alex: Oh, great. But you know, one of the things that we, and I encourage people to remember is that we don’t create products because we’d like to stare at the products, even though they’re beautiful and we’ve invested in design, but we create products for people. And that’s a very important orientation that particularly in product centered and you know, we’re a large business that is working across the world at a huge scale. And there’s a lot of complexity, which requires you to pay attention to every part of the process of getting the idea into a product that you ship. So I don’t fault the attention to the detail in each step of the way, but absolutely focusing on the fact that All of this is in order to empower a person is I think one of the most important things that we do as leaders as we lead these businesses. And that in fact is one of the things that I look for in leaders as I hire them into the organization is that is how focused are they on the customer?
And you could argue that being focused on the customer is the, I mean, who’s not going to say that? Who’s not going to say I’m not focused on the customer, but it’s…
Maureen: But they don’t thought, Alex, they don’t though, that’s, that’s my point is that in these interviews, and I’ve been through many of them, it’s incredibly intelligent people talking about technology. Not all of them, but it surprises me. Maybe they believe that it’s obvious that the customer is at the center of this, but they don’t say it.
Alex: Yeah. And I think that’s a huge opportunity. And where I see the difference, that companies over the long term really create value is when they focus on the customer. And I’ll tell you right now is such a unique time when the technology is so exciting. And you can get into many hours of discussion around what’s happening around AI, foundational models, domain models, new agentic workflow. Sound fun? NPU architecture. And that is actually fascinating. It really is. But I think where the magic gets unlocked for a company, really for the world, is when you translate that to how it becomes meaningful. and material and tangible for people. In fact, I think that’s one of the big opportunities this topic of AI has. And that is as it’s rapidly iterating and changing and growing and wow, the pace of change is high and it does take a lot of effort to keep up with it. It needs an equal eye on the impact and the how to bring it to people. In fact, that’s an area that I’ve been really focused on here at HP and with my teams.
In fact, last month we had a big annual event with our partners, and we said we are here about making AI real for people. We’re here about making AI meaningful for them. We’re here about making AI mainstream, meaning available for everybody. And we’re also here about delivering AI in the most powerful way that we can, but also securely, because we believe that’s important for customers. And that customer orientation is really what I think is in general needed for companies, especially needed for AI. And I will tell you what will differentiate leaders of the future, who is really going to drive transformational impact to just those who are moving topics forward.
Maureen: Yes. So you said a few moments ago that the individuals that you are bringing into HP are clearly focused on the customer?
Alex: I would say it this way. It’s an attribute of leadership that we pulled very high. It’s a criteria by which we look at candidates that we’re bringing in. It’s also a criteria by which we evaluate our leadership. I will also say, though, it’s not such a binary thing, that it requires discipline. It requires an ongoing reminder. And I think also, it’s not just a reflection of the individual. I actually believe that as a leader, that there is a company culture that you set around both being employee focused, yes, to our first discussion, but also being customer focused. And that is a culture that we as leaders also have an opportunity to set and define and be an example of. And the reason why it’s also not just the academic thing to state being customer focused, but I would say, and not just the business reason, because it’s that which unlocks value and et cetera, which is true. It’s also from, I think, an individual. And that is when I am able to keep in mind that I’m able to empower someone through the products and solutions I make, that I’m able to make a difference in the day in the life of what we say is how people work or collaborate or learn or even connect to others, that’s energizing for me. And so there is a rational side, but in this whole topic of engagement, There’s nothing more invigorating in my mind around doing something that you know makes an impact to a person that solves problems, allows people to do new things. And that should be the fuel of innovation. You know, innovating because you want to help improve how people live and work and play and connect. And that applies in whatever sector that you’re in.
Maureen: Absolutely. And I think that if I’m not mistaken, that those organizations that focus on the customer and the employee, through many strategies, practices, beliefs, value systems, you know, typically do better overall than those who don’t.
I know that many people listening to this conversation today are going to want to know a little bit about how you got where you are today as the president of HP Personal Systems. Can you just give us a little bit of a flavor of your journey and maybe what your key learnings were so far along the way?
Alex: Sure. First is, I’ve been here About 29 years, so I’ve been here a while. One of the great things about a company like HP is that you can do many things, and you get so many learnings, and you can do it around the world. And that’s a little bit my story and my journey. I have been in our services business. I’ve been in our printing business, and I’ve been in and I lead the computing business. I’ve done that from here in California in the Bay Area. I’ve done that living overseas. I lived in France for several years. I’ve done that from roles that were what we would call functional, a model. role or a business development role. And I’ve done that in more holistic roles that we would call general management roles or the role that I have. I’ve really had the luxury of being able to be, if I would say lost in my job, just super excited about whatever the job is and trying to do my best and being asked every couple of years to do something else. In fact, that’s kind of been my experience at HP is that I’ve just been busy doing the whatever it was that I was asked to do and every couple of years asked, hey, have you thought about doing this? Sure, why not? Have you thought about doing this? No, but sure, why not? Have you thought about moving here? Okay, let’s do that. At least for me, that’s kind of been the cadence of my experience here. And one of the real gifts of what I’d say my experience here is the ability to see multiple types of businesses, different types of business models. And by businesses, you know, a consumer business, a gaming business, a large enterprise business, you know, a printing business and the business model or a computing business, the software side or the services side.
The other thing is different geographies and different people. I’ll tell you an interesting story. My first management job was in France. It was French. I didn’t. And it was in the month of August. No one’s there. That’s right. In fact, it was on a Sunday. And that’s a fun story. I arrived and everything was closed. I didn’t have anything. I didn’t even know where to eat. So around the corner was a McDonald’s. So I went there. But this was my first management job. It was a management job in a different country. I had come from headquarters. I was relatively young, and I didn’t speak the language. And I just thought doing what I was doing, and just doing it in manager level is sufficient and boy, big learning for me. There’s a difference in managing people versus just getting things done on your own and in different cultures. So great experience. And again, as a part of the, as the experience here at HP, that’s been a great one for me.
Maureen: That’s fantastic. The very last question, I promise, is how can people get in touch with you?
Alex: One of the best ways, I am on LinkedIn. Great way to get in contact with me. And you’ll find through LinkedIn, you can send me a note. And I’m always available and interested in continuing to connect with the world.
Maureen: That’s awesome.