IBM is still following an old model. It acts like all computers are just tiny mainframes they control. They are delusional about the cloud security (lack of cloud security).
Their management is running the company using cliff notes of “how to run a 1950’s corporation”.
I don’t think they even know what business they are in.
I don’t think they even know what business they are in.
I was once told that they are in the business to make money. The Accountants and Lawyers run IBM, they have only the short term bottom line and a ‘goal’ of a certain earnings value per share as their guides.
A formerly great company that still contains hints of greatness in a body being consumed by disease. (Accountants and Lawyers as well as MBA’s who really don’t understand the core business.)
IBM has always been a very forward-thinking company, contrary to public opinion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_IBM
You will find they pioneered globalist “new” ideas like having a female executive (1943), “domestic partner” employee benefits (1996), Thomas Watson, Sr, joins UNCF advisory board (1944), paid holidays, paid vacation (1937).
Last year was tough for IBM financially as well (5% drop in sales in 2013) and IBM executives went without bonuses.
I don’t think they are going away any time soon, if one views the company in terms of its longstanding firmly-entrenched relationships with government, corporate America and Wall Street. IBM announced they are investing $1.2 billion to build new datacenters. The company balance sheet shows equity of about $22 billion on assets of about $126 billion.
Sure. IBM is noted for hiring only misfits and losers with no sense of how to maintain a business. Amazing how they maintain such a massive market share! /s/
I am pretty certain that IBM will outlive everyone posting on this site and if they saw a massive slow down in orders and business in September, it has less to do with their business acumen than the tenor of business as a whole.
Not gauging the “...pase of change...” speaks volumes.
From manufacturing to providing services, if there isn’t the capability to roll with market changes.....
IBM has always had great marketing. Their business model includes acquisitions of companies that leap frog IBM into next generation spaces the company did not have previous success in (SoftLayer comes to mind). IBM also has revamped its licensing policy to make products available to Entrepreneurs and start-ups (check out bluemix website and SoftLayer will provide cloud computing resources for a reduced price for fledgling startups). They are on the fore front of Big Data and have placed a large investment in the Watson platform which has the potential of changing the face of computing.
The problem is that some of this new technology is canabalistic to older IBM technology. So many of their future areas of growth will kill off older technology that was playing a role in this space. Net gain of zero but essential for the continued life of the company.
IBM has also spear-headed a number of open source software tools for which they receive no money. The Eclipse platform for software development had a lot of help from IBM software developers.