The decline and fall of IBM : end of an American icon?

IBM is in serious trouble. Big Blue, as the company is known, tends to rely for its success on magical thinking but that magic ran out a long time ago. The company got in trouble back in the 1990s and had to hire for the first time an outside CEO, Lou Gerstner, to save the day. Gerstner pushed IBM into services with spectacular results but this hurt the company, too. As services have became commoditized IBM could only compete by offshoring the work and quality suffered. The other negative impact of Gerstner was his compensation which was for the first time in IBM history very high. Only the Watson family had become rich running IBM with later CEOs like John Opel and John Akers living comfortable lives with lots of perks, but they never got BIG RICH. That changed with Gerstner. Sam Palmisano an IBM lifer followed Gerstner as CEO and followed, too, the Gerstner playbook. Palmisano retired three years ago with a retirement package worth $241 million, replaced by IBM's first woman CEO, Ginni Rometty, who certainly expects a comparable golden parachute. In order to achieve these numbers, though, IBM has essentially sacrificed both its customers and employees. In order to have ever growing earnings per share the company has cut labor to the bone, off-shored everything it can, dropped quality, deliberately underbid contracts to win them then not performed. IBM's acquisition policy is one of buying companies to get their sales then cutting costs to the bone and under-delivering. This and share buybacks have kept earnings growing until this house of cards recently began to fall. Ginni Rometty, who will end up taking the fall for Palmisano's flawed strategy, has stated a very specific earnings goal for 2015 that she will destroy the company to achieve if she must. This book how IBM fell from grace, where it is headed, and what specifically can be done to save the company before it is too late. IBM is in serious trouble. Big Blue, as the company is known, tends to rely on magical thinking for its success, but that magic ran out a long time ago. The trouble began back in the 1990s and IBM had to hire, for the first time, an outside CEO. Lou Gerstner saved the day, pushing IBM into services with spectacular results, but not without consequence. As services became commoditized, IBM could compete only by offshoring the work. Quality suffered. In addition, Gerstner's compensation was very high, which impacted IBM negatively. In IBM history, only the Watson family hit rich running IBM. Later CEOs, like John Opel and John Akers, lived comfortable lives with many perks, but weren't BIG RICH. That changed with Gerstner.IBM has essentially sacrificed both its customers and its employees in the name of earnings. The company has cut labor to the bone, offshored as much as possible, and dropped quality. Acquisitions are deliberately underbid, the under-delivered. These moves, combined with share buybacks, have kept earnings growing until recently, when the house of cards began to fall. IBM's current CEO, Ginni Rometty, has outlined an earning goal for 2015 and she is not afraid to destroy the company to achieve it. This book outlines IBM's fall from grace, where the company is heading, and what can be done to save IBM before it's too late Ibm Is In Trouble In 2014. The Iconic Computer Company Has Mismanaged Itself Into A Rut It May Be Unable To Get Out Of. Technology Journalist Robert X. Cringely Explains How Big Blue Got To Where It Is Today And What Can Still Be Done To Save The Company Before It Is Too Late.