Re: IBM knows how to treat it's employess.....

I received the following note from one of the Rochester employees.  Do any
of you view this as a practical suggestion?  I'll be interested to hear
your thoughts...

Janet Krueger
Rochester Technology Center, part of D H Andrews Group


Janet,
    The attached note got me to thinking.  AS/400 has some of the most
committed customers and business partners in the industry.  What if one or
all of the following took place:

    1)  A significant number of large customers and business partners
petitioned the board of directors, complaining of the lack of advertising
and marketing support for AS/400.

    2)  A group of customers and business partners formed a consortium and
kicked off an advertising campaign of their own.  You might ask, why should
a non-IBM group step up to take responsibility for advertising an IBM
product?  Well, the answer is in the attached note.  Our business partners
in particular make a lot of money selling AS/400s, and their livelihood is
threatened by the bizarre actions of these clueless IBM executives who have
never even tried to understand the AS/400 or, for that matter, the I/T
industry in general.  You too, though you're no longer an IBMer, have a
vested interest in seeing the AS/400 continue and in fact flourish.

    3)  A group of customers and business partners formed a consortium to
purchase the AS/400 business from IBM.  This one may be really far-fetched.
I have no clue whether any of our business partners would have the
financial wherewithal to pull something like that off.

    Janet, you have a lot of contacts and enormous respect with COMMONers
and business partners.  Maybe if you could make this sort of suggestion to
certain key people we would at least see 1) and I think even 2) is not
really that far-fetched.  I suppose 3) is so far-fetched it would be best
not even to mention it to anyone so as not to damage credibility.  Still,
it's an interesting thought.  Someone in my department suggested that Al
Barsa might be one that could pull some people together to get started on
something like 1) or 2).  If you like any of these ideas and want to push
them, please remove references to my name.  As a current IBM employee, I'm
not sure what sort of retaliation from execs I might be opening myself up
for by suggesting any of this. I'm legally protected for union organizing
or EEOC filings, but I'm not so sure about this.  I don't want to give
anybody any excuses.


Subject:  IBM knows how to treat it's employess.....

If nothing else, it's nice to see that at least some of our customers can
see the effects of last week's announcement.  (For those who don't know,
midrange-l is an e-mail discussion list about "midrange" computers, which
contains lots of discussion about the AS/400.)

This is from the midrange forum from a non-IBMr..........
-------------------------------------------------
Subject:  IBM knows how to treat it's employess.....

First they mess around with the pension and then this.....

Workforce cuts!  Looks like Palmisano's first move is to be a hatchet man
and reduce the Server group workforce.  Supposedly the cuts affect all
server groups but Rochester may face the worst of it.

Let's see now.  Create a great machine.  Than market it like anthrax.  When
things get a little tough take it out on the people's who's work and
efforts you didn't market properly.  I hope Stephenson gets a equitable
action taken against him.....

This will be real interesting.  These cuts could be beneficial but they
could spell more trouble.  There is a great risk that good people will
leave (as they already have), that more will be let go, and that certain
projects will be cut. All for what is essentially a management
problem.......

Sorry for the digression on this technical list but I feel this may all
impact us eventually.

Respectfully

Mike Crump


+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MIDRANGE-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---