RE: The Future of IBM ..

Nathan,

I would refer you to how ITT did things at one time. They were, in their
time, MUCH bigger than IBM was and probably is today when you scale vs time.
Yet they were very successful and Hal Geneen was definitely "in touch" with
what was going on.

As for "business partners"...IMHO, "Business Partners" have historically
done more to destroy the reputation and marketplace of the AS/400 than IBM's
totally inept marketing could. IBM totally REFUSED to police their business
partners and so many of them did a lot of damage to the product and people
in the user community equate problems with the applications side to that of
the server..."That Damn AS/400 software...." was a phrase I heard a lot back
in my consulting days when I would come in and clean up the mess from some
"business partner".... The general user community didn't fully understand
that IBM couldn't care less about the quality of product back then from
their BP's and it did a lot to erode the market space... Now, to be sure,
there's a lot of good and reputable BP's out there, but the bad apples stuck
more than the good ones...



-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Nathan Andelin
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2013 2:24 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: The Future of IBM ..

A couple more thoughts. Regarding IBM's Global Services, IBM has a choice
between supplying and strengthening local business partnerships, or taking
over local business partnerships.

I think IBM's biggest problem is that it has become too big. They have
diversified to the point that there is too much internal competition and
distrust. The officers are too far removed from from the products,
employees, and customers. I can't imagine how hard it would be to manage a
company of over 434,000 employees with such diversity of operations, while
trying to establish a corporate identity and vision that lets people know
where you stand.

Should IBM take over the local business partner role? Or supply and
strengthen local business partners?

-Nathan