IBM Is Dying

It’s been happening for some time and it’s part of a worrisome trend for the US economy and the global economy.

What’s happening at IBM (it’s dying)

The cuts are starting to get deep.

http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/ibm-job-cuts-affect-14000-workers-analyst-firm-estimates/d/d-id/1324633

It’s easy to say that one CEO or another was to blame.  I think, though, that the problems are deeper than any one CEO .  Frankly I think that the issue is the corporate model used by most of the big corporations in the last decades of the 20th Century.

First of all let’s look at who owns IBM.

http://investors.morningstar.com/ownership/shareholders-major.html?t=IBM

No real surprises here.  All big mutual funds and institutional investors. No major individual investors who might watch the store.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/20/ibm_q2_2015_results_mainframes_middleware/

http://www.fastcompany.com/1752598/ibms-history-innovative-tech

I’ve posted about IBM before.

https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2015/10/26/the-chickens-are-starting-to-come-home-to-roost/

Here’s a post with some details as to the severance agreement.

Ginni the Eagle: IBM’s Corporate “Transformation”

It’s essentially the same “we can screw you over” agreement that I got when I was laid off.  Probably put together with the same template.  This is what happens when you stop considering employees as assets and consider them as interchangeable work units that cost you money.  I’m going to note that most of the layoff seems to be senior employees.  Another one of those nasty trends.  Frankly, I don’t think that the people in charge in IBM’s Csuite understand what they have just done to themselves.  Especially since IBM sells tech and office services.  I suspect that the loss of all those senior sales reps, senior engineers and manufacturing people will be felt, hard.  I going to guess that a lot of projects are suddenly going to go down the tubes and that customers are going be leaving in droves. None of that though will penetrate into the Csuite until it’s too late.

This is, unfortunately the trend across almost all of American business and I have to believe that at some point this situation is going to hurt the country badly. Especially as the small businesses, who have provide almost all the growth over the last fifty years or so have been squashed.

For more on the dysfunctional economy click Here or on the tag below.