THINK Again: IBM CAN Maximize Shareholder Value by Peter E. Greulich

Author:Peter E. Greulich
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2017-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

The Disappearance of Watson’s Management Filters

During the Opel-Akers era, IBM’s employees still practiced the basic beliefs, united by a decades-long social fabric. So, although the headlines of the time were mostly financial, a true evaluation must consider IBM’s societal bonds: its culture. IBM’s culture was certainly under life-threatening duress, and many employees observed a deterioration of the culture during this time. But cultural change occurs slowly in a diverse society of a half-million people dispersed around the world. Some changes affected only one geography,** some impacted a single generation of employees, and some impacted manufacturing sites first and then development labs. But the sales organizations were the strongest adherents. These communities were more deeply rooted in IBM’s sales management history, and while a few in the company did capitulate fatalistically to what they deemed inevitable, these sales leaders stood strong on principle. And, unlike Akers, they defended their company, their customers, and their employees.

IBM has always been one of the world’s most representative corporate social ecologies. If it were a city, its representation from 175 countries would make it one of the world’s most ethnically diverse and highly educated, and its worldwide population would make it one of the largest cities—if not the largest—in many of these countries. And in the short time period covered by this chapter, this corporate metropolis expanded 20%, from 341,279 employees to 405,535, and then contracted 30% to 278,039—only to grow again by almost 30% to 354,377.††

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