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IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

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Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#131
post #77

Is IBM even relevant anymore or are they simply another McKinsey type consulting firm Who happens to sell mainframes to banks?

if generating 80 billion in revenue and making your shareholders money by selling mainframes to banks is irrelevant then I wouldn't want to be relevant. I continue to be puzzled by the derision that companies on this site get just because they do regular business.

They do that much because they are the incumbent. So they make that kind of money despite how shitty they are.

Technology/engineering/Moore's law can paper over a lot of dumb institutional inefficiency.

Also, just to be clear. It's very hard to do much better, big groups are hard to keep nimble, honest, agile, etc.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a biased, but honest observation that I'd like to share. I've been working for a big corp for about 5 years now. I was born in a SE Asian country and came to the US for college. I have worked with a lot of India-born people. As a fellow foreigner and as an Asian, I can tell that more often than not Indian people are bolder and more aggressive in asking for what they want (e.g., one of my Indian colleague aske…

This followed my own similar observations with Indian people that I know. They, more often than not, are more confident and straightforward in their actions whether it be how they honestly feel or not.

I’ve seen (while working at Google) that on paper they seemed to have lots of “education” and in meetings the ones in management were overly confident and talked the talk but in 1:1 rarely did they know anything that wasn’t in a book, jargon or memorized. Rarely did they think up their own ideas or challenged the status quo. My manager was from India. He told me to make my solutions look more complicated and more lines of code to “make it on his team”. Engineers I found amazing, but once they decide to go the management path stay away, they would step over and on anyone, claim ownership for others ideas. not in a productive, supportive, work hard way, but a calculating negative way.

Been doing this a long time, and every culture has differences but only with Indians in management from India did I feel I had to watch my back. Nepotism was so obvious I’m shocked it isn’t researched more. Maybe something with that ridiculously stupid and inhuman caste system. Ymmv

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#133
post #42
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Satya wasn't an engineer at microsoft.

> Satya wasn't an engineer at microsoft. This is true, strictly speaking. But (also strictly speaking) he was an engineer > Nadella attended the Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet[7] before receiving a bachelor's in electrical engineering[8] from the Manipal Institute of Technology (then part of Mangalore University) in Karnataka in 1988.[9][10] Nadella subsequently traveled to the U.S. to study for an M.S. in compute…

Rometty also has an engineering degree. Neither of them seemed to have ever worked as engineers. I don’t see how he’s more of an engineer then she is.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I attended an interview of a major non-tech CEO and he attributed the cultural attitude of Jugaad [0] as the reason why so many CEOs are of Indian descent. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugaad

I don't like to be a downer. But this Jugaad (or hack your way) attitude is one of the reasons why we (Indians) haven't become good at manufacturing stuff (unlike China). The world needs more solutions than hacks.

I don't think Jugaad is a significant factor in that disparity. China has a similiar, and arguably much worse, widespread philosophy called Cha bu duo (close enough)[1], and it doesn't seem to slow them down much.

[1] https://medium.com/@ItsPhilipChang/cha-bu-duo-is-not-what-yo...

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#136

From the CNBC article covering this: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-steps-... >In a release, Rometty described Krishna as a “brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain” Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords.

Yes. It’s only a wonder that she left out Watson.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#137
post #14

From the CNBC article covering this: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-steps-... >In a release, Rometty described Krishna as a “brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain” Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords.

IBM is a consulting company that tries to sell some of their cloud to their clients and some of their buzzwords to their investors. Normal silicon valley stuff, except that IBM manages to show up with some positive cash flow at the end of the day, unlike modern VC darlings.

Startups consume cash to grow. Mature companies return cash to shareholders after the growth slows. Natural state of affairs.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#138

From the CNBC article covering this: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/30/ibm-ceo-ginni-rometty-steps-... >In a release, Rometty described Krishna as a “brilliant technologist who has played a significant role in developing our key technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing and blockchain” Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords.

> Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords. It has been for some time, which is sad because their flagship hardware still stands the test of time--I'm writing this on an old 10+ year old thinkpad. When I worked there it was just that, buzzword laden marketing to entice their legacy customers try a tech which they could onboard on to their cloud product(s). It was disheartening as their Food Safety prog…

Your thinkpad probably isn't even an IBM product. Lenovo bought them in 2005 and they've done a much better job than IBM would have--IBM sold the division in the first place because they had no vision for it at all. They've been riding inertia since the 80s.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sounds like IBM's strategy is going all in on buzzwords. It has been for some time, which is sad because their flagship hardware still stands the test of time--I'm writing this on an old 10+ year old thinkpad. When I worked there it was just that, buzzword laden marketing to entice their legacy customers try a tech which they could onboard on to their cloud product(s). It was disheartening as their Food Safety prog…

Your thinkpad probably isn't even an IBM product. Lenovo bought them in 2005 and they've done a much better job than IBM would have--IBM sold the division in the first place because they had no vision for it at all. They've been riding inertia since the 80s.

I know my models; I was staring at the massive IBM logo when I wrote that.

I swap between models throughout the day, and at the time I was on my X31, which was the last X series to be made by IBM and has the best keyboard of them all. I'm currently on an X61, and will move over to my 3rd gen X1 Carbon in a bit to get to work.

As I said, I'm a fan boy; I have another 20-something X series' stored away for parts and as backups, many of them X61s I thought I would update to X62/63s and resell, but never got around to it and now it may be too late.

I'm not saying Lenovo hasn't done an amazing job, I keep buying these things over anything else. But if I'm honest, those new Pinebooks are looking like my new daily drivers, I always wanted Open Hardware to be a thing, so I think I might join in.

Re: IBM Names Arvind Krishna CEO

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the infamous in-group preferences they bring as soon as they take over.

Interesting! This needs a tu quoque argument. Would you say the same about Jews in Banking/Finance? Is it jews hiring fellow jews? - how come every other cop (esp. in the Northeast) has last names like Donovan or Monahan - how come every other fireman is an O'Reilly or O'Connell - how come every landscaping or construction business is owned by a Caruso or Piretti - What about the "Patel Motels" or Dunkin & 7-11 franc…

Interesting! Would you say ethnic niches are the way to go in our society?
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