Jim Whitehurst to step down as IBM President

Post by nomoreplease » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

djrogers wrote: post #43

nomoreplease wrote: post #36

When I talk to former IBMers (including a VP), it seems much of the outward “success” there is financial engineering, yet the business is crumbling in reality. Jim leaving amidst a chaotic, failed email migration that is impacting sales is not surprising

> leaving amidst a chaotic, failed email migration that is impacting sales is not surprising I'm not sure if you're trying to imply causation here, but vast sweeping changes like this rarely happen in a matter of days - it's far more likely that this has been in the works for a while, and the email mess is coincidental.

Post by jldugger » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

osipov wrote: post #23

echelon wrote: post #2

I'd really like to see IBMers talk about the past, present, and future of the company. It looks pretty pale to me. Back in the Thinkpad era, IBM had a lot of cool stuff going on. But now it seems like a shadow. Watson and IBM cloud look like flops. The email fiasco is weird and should never have happened. What did buying Red Hat accomplish? As an outsider, it doesn't seem to have infused any new ideas, and the change…

ex-IBMer here. I rode this from 2001 until 2016 when it became clear that breaking up the company (as they recently did) would become the only sensible path forward. While many poor decisions were made inside of the company, I ultimately blame Wall Street for IBM's downfall. Remember that back in 2011, Palmisano finished strong with IBM's Watson winning Jeopardy, IBM Software delivering consistent >80% profit margins…

Post by indymike » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 4:21 PM UTC

trimbo wrote: post #64

avereveard wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IBM portfolio isn't targeted to consumers like Apple's or other companies, even at peak IBM it was an office name, not a household name. The only consumer facing product they had for the longest time were cash registers, and those aren't particularly hip as to live in consumer imagination Edit: in today episode, hacker news forget they're a niche cohort.

> even at peak IBM it was an office name, not a household name I'm curious to see data on this. My guess is that in the early to mid 80s, IBM had to have been the top consumer technology brand. At least in knowledge of the brand, even if they didn't own one. Their Charlie Chaplin ads were everywhere, then they spent an enormous amount of money marketing PCjr[1]. [1] - "As part of $32.5 million in advertising for the…

Post by bluedevil2k » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 4:24 PM UTC

avereveard wrote: post #32

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #28

One of my recent revelations was when I told my teen children "... a company like IBM". To what they said "what is IBM??" They know all the large tech companies but that one was a surprise to them, they had a look at Wikipedia and said "ah yes, it was a great company in your times". Time to get some wine.

IBM portfolio isn't targeted to consumers like Apple's or other companies, even at peak IBM it was an office name, not a household name. The only consumer facing product they had for the longest time were cash registers, and those aren't particularly hip as to live in consumer imagination Edit: in today episode, hacker news forget they're a niche cohort.

Post by sjm-lbm » Fri, Jul 02, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #51

reaperducer wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why haven't they at least set up something temporary? Yes, just spin up e-mail addresses for 400,000 people in 177 countries. No problem. Just run it on a Raspberry Pi in the basement.

Pay Google or Microsoft to do it for you. Focus on the core business competencies, of which email is clearly not one. Edit since I can't reply: An extended email outage isn't a good look either. If IBM can't run their own critical systems, why trust them with yours? I personally think making the strategic decision to outsource demonstrates the ability and desire to find timely solutions.