"Sponsored by Red Hat."
https://www.theregister.com/2024/11/18/deepen_your_knowledge_of_linux/
6 replies (most recent on top)
It's a clearly labeled sponsored piece from 2024. The Reg always gives places like IBM the kicking they deserve regardless of whoever advertises with them. That's kinda their thing
IBM just fired Clay Cowan after only 7 months because, frankly, he was a lousy leader. His style crushed collaboration, ki-led morale, and made innovation impossible. Instead of lifting the team up, he dragged them down with ego-driven decisions and zero accountability.
Sometimes the problem isn’t the team — it’s the leader. And Clay proved exactly why good leadership matters. Good riddance.
Clay Cowan’s firing as a 7 month old CMO wasn’t just overdue — it was essential. His leadership style created a toxic environment defined by control, chaos, and fear. Rather than empowering teams, he undermined them. Rather than guiding strategy, he dictated it without clarity or accountability.
The reality is simple: Clay Cowan wasn’t just ineffective — he was the barrier. His departure doesn’t solve everything, but it removes the weight that’s been holding the team back.
Now comes the real opportunity: to rebuild, reset, and never let that kind of leadership take root again.
If IBM wants to fund the Register’s muckraking efforts to expose IBM, let them. I’d attribute it more to the fact that IBM has no marketing organization to speak of—what's left is bereft of strategy, an advertising budget, or competent leadership—than some targeted effort to sway the opinion of the Register’s IBM and Arvind-loathing readership.
That said, IBM recently made yet another McKinsey (quel surprise) CMO hire, Clay Cowan, who looks exactly like you’d imagine someone named Clay Cowan would look. Punchable. Clay comes to us with domain expertise in retail and hospitality, selling deeply discounted home décor products, and hotel loyalty programs, because, of course, those skills are precisely what’s needed to tackle the complex, tech-centric, B2B demands of IBM’s brand. Let us toast this privileged fail son’s inability to pull IBM out of a decades-long relevance crisis. The over-under on his tenure? 18 months. His ability to fail upwards? Guaranteed. Cheers.
Clearly labeled as sponsored.
The Register has always had these kinds of posts sponsored by industry - their Blocks and Files website is essentially 99% industry ad reads - but they'll still stab IBM in the front the next stupid thing they do, don't worry. You come to The Register for snark, and I'm pretty sure the writers know it.