If you expect to be laid off on August 18th, or learn that you are on or after that date, please provide details. People get indignant about this type of post meanwhile this was the original intent of this entire website (reporting of layoffs, not all the other drivel we see here) and we have not had much of that at all lately.
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I know of at least 50 VPs with no direct reports
10:1 ratio sounds ok to me .. (if my math is correct) it would work out to 11.111111% of the company being management .. that's about 89% efficiency
However, I strongly doubt we have a consistent 10:1 ratio all the way up the chain.
I can understand that the SVP level need to have less reports than middle management because the broader businesses they have to cover and even Arvind has more than 10 reports. But there are too many VPs, directors, other levels of managers who have very few functional reports. @3wmg is right, we'll be fine if we reduce them in half. IBM should also test bloated execs and deband their levels according to the results. Because IBM kept shuffling managers around too much, there are too many managers and execs who have no experience (therefore have no clue) or no business being in the group. HR saying 'managers and execs are in their position now because of their experiences' makes me laugh.
IBM can’t shed its legacy management style from the Watson days, which grew out of WW2. (1 manager for every 10 employees) No matter how many productivity tools IBM uses, the 10-1 continues to haunt them. Mid-level managers are where the bloat is, and IBM has only ever addressed that once during the Gerstner years. Old habits die hard, and IBM even after clearing the bloat under Gerstner allowed it to creep back into the equation. Management needs to look no further than the mirror to see where the issue is at. 50% of them have to go
"these are the people who think they make everything happen!"
Anyone with Partner or Alliance in their title! Axe them now and watch productivity go up and cost go down.
IBM is definitely overmanned, too many useless people that do not contribute to revenues, only to costs. Yet, these are the people who think they make everything happen! IBM could lose at least 20-30K people TODAY! And it will, but it will probably layoff only the wrong people.
2gdn At 64 billion IBM’s run rate population needs to be in the range of 215k. At 55 billion IBM’s run rate would shrink to 180-185k No matter how you look at the corporation right now they are severely overmanned (estimated 250-260k) but IBM is hooked on revenue and until they can divorce that idea, they will not sacrifice revenue for manpower. For IBM to get to the 185k range, a 30% shrink or spin-off would have to occur
Agree with you. But what's the target number of employees for 55 Billion? 210 to 215?
If so, IBM will have to layoff massively!
What are folks key advance indicators? Being on PIP? Rumors about entire product/group being out of favor? ?
Personally I'm doing OK, no PIP, and product under-staffed, over-worked, which seems to help retention. And we're losing the very senior staff (all ages) so they seem keen on retention.
As a somewhat specialized core product and driver of revenue (you know - variable discounting (and therefore product revenues) of software to sell the hardware.
I'd myself more expect the product to be sold off - perhaps giving some transition time at that point.
Anything I'm missing?
Have you ever gotten a response to your post that said they were RA'd (or more importantly said a group was). It seems all you get is discussion about RA's, or lack there of (now PIPs).
I expect the majority of the moves to occur the 25th thru the 31st. IBM is a creature of habit, and they have a history of end of August actions. The objective is to focus on IBM’s monopoly (enterprise accounts). Why? Because enterprise accounts drive 80-85% of IBM’s revenue. It’s as simple as that. It’s the 1994- 1995 business plan all over again 1994 = 219k employees with 64 billion. 1995 = 225k employees with 72 billion
People getting upset about these posts are POS that nobody cares about.
You keep on keepin' on
Yeah, I am sure I am on the list... can't wait... bye bye IBM!
Yawn