If only we could find proper people with enough experience and knowledge to lead the company. Sadly, we seem to be stuck with leaders (if I can even call them that) who have limited knowledge, a limited arsenal of solutions (RAs, RAs, and more RAs), and are only looking to fill their own pockets and raise their profile as much as they can. Sad.
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The OP's comments are a downer for IBM, but are actually a very bright spot for our society. The people with experience and knowledge are going to where there knowledge is respected and rewarded. Sometimes that is another company, and sometimes those people are forming startups. THAT IS A GOOD THING.
It's better for everyone that their talents be put to good use, rather than be wasted in a business that will never utilize them.
OP's header has been a "DUH" for 20+ years. What are you reminiscing about your good old days?
This is a consequence of the MBA ideology of cost cutting as the only way to "make" profit.
Of course it's not making anything but avoiding cost.
This kind of ignorant management is undermining the whole American economy.
When brilliant, creative scientists and engineers ran companies, they created new technology and improved existing technology to make a superior product that sold in the marketplace.
Now they fire anyone who rises above the predictable mediocrity level because it disrupts the spreadsheet calculations.
I sometimes wonder how great America might be had we eradicated the business schools around 1970.
no brains left at ibm.
IBM has lost the DNA to create and nurture new products. There is no patience for creating internal startups with appropriate funding to let them grow. That means new products should not get forced into standard product management processes, for example, or need to show revenue that covers costs. Instead all focus is on revenue and reducing costs. That isn’t how you build things up.
IBM had the experience and knowledge to lead the company into the future, but they were all laid off for cheap labor in India.
I posted in another message that IBM has a corporate culture of failure, and I stand by those words. When a weak and struggling loser (as if there is any other kind) gets knocked down in a boxing match, they'll become g-n-shy and defensive in their moves. They become so focused on saving themselves that they'll never do what it takes to knock out their opponents and win matches.
That's IBM in a nutshell. On a Gartner magic quadrant chart, IBM in the present day would be somewhere in the lower left region...limited corporate vision and unable to execute whatever vision they do have. When you have those conditions, executives will focus on what they know...how to save money. They may not know how to make money, build new business and grow the company, but they know how to save money.
This culture has been going on for decades, and is very, very difficult to change.