Acquisitions, layoffs, acquisitions, layoffs, cuts, cuts, acquisitions, jumping from workforce to workforce across the globe, more layoffs. The point of it all - bonuses for the mgmt, buybacks, more bonuses, more money for shareholders, more shares buybacks, bonuses for C-suite. No real economy, no reason, no long-term thinking, no nurturing the workforce, no versatility, no innovation, no social responsibility whatsoever. It all ends with a hollowed out company and hollowed out people.
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They do not listen to their DEs either. So they have left to where they are listened to like AWS . Not that AWS is perfect. They are far from it but their innovations speak for themselves and their speed to market is light years ahead of IBM.
A few years ago I made it to STSM after a lot of personal sacrifice and dozens of recommendations. I had hoped "this is it! They will finally listen to me!" All of my hard work was going to payoff!
But the execs do not care - and they do not listen. I have never been so far away from the execs, who appear to make all of their decisions in a vacuum surrounded by their Yes Men. I actually had more say before I got promoted as the execs seemed less stuck up just a few years ago. Everyday is a frustration sandwich served with a side of I Don't Give a Sh-t.
The best I can do is influence the Yes Men - which doesn't work very well - but I spend almost waking hour doing so. The execs themselves cannot be reasoned with - all top down thinking. They are without reason or logic and totally immune to facts. They never used to be this dense, so elitist; but they are now.
Why promote me when they were just going to ignore me? It's because of Reorgs. The old guard picked me and elevated me - but that was two reorgs ago and the new people don't give a cr-p if I am a STSM; they like their echo chambers. I am not a Yes Man so don't fit in.
Contaminated is being kind. The company(IBM) is full of parasites and infected at the very top. There's no future at IBM whatsoever and the people around you are disgusting sc-mbags.
43 years spent in this company. From heaven to he-l. The company has been totally contaminated by inefficiency, individual interests and favouritism. Value and innovation are as rare as gold. Executives and Top Management showered with money and incentives, while the people who truly serve and work, humiliated. It survives thanks to the money set aside and the marketing fantasies it tells. So advanced in technology that even filling out the time card was a problem. It will continue to fire people to pay for acquisitions, to employee cheap labor until the market will erase it from Wall Street.
The net result is an exhausted workforce. Broken down, demoralized, willing to take whatever bones they throw to us.
One thing to remember about IBM is that it is run more like a hedge fund than as any sort of unified corporation. Divisions are bought and sold like Monopoly game pieces, and in that kind of environment you're not really going to get any of the benefits of synergy that the OP laments. Economy, reason, nurturing the workforce, versatility, innovation and corporate responsibility are what you get when mergers, acquisitions and spin-offs are carefully managed. Those qualities do not exist here.
I completed a comprehensive business plan years ago in my MBA program which I got a perfect score on. You can only grow by acquisitions temporarily. Eventually you need to have organic growth from your own inventions.
@vul+1rgiXSse all the smart people got laid off and only yes-men are left
The BoD really should be disbanded
Don't forget the IBM Fellows! Where have they been?!
In theory, the company brain trust (STSMs and DEs) is supposed to provide thought leadership. They make recommendations in investment as well as technical direction. The high executives (GMs, BOD, C-suite executives and letter band) follow their recommendations, and the rank and file employees (number band) are the workerbees.
Somewhere along the line, this model broke down. I can only imagine how the meetings go when all these people get together...what kind of things are said.