The company needs to get back to basics. Thomas Watson Jr. held IBM’s three basic beliefs;
1- Respect for the individual
2- superlative customer service
3- the pursuit of excellence in all tasks
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Nobody should be happy that the stock price plummets. The problem is how it got so high to begin with. Ginny's parlor tricks with stock buy backs and continuous layoffs to prop up the EPS have masked the decay of culture and disastrous decision making at the top.
For many years the only person who has mattered at IBM is the shareholder. The only goal IBM had was the Roadkill Directive, and all that measured was earnings per share. Nothing else mattered, and NOTHING was allowed to happen unless you could prove it would support EPS. For the innovator, the developer, the sales person, and even the factory worker, there were a lot more tangible things that actually do matter, but they were all swept aside. So after all these years of suffering inside IBM if the shareholder is going to suffer now, all I can say is, "it's about damn time!"
we lost our soul long time ago
my first post here - here are my 2 cents on the bullet list:
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the respect - long time gone, we resemble a latin american style of capitalism and corporate management, all gains flow to the top, everyone else is dispensable. it's been like this since late 90s, it's gotten worse since 2006
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customer service - this is an afterthought right now, it's all about milking more revenue while doing and investing the minimum needed to keep the wheels on (will need them spinning while we continue to milk) - level of service has been deteriorating for about 15 years now
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excellence - this has turned into 'good enough', 'cost optimized', 'efficient' mantras - there is nothing excellent about us any more, nobody talks about this, period. i've been with the firm 20+ years, all of us used to be proud because we worked for ibm - nowadays, when someone hears you work for ibm, instead of praise, we hear 'i am sorry'
nothing can fix this, this is a lost battle - we lost it the day the sales function became more important than research, development, engineering and innovation
the 40 year IT tech revolution is long dead, what's left is mostly ponzi schemes that resemble tech companies like IBM kept alive by stock market bubbles...
It's been a long time since any of those three were a focus for IBM. Pretty sad, but ye reap what ye sow. And now it's time to pay the fiddler. Many screwed over ex-employees and mistreated current employees are doing the happy dance today while the stock plummets.