We who are still IBM employees don't think one quarter at a time the way Ginni does. Talking about "20 quarters of decline" is misleading. Let's tell it like it is - it's been 5 YEARS of non-stop decline. She has been failing for 5 YEARS. Good employees are being downgraded from excellent (the truth) to "poor performer, must be fired (a lie) in a matter of months. Why does she get 5 years?
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The marketing rhetoric says that Cloud and AI are the future business model, but inside the company those units are as chaotic and mismanaged as the ones that are dying. The Cloud and AI groups are reorganized 2 or 3 times a year, layoffs are happening there, and executives are constantly entering and leaving. That is not how you manage the future of your company.
I will start by agreeing with you regarding Performance assessment, based on results she would be a PBC 4 on a PIP and out the door. To be Fair, she has been given an arduous task of steering the IBM tanker through the business transformation. IBM is still 200,000+ employees too large for the business model it needs to be (cloud and AI) , and below her, she has layer after layer of sycophantic VP's and Directors that manage upwards rather than managing their business unit, Not adding any value and steering their teams in the wrong direction, Raising quata's beyond targets, capping post over achievements and all the time increasing the pressure to deliver immediate results.
Post-transformation IBM needs to be much smaller more agile with self-governing business units, in terms of revenue it will be much lower than t's peak but more profitable and sustainable, and a platform for growth. But to do this it needs to get rid of the 1000's upon 1000's of useless execs trying to "Add Value"