It’s not workforce reduction, it’s cost reduction. IBM is focused on costs and has forgotten about innovation and relationships. If you don’t have something innovative to sell, you need to focus on relationships to tide you over the innovative drought. When you have decimated your field force, what’s left. Cost reduction. It’s a death spiral that ends badly unless you can break out of the spiral. IBM is trying to break the spiral with The Redhat purchase. It’s not a bad strategy, BUT manufacturing and low margin services will be thrown to the wolves, because rule number one is it’s all about costs right now. REMEMBER IBM managers manage to how they get paid, not to what the company needs. What’s rule number one? Cost reduction. How will IBM managers respond. Cut costs at the expense of innovation and relationship