It's starting to frustrate me a bit. Do we really need so many layers of management? I think that IBM would breathe easier if it were to get rid of most of them.
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Why focus on Ginni? She's been gone... AK is no better and he will take IBM many notches down too!
@3nkn: "Ginni had zero and I mean zero vision."
Yes. The strangest thing is that while having zero vision, she was hooked on Big Ideas. I can't count how many Bet the Company, Moonshot, Game Changer ideas she foisted on IBM, all of them expensive flops.
Ginni had zero and I mean zero vision. As a CEO that is the kiss of death as CEO’s are suppose to be looking out 3-5 years and steering toward the next big thing. Instead Ginni had the next big thing vision every 6 months, and IBM is reaping what she sowed. Every decision she endorsed failed. That’s one heck of a record!!! IBM board can you look in the Armonk couch and see, if you can dig up yet another bonus for her. Paying for incompetence seems to be what you excel at.
If anybody is interested in why these do-nothing jobs like middle management, overlays, special projects, "VP of process improvement", etc. exist in large companies - this is not a uniquely IBM problem - I highly recommend reading David Graeber's "Bu-----t Jobs". You can easily find the original essay online, and if you want to dig deeper the book is available from all good booksellers, and also Amazon.
NOTE: I expect that the nanny filters here will bowdlerize the first word of the title. It's the word generally abbreviated as a B followed by an S.
@2awo - I don't know about a mere POS. I think I would describe her as more of an incompetent, greedy, and delusional witch from hades who presided over the downfall of IBM. With all of the legacy income streams IBM receives from banks, governments, and the like, all she had to do was not mess things up. And yet, she still managed to royally scroow the pooch, for example, by actually PAYING Global Foundries 10 figures to haul away our IC Fabs as scrap ... and now we have a worldwide IC shortage that's shutting down manufacturing lines all over the planet ... and Intel and Samsung are both spending 11 figures to build brand new Fabs in Ohio and Texas. You have to try really, really hard to be that willfully ignorant and incompetent! 😕
First line managers were deemed non-essential during the pandemic. Yeah we heard the message loud and clear. Appropriate reassignment will be given to these folks
GR is still a POS!
IBM already uses Watson (AI) to rate employees and to make decision on who gets the boot. Tell me why we have 1st and 2nd line managers if Watson makes all the decisions?
As a former IBMer, I remember when excessive layers of management were reduced at several occasions. Also in some of the reorgs higher banded people were simply degraded in large numbers. This has certainly happened before. Most of the degraded people did not leave IBM, they intuitively knew what happened was actually ok.
Come on IBM believe in your own science. We could replace at least 5 letter bands with Watson. All those people do is read reports and miss analyze data. We need just one level to determine and hand down strategy and then 2 layers BUE and FLM to execute.
Just quit and a find a job elsewhere. IBM is going to fail just like GE.
FAIL, FAIL, FAIL
You have hit the nail squarely on the head, my friend. All these re-orgs are little more than re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. SMH. 🙄
Start with the letter bands who have no direct reports. How can you be an executive and no one works for you? Or one direct report, a VP as the sole direct of another VP. Ridiculous.
Then go after all these overlays. Anyone that doesn't have a direct tie to a product/service or a customer. How many Leadership Announcement emails the last few weeks - welcome so and so as General Manager of Ecosystem Alliances or so and so as General Manger of Industries or so and so as VP of Sustainability Initiatives. WTF is this?