This aged well..
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IBM will stop cutting when it figures out what it wants to be. Has not figured that out for a long time. Now it's just cost cutting for the sake of it. Jumping on everyone else's ideas means your late to the game. Innovation is key. Does anyone know what IBM wants to be?
"...since at least 2008..."
Try 1992 (the last year of John Akers, and the year that I joined IBM). The company at that time was bleeding badly, with hundreds of thousands of employees and hundreds of big-iron data centers. Akers wanted to break up the company, but the BOD canned him and brought on Lou Gerstner instead. Quarterly RAs have been going on ever since.
One thing is true. IBM has been RAing people since at least 2008 if not longer. What Salesforce, AWS, Google, Microsoft are now doing with respect to layoffs has been an ongoing layoff saga over and over again at IBM for many years.
Anyone know how many in IBM Consulting - Americas - Federal were laid off in Apr 2023? I know my boss and account managers were two.
IBM's cutting of itself has become a vicious cycle in the industry. As IBM got out of various lines of business over many years, the many thousands of employees who got cut and became refugees went out into the world. They took new jobs with new employers, becoming "influencers" (to use modern parlance) in their new homes. When asked, a lot of those people looked at their former employer with jaundiced eyes.
There are still customers who will buy from IBM...legacy customers with a lot of money, buying legacy IBM products and services. But that number is dwindling. IBM might respond here and there by buying brand-name companies like Red Hat, but they quickly return to form after a honeymoon by extended cost-cutting.
It would not be a surprise to see IBM shrink to the point where another fish buys them up. I'm sure there would be lots of antitrust and national security concerns, but at the right price you could see someone like Fujitsu, HP Enterprise or Oracle make a play.
The never-ending RAs will eventually stop, even after several decades. At that point, IBM will be a much smaller company than it is even now...a niche provider of mainframe hardware, software and services to the Fortune 100. They will exit all other businesses and shut them down...they've proven themselves unwilling to commit significant time and investment to anything other than proven moneymakers. In other words, they won't take a risk...it's easier to shut down a business and look for money under the cushions.
IBM via the board/exec management team has a very interesting decision to make over the next several weeks. Under Ginni (sept 2019) consultants recommended IBM trim the management force by approx 1/3. Ginni declined to implement that recommendation due to the business disruption it may cause. Over the next several weeks, we’ll see if the rumors of a second round of RA’s is focused on the management infrastructure.
10000 in the americas (includes the 3900 for Watson health and Kyndryl)
5000 in Europe (includes the 3900 for Watson Health and Kyndryl)
2000 in Asia (includes the 3900 for Watson Health and Kyndryl)
Total first q charge for 17,000 = 1.3 billion
NOTE this does not include Performance improvements Plan numbers
Over 8000
5000+