The Decline and Fall of IBM

End of an American Icon?

By: Robert Cringely

Narrated by: Robert Cringely

Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

IBM is in serious trouble. Big Blue, as the company is known, tends to rely for its success on magical thinking but that magic ran out a long time ago. The company got in trouble back in the 1990s and had to hire for the first time an outside CEO, Lou Gerstner, to save the day. Gerstner pushed IBM into services with spectacular results but this hurt the company, too. As services have became commoditized IBM could only compete by offshoring the work and quality suffered. The other negative impact of Gerstner was his compensation which was for the first time in IBM history very high. Only the Watson family had become rich running IBM with later CEOs like John Opel and John Akers living comfortable lives with lots of perks, but they never got BIG RICH. That changed with Gerstner.

Sam Palmisano an IBM lifer followed Gerstner as CEO and followed, too, the Gerstner playbook. Palmisano retired three years ago with a retirement package worth $241 million, replaced by IBM's first woman CEO, Ginni Rometty, who certainly expects a comparable golden parachute. In order to achieve these numbers, though, IBM has essentially sacrificed both its customers and employees. In order to have ever growing earnings per share the company has cut labor to the bone, off-shored everything it can, dropped quality, deliberately underbid contracts to win them then not performed. IBM's acquisition policy is one of buying companies to get their sales then cutting costs to the bone and under-delivering. This and share buybacks have kept earnings growing until this house of cards recently began to fall. Ginni Rometty, who will end up taking the fall for Palmisano's flawed strategy, has stated a very specific earnings goal for 2015 that she will destroy the company to achieve if she must. This book how IBM fell from grace, where it is headed, and what specifically can be done to save the company before it is too late.

©2014 Robert Cringely (P)2014 ListenUp Production, LLC

Great book. Sad story

In short, a sad real story about a technology giant that going after the short term stock price destroys the legendary company

An informative look at an American icon

What made the experience of listening to The Decline and Fall of IBM the most enjoyable?

The way in which it was written made receiving the information natural and interesting.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Decline and Fall of IBM?

The sections detailing the treatment of employees.

Any additional comments?

This audio books paints a detailed picture of the state of IBM.

Smart, interesting analysis

Any additional comments?

I've never really thought much about IBM, so this audiobook was all new territory to me. Cringely obviously knows what he's talking about and knows a lot of insiders.I think anyone interested in computers will enjoy this audiobook. The author did a great job with the narration, too.

My career is over and I do not even work for IBM

Loved it.

I recommended this to my CIO, my IT labor union, and others.

I feel most sorry my fellow architects who may have recommended IBM products and technologies in the past couple of years. I feel betrayed.

I would loved to talk to the author. I think a prolog should eventually be forthcoming... It is now October 2015 and reality is beginning come home to roost: See "IBM reports Q3 2015 earnings, cuts forecasts" by Julie Bort, Business Insider.

Regards,

-s

Disapointing

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

The book is uninformative. It doesn't say anything that the readers can't figure out by themselves.

Any additional comments?

I do believe that there is a market fro books on this topic (big businesses after 2008, especially IBM), but they do have to be more informative and less repetitive.