They optimized for the thing which is currently important: Convince decision-makers that your product is the way to go - by any means necessary. This is as much

They optimized for the thing which is currently important: Convince decision-makers that your product is the way to go - by any means necessary. This is as much a reflection on the tech peoples inability to actually influence companies buying decisions as it is on IBM. If companies started to value sound technology IBM (and Oracle and SAP ..) would shift its priorities.