4 ms·

IBM has stalled because it stopped innovating, and instead pushing highly cumbersome, expensive, consulting-centric "products" that are nothing more than expens

IBM has stalled because it stopped innovating, and instead pushing highly cumbersome, expensive, consulting-centric "products" that are nothing more than expensive services tied to proprietary technologies. Where IBM isn't proprietary, it rests heavily on open source offerings that it has acquired (RedHat). Ironically, it's IBM itself that is every much the sclerotic "dinobaby" that it seems to dislike. Simply hiring in a younger pool won't change that dynamic. If anything, that approach is deeply cynical, and only makes sense when you realize that IBM sees its growth in services and "solutions" offerings that depend on large numbers of lesser-paid, non-family bound "early professional hires" that they seem to desire. IBM placed bets on highly speculative "moonshot" programs like IBM Watson (especially Watson Health) that failed, while simultaneously failing to effectively compete in the growing cloud-centric market. IBM could have been a realistic contender in the Enterprise against AWS, Google, and Microsoft cloud environments, but it instead opted for large-scale vendor lock-in style approaches.

rusticpenn 4y ago
Current employee here. They have identified and are focused on changing this. IBM is moving towards technology provider role (from consulting focus). This is also reflected by the new CEO who comes from research background and was the main person pushing towards buying of Redhat.
- rexreed 4y ago
  The forces of resistance to change and the pro-services culture at IBM are strong. Very strong. See how far the desire and will to change goes when placed up against the marketing and sales culture at IBM and pressures from the market.
  - jldugger 4y ago
    > The forces of resistance to change and the pro-services culture at IBM are strong. Very strong. Well yea, most of their headcount is consultants now, right? Corporate America might not be a democracy but neither can executives change the culture by edict.
    - efitz 4y ago
      Orly? Satya Nadella ended the Windows/Office duopoly at Microsoft. A lot (most?) of the OG senior leadership left. No more proprietary OS lock-ins; Windows even can run Linux in a subsystem now (WSL). VSCode is open source. I’d say he’s been fairly successful in changing the corporate culture. Time will tell if Azure is any worse or better than the other cloud providers wrt lock-in.
- QuarterReptile 4y ago
  I'd be very excited to see any such change come to pass, as an employee of a significantly larger, older, and even more bureaucratic organization.
  - rexreed 4y ago
    The US Government?
    - artificialLimbs 4y ago
      Or AT&T.
    - QuarterReptile 4y ago
      That's the one.
- mech422 4y ago
  yeah - we were accquired as part of their 'cloud services' shopping spree... so far, it seems like they're TRYING to drive off the very people they acqui-hired. Contracts seem more like a Tata level staff aug. then a 'professional services' play.
admax88qqq 4y ago
I think you two are looking at two sides of the same coin. IBM has stalled due to poor business decisions. But those decisions are a symptom of bureaucratic system of IBM and those who know how to navigate it. You can't divorce the actions of a company from the people who constitute the company.
- rexreed 4y ago
  It's true you can't disconnect the decisions of the business from the ones making those decisions. But you also can't hire your way out of current problems, especially hiring lower in the organization and hope for change. To completely reboot a company's decision-making culture by way of importing new people without a complete reboot of leadership is very difficult. And even if you could completely replace everyone in the organization from the very top to the very bottom (which is an impossibility), you're still left with the legacy of existing customers and technology as well as your brand and reputation and relationships. Simply put, changing people is not a solution to these problems. People and decision-making relate to each other, but as time goes on, the ability for one to impact the other without regard to the existing impedance in the organization and market is limited. This is part of the Innovator's Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma)
  - humanwhosits 4y ago
    They could flip the relationship with Red Hat and let them run the show
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - admax88qqq 4y ago
    Totally agree. You have to replace the old school decision makers embedded throughout the company to have any hope of changing culture and direction.
- dakial1 4y ago
em1sar 4y ago
IBM Cloud is pretty good to be honest, you're going too far with your dismissive analysis. Many IBM Cloud offerings are fast and reliable and come with great support in most cases...

rusticpenn 4y ago

Current employee here. They have identified and are focused on changing this. IBM is moving towards technology provider role (from consulting focus). This is also reflected by the new CEO who comes from research background and was the main person pushing towards buying of Redhat.

rexreed 4y ago
The forces of resistance to change and the pro-services culture at IBM are strong. Very strong. See how far the desire and will to change goes when placed up against the marketing and sales culture at IBM and pressures from the market.
- jldugger 4y ago
  > The forces of resistance to change and the pro-services culture at IBM are strong. Very strong. Well yea, most of their headcount is consultants now, right? Corporate America might not be a democracy but neither can executives change the culture by edict.
  - efitz 4y ago
    Orly? Satya Nadella ended the Windows/Office duopoly at Microsoft. A lot (most?) of the OG senior leadership left. No more proprietary OS lock-ins; Windows even can run Linux in a subsystem now (WSL). VSCode is open source. I’d say he’s been fairly successful in changing the corporate culture. Time will tell if Azure is any worse or better than the other cloud providers wrt lock-in.
QuarterReptile 4y ago
I'd be very excited to see any such change come to pass, as an employee of a significantly larger, older, and even more bureaucratic organization.
- rexreed 4y ago
  The US Government?
  - artificialLimbs 4y ago
    Or AT&T.
  - QuarterReptile 4y ago
    That's the one.
mech422 4y ago
yeah - we were accquired as part of their 'cloud services' shopping spree... so far, it seems like they're TRYING to drive off the very people they acqui-hired. Contracts seem more like a Tata level staff aug. then a 'professional services' play.

admax88qqq 4y ago

I think you two are looking at two sides of the same coin. IBM has stalled due to poor business decisions. But those decisions are a symptom of bureaucratic system of IBM and those who know how to navigate it. You can't divorce the actions of a company from the people who constitute the company.

rexreed 4y ago
It's true you can't disconnect the decisions of the business from the ones making those decisions. But you also can't hire your way out of current problems, especially hiring lower in the organization and hope for change. To completely reboot a company's decision-making culture by way of importing new people without a complete reboot of leadership is very difficult. And even if you could completely replace everyone in the organization from the very top to the very bottom (which is an impossibility), you're still left with the legacy of existing customers and technology as well as your brand and reputation and relationships. Simply put, changing people is not a solution to these problems. People and decision-making relate to each other, but as time goes on, the ability for one to impact the other without regard to the existing impedance in the organization and market is limited. This is part of the Innovator's Dilemma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Innovator%27s_Dilemma)
- humanwhosits 4y ago
  They could flip the relationship with Red Hat and let them run the show
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- admax88qqq 4y ago
  Totally agree. You have to replace the old school decision makers embedded throughout the company to have any hope of changing culture and direction.
dakial1 4y ago

em1sar 4y ago

IBM Cloud is pretty good to be honest, you're going too far with your dismissive analysis. Many IBM Cloud offerings are fast and reliable and come with great support in most cases...