It strikes me that IBM has become full of the sort of people that can see how to cut fat from a business, but without any of the sort that know how to grow one,

It strikes me that IBM has become full of the sort of people that can see how to cut fat from a business, but without any of the sort that know how to grow one, or at least if they are there they don't have much influence. One of the most important lessons I learned in big corporate America was that in the end the cutters always lose, even if they can make small gains in the short term there is only so much you can cut. Upside is potentially larger, but finding it is the core of the problem.