IBM Corp chairman John Akers is not a happy man, and his dissatisfaction is making IBM an anything but unhappy company and to add to the sense of malaise, Akers and IBM saw the depths of his disaffection splattered all over the public prints – both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times carried long pieces detailing the criticisms that he levelled at IBM managers during a management school session earlier this month. The news only got out because of something Akers said too – he opened his remarks by commenting that all too often his messages got watered down as soon as his listeners left the room – so one manager took detailed notes and disseminated the remarks throughout the company on the internal electronic mail system. Akers complained that too many people (are) standing around the water cooler waiting to be told what to do, too many sales reps were popping out for a coffee with their customer and calling it a sales call – the tension level is not high enough in the business – everyone is too damn comfortable at a time when the business is in crisis. Saying that it made him goddam mad that IBM was losing market share, he commented I used to think my job as a rep was at risk if I lost a sale. Tell them that theirs is at risk if they lose a sale he ordered. He also said that he knew as far back as November that the first quarter would be difficult, but was surprised at the magnitude of the decline – IBM Japan in particular had a rotten first quarter. He also queried why when all the big European-owned computer companies bar ICL Plc are flat on their backs, IBM Europe was not benefitting, and effectively ordered managers to set the threshold of non-performance at which staff could be fired at a much more demanding level than hitherto.
