Mike Braun, a member of the original IBM PC marketing team, has been tempted back to the company with the task of making it number one in sales of personal computers. He has been lured away from his current position as president and chief executive officer of software programming tools company Neuron Data Inc to head IBM’s personal computer unit. Braun replaces James Firestone who is joining Xerox Corp as head of its retail distribution business. Braun previously worked for IBM for 20 years and was a member of the marketing team that produced the first PCs in the early 1980s. With IBM now trailing in third place in PC sales, Braun now faces a sterner task. According to Reuters, David Thomas, group executive of IBM’s Personal Systems Group, has given 48 year-old Braun the task of making IBM number one in PC sales, improving customer satisfaction and increasing profits. With PC prices tumbling, increasing market share and raising profits would be an achievement that would eclipse everything else in Braun’s long career.
