Company: IBM
Date: 2009-12-19
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Relentless pursuit of EPS at the expense of long term, sustainable growth
Pros: Despite many people on this board describing the dissatisfaction with senior leadership, by and large the colleagues you work with day to day are good mannered professionals pleasant to work with. Yes, they are not always technically competent, but their attitudes are cordial and open to new comers. I guess this has to do with the global nature of the company that many project oriented teams never met each other in person. It is not a bad place for people out of school to start their career but hopefully once you know the ropes, know if IBM is for you.
Cons: The relentless pursuit of aggressive EPS target, in the light of the economic recession, seems to be foolish and will cause the company and its shareholders to pay a commensurate price in the long run. There are more and more empty offices in the building. Equipments and computers needed for projects do not have budget. Employee training and education is now online to reduce the expenses. Travel is limited to customer function only. Indeed, how does the company post double digit growth in profit while its revenue is shrinking? Yes, aggressive expense management is the answer. 

In the micro environment, the division I belong to has leaders who are more business savvy than technical competence. So putting them in front of customers basically embarrasses us by saying or repeating what marketing tells them. More worrisome is the investment decision they make, throwing good money after failing products. A hierarchical company only works when its senior leadership makes the right call 51% of the time. It appears IBM senior leadership is mostly on the other side of the 50%.