Company: IBM
Date: 2019-04-19
Overall rating: 1/5
Employment status: former

Bluewolf - Poor Leadership and Culture in ANZ
Pros: - Able to work autonomously.
- The delivery teams are highly capable.
- Affiliation to Salesforce as a partner keeps the Bluewolf brand relevant.
Cons: Management

- The management team in ANZ are very good at telling you what you want to hear. The reality is,  that there is always a hidden agenda. There is no genuine interest to help their team. Great companies succeed because of their people. Attrition levels are high based on the lack of trust with management. It also doesn't help that the IBM management team have taken over. I once spoke to an individual within the GBS unit who said they would rely on the new employees to do the work for them until they retire. Working within a team where others don't pull their weight, doesn't sound like a recipe for success.

Go-to-market strategy

- Time and time again, I would hear about the same customers they have been dealing with for the last 10 years. The truth is, no one that I have seen in their prospect lists would want to be within a 10 mile radius of IBM, or a sub-standard Salesforce partner. Re-invigorating the brand by deploying IBM employees into the division only sets them up for the same longer term problems IBM faces today. Yes, they remain a synonymous name in the tech industry due to large renewal contracts, but as time has progressed, the IBM name and presence in market continues to fade, paving way for new innovative behemoths like AWS. What are they actually selling? I've seen them lose more business to other partners because they are not capable of connecting to customer's in today's economy. They have a good vision, but lack the ability to execute. I also believe that the local management team really do not have the experience to operate at an executive level, hindering their ability to drive meaningful engagements.

- It will be the same set of customers for the next 10 years if they don’t get it right.

Culture

- Ginni Rometty is arguably a great leader. She presents and articulates the vision and mission of the company very well. Her years of experience validate she is the right person for the job. It is interesting however that when she visits offices outside of the US, local management teams scramble to present themselves in an alternative light. In other multinational corporations I have dealt with, CEO's wanted to see their staff for who they really were, all so they could understand challenges, and genuinely help them succeed. Covering up what your local office operation looks like doesn't help anyone, and is one of the many reasons why IBM continues to struggle today. 

- The various divisions in GTS and GBS are also very disparate. There is no real working synergy. 

- IBM continues to operate in an imaginary world where their products and services are great on paper, but fail to deliver on what customer's actually want. This creates a lack of trust within the market, impacting employees beliefs and alignment to values with the company. 

- The integration of Bluewolf into IBM has impacted culture, but if there was a great culture to begin with, then this would have been a minor speed bump. The truth is, numerous individuals (short-term and long-term employees) have left the organisation, stating their frustrations with the cons stated above.  

- Great culture starts from the top - too bad it’s non-existent in ANZ.

A new article was released in the media which showcases a legal case between a senior executive and the company. The key takeaway here is that the culture is questionable, even for long standing employees. Will they really take care of you? Search on Google  for  "IBM exec awarded $180,000 payout after restructure leaves him with nothing to do"

*There are also a lot of tyre kickers at IBM who appear to have jobs of value, when in reality they add no value to a customer's requirements. Too many cooks in the kitchen... Don't believe everything they tell you.