Lou Gerstner wrote, "People truly do what you inspect, not what you expect." … Lest we forget, these "inspection pages" exist because chief executives are "people" too.
Arvind Krishna's Performance Overview Home Page |
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Published July 22, 2021
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This page was initially published on February 3, 2020. It has been updated with, I hope, a sense of humor to reflect the loss of James (Jim) Whitehurst. One has to wonder how many Red Hat employees will follow the former IBM President's example? Since IBM paid $3,000,000 per Red Hat employee for the company, the losses could mount up pretty quickly.
No one apparently knows all the reasons for Jim's departure. Maybe he is saving all the details for his "Who Ever Thought That Elephant Danced?" memoir.
Deletions are highlighted in red.
No one apparently knows all the reasons for Jim's departure. Maybe he is saving all the details for his "Who Ever Thought That Elephant Danced?" memoir.
Deletions are highlighted in red.
Evaluating the Performance of IBM’s Chief Executive [and President]
- Arvind [and Jim] Does Not Have Time to Waste
- Arvind's [and Jim's] Critical Performance Metrics
Arvind Krishna [and Jim Whitehurst] Must Act Quickly
As Arvind Krishna is [and Jim Whitehurst are] determining what he [they] will do first, he [they] should consider prioritizing three activities:
- Return IBM’s Human Resources organization to its original function and purpose as a human relations organization. This will improve employee productivity by increasing employee engagement, passion and enthusiasm. A human resources organization should not be the right arm of finance to help the corporation achieve quarterly, earnings-per-share targets.
- Focus on maximizing stakeholder value to rebuild a sustainable stakeholder ecosystem. It was this ecosystem of customers, employees, shareholders and societies that supported the corporation through its first eight decades. This means rejecting the two extremes of maximizing shareholder value: shareholder-first and -foremost and me-first and -only.
- Take goodwill impairments now and start with a clean slate: neither IBM (RemainCo) or Kyndryl (NewCo) should start their new life apart with intangible assets of over 50%.
As always, the perspectives shared here are not Wall Street quarterly perspectives but a businessman’s perspective of years, decades, and, at times, centuries. So, don't expect to find insights into minor bumps on the business roadmap like one or two quarters of revenue growth. After all, Ginni had some of these positive, short-term growth "irregularities" too, but she still turned in horrible year-over-year and long-term revenue growth numbers.
IBM’s way forward is contained in this quote of Owen D. Young, former Chief Executive Officer of General Electric and a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.
IBM’s way forward is contained in this quote of Owen D. Young, former Chief Executive Officer of General Electric and a former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank.
What is right in business requires, in highly complicated situations, that the golden rule be applied by men [and women] of great understanding and knowledge, as well as conscience. They must be technicians in the sense of making the connecting link between the golden rule on the one side and the most complicated business transaction on the other.
Owen D. Young, Delivered from Dr. Fosdick's New York Church, 1929
Mr. Arvind Krishna has [and Jim Whitehurst have] a hard task in front of him [them]: restoring the engagement, passion and enthusiasm of 383,000 employees. If he is [they are] to bring IBM back, he [they] will have to be a technician[s] in Mr. Young’s sense: an individual [those] who understands human nature first and technology second. This should be—no, must be—his [their] overriding first initiative.
Unfortunately, I have worked in one of Arvind's organizations. Unless he has "transformed himself" in the last decade, he may have the desire but lack the ability necessary to "transform his corporation."
He is first and foremost a technologist.
Jim's exit was unfortunate.
Cheers,
- Pete
Unfortunately, I have worked in one of Arvind's organizations. Unless he has "transformed himself" in the last decade, he may have the desire but lack the ability necessary to "transform his corporation."
He is first and foremost a technologist.
Jim's exit was unfortunate.
Cheers,
- Pete
Arvind's Critical Key Performance Metrics
Is there an IBM “New Deal?” Or is Arvind serving up the same old Gerstner-Palmisano-Rometty (GPR) stuff?
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Let’s graph Krishna’s 2020 performances, and then put those performances within the context of the corporation’s 21st Century results.
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Reality will set in soon enough because when it comes to business fundamentals, Main Street and corporate stakeholders have proven themselves better able to understand long-term realities than Wall Street.
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Does his track record as IBM's CFO indicate that he was a good choice?
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