The Disintegration of IBM: NewCo

The announcement of the breakup of IBM will only exacerbate the company’s current most-pressing problem, not cure it.

The spike in stock price is a “Wall Street” phenomenon, not a “Main Street” or “Stakeholder” affirmation of the decision. Reality will set in soon enough because when it comes to business fundamentals, Main Street has proven itself better able to understand long-term realities than Wall Street ever has.

​IBM employees are closer to reality at IBM than any of its other main-street stakeholders—even customers, and this announcement will have negative effects that will play out over the next few years. This move will affect employee engagement, and employee sales productivity, in all probability, will continue its two-decades-long decline.

Unfortunately, looking back on recent IBM chief executive officer history, Arvind Krishna is more of the same. He, like his 21st Century predecessors, is selling to Wall Street not his long-term stakeholders.

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