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IBM's Twenty-First Century Corporate Performance

Date Published: July 19, 2021
​Date Modified: April 4, 2026

 IBM's 21st Century Corporate Performance

Comparing Business Results of Two Sixteen-Year, Transitionary Periods

​Key Performance Indicators

Not one of IBM’s stakeholders has profited from IBM’s twenty-first-century management of the corporation’s stock price.

IBM's shareholder-first and foremost strategy is a dismal failure and the direction must change.

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IBM’s Board of Directors must act to avoid the looming failure of an iconic company that, at one time, represented all that was great about the American form of capitalism

Business Results in Some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Brand performance

What is happening at IBM is a deterioration of its overall brand.

​This is happening at the macro-level, which is to say it is a problem caused over the last two decades by the corner office, their direct reports, and their financial policies.

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The result has been a two-decade long drop in sales productivity.

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Patent Performance

There is no taking away IBM’s decades of historical patent leadership from those who were responsible for moving ideas into the realm of patentable, revenue-producing offerings. ​Patents have been important to IBM since its founding. Unfortunately, a major change has been taking place since Arvind Krishna took charge of the corporation. 

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The quantity of IBM's patents has fallen every year for six years under Arvind Krishna's leadership. He says they are more "focused" on their patent production. Still, as of 2025, ​IBM's yearly patent production is down 76.3% in the last six years.

IBM appears to also need to focus on patent "production."

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Revenue Performance

IBM revenues since 2011 are down by $39 billion. Even the seeming bright spot of consistently increasing revenues after 2021 fails when inflation is considered.

​IBM is a blind squirrel that has only been able to find the occasional year-over-year positive revenue "nut" because of two decades of misplaced investment dollars and abysmal human relations practices.

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​Heck, even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut!

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