rephrase the whole things IBM's decade of Transformation : Turnaround to Growth From 1960 - 1991 IBM developed the S/360 computer, English like...

rephrase the whole things

IBM's decade of Transformation : Turnaround to Growth

From 1960 - 1991

• IBM developed the S/360 computer, English like computer language FORTRAN, hard disk, floppy disk, supermarket checkout station, early version of ATM
• In 1981 IBM PC's  became the most successful technology introduction
• IBM's money making machine - the mainframe
• Early signs of trouble in 1884 as return on sales , assets and equity began to decline partly due to converting a leasing oriented business to a sales oriented business
• Problems started in 1991 as Revenues declined at faster pace - more than 60% for each of the next two years
• Further decline due to IBM's denial to get into client/server and network computing business
• Technology shift towards midrange and mobile personal computers led to fewer purchases of mainframes
• Inadequate planning to combat the threat from emerging technologies
• Inadequate marketing of products
• Competitors like Compaq and Dell stole the PC market from IBM
• Turf battles between autonomous divisions of the company
• High fixed costs
• Failure to address customer Problems
• Failure to identify emerging business opportunities
• Lack of commonality in certain products and processes
• Poor performance n internal IT management (the area where could have the expert) - 125 data centers and 128 CIO's
• Lack of standardization led to higher data processing costs
• Deep hierarchy levels
• Heavy reliance on corporate staff
• Consensus driven decision making culture

1991 - 2003 : turnaround to growth

• Voluntary retirement packages
• Forced layoffs when target not met
• Integrated systems solution corporation created in 1991
• L.V Gernster chosen to lead the company in April 1993 and he put the main focus on "customers first"
• New CEO involved in direct meeting with its best customers
• Each senior executives given a group of customers to handle during the turnaround period.  The executives responsible for accounts of their customers and accountable for any problems
• Bear-hug key employees from leaving
• Jerry York, ex-Chrysler CFO charged with cost control
• Benchmarking study launched to compare costs with its competitors - the ratio of expense to revenue was 9 % above its competitors which led to 75000 employee lay offs
• Business unit managers charged with fixing, closing or selling underperforming parts of business
• Outsourced PC manufacturing
• Moved all products under ThinkPad brand
• IT running operations cost cut down by half - resulted in $2 billion in cost savings
• Data centers reduced from 155 to 11 which would transfer data to  3 megacenters
• centralized IT leadership - 128 CIO's reduced to 1
• Networks converted to 1 protocol
• Increased component reuse
• ONE IBM
• Gernsters 8 operating principles to operate as one company
• Changing the culture - inevitable resistance from the middle management.
• Reengineering global functions and processes
• Each member of CEC assigned a functional engineering project with 2 tasks - cost cutting and redesigning it for global use and sustained competitiveness
• governance structures removed
• Hired Abby Kohnstamm as senior vice president of marketing to oversee IBM's sponsorship of 1994 winter Olympics
• Changed strategic vision to "E-business"
• Acquired Lotus Development corporation and Increased importance on Middleware
• Acquired Tivoli systems to fill the distributed systems and management software void
• Shifted focus form products to services and consulting
• Improved technical expertise for its customers
• Divided the business units into horizons  - mature business, rapidly growing business, emerging business
• By 2003, 22 of the 25 new EBO's were transitioned from new ventures to high-growth businesses