Bob Herbold: IBM Spending

My former colleague Bob Herbold, on IBM spending and results.  In his always gutsy blog:

IBM: Spent $97 Billion; Result: 20 Consecutive Quarterly Declines!
The primary job of a leader is to constantly assess the situation, develop an impactful plan that will make a significant difference, and then implement with excellence.  Being a leader is not about simply managing a bunch of activities that enable you to participate in some manner in what’s going on in your industry.  Unfortunately, that’s what the IBM CEO, who has been in the job five years now, seems to be doing.

The 20 straight quarterly revenue declines have left IBM very weak on many dimensions.  Over that five year period, revenue has dropped from $105 billion to $79 billion, net income has declined from $16.5 billion to $11.9 billion, and operating margin dropped from 20.5% to 16.4%.  Over the five years, total shareholder return for IBM is -7.8% while it was +69.6% for the S&P 500. .... "