The Decline and Fall of IBM Quotes

“Peter Drucker, who had been writing about business for 50 years before Jensen and Meckling wrote their paper in 1976, said the only purpose of a business was “to create a customer.” The chapters to come will show in great detail what a lousy job IBM has been doing at that lately.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?

“Warriors have always been in the sales department and nowhere else—this is key. Wizards are in research where they are misunderstood but respected. Craftsmen are journeymen programmers and engineers. Serfs are in manufacturing, customer service, and server administration.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?

“IBM today has a split personality in this regard because top executives are paid well while lower executives and workers in general are paid below industry norms.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?

“If you ever wonder how the Tea Party would run America, just look at IBM.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?

“Many companies worked hard at going cheap on IT, and they eventually took a beating for it. Names like Sears, Sprint, BestBuy, and, more recently, Target, come to mind.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?

“Since its founding in 1911 up until 1993, IBM had never laid off a single employee. Akers needed to, but somehow couldn’t bring himself to do it. The company needed a hatchet man and John Akers was no hatchet man.”
― Robert Cringely, The Decline and Fall of IBM: End of an American Icon?