{"id":30384,"date":"2025-01-19T23:56:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-19T15:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/?p=30384"},"modified":"2025-09-23T12:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T04:27:55","slug":"ibm-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"IBM decision-making mistakes in the past 4 decads led to today&#8217;s outcome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>First of all, please click on my post &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/18\/how-is-ibm-performing\/\">How&#8217;s IBM performing these years?<\/a>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Based on my understanding of IBM, I personally believe that Rome was not built in a day. The building will collapse and cannot be supported by a single tree. IBM has made major and irreparable mistakes in decision-making on many major issues; it can be said that IBM decision-making mistakes caused today&#8217;s predicament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #ffffff;color:#ffffff\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Management_team\" >Management team<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Company_culture\" >Company culture<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Internet\" >Internet<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Cloud_computing\" >Cloud computing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Artificial_intelligence\" >Artificial intelligence<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Despise_terminal_devices\" >Despise terminal devices<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Conclusing_words\" >Conclusing words<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/#Related_articles\" >Related articles<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Management_team\"><\/span>Management team<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The management team is not doing its job, and the corporate governance structure gives all the power to the corporate management team (please note: don\u2019t forget the board of directors), especially the company\u2019s CEO. The corporate management team should take responsibility for all mistakes. This is the fundamental meaning of matching rights and responsibilities. But over the past 40 to 50 years, what investors have seen is that IBM&#8217;s management team has been ineffective, and several management teams have repeatedly disappointed investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Company_culture\"><\/span>Company culture<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Big companies are sick, and bureaucracy is rampant; the most typical representative is that IBM is not the first, but it should be among the top in the technology world. Regarding how big company diseases and bureaucracy affect an enterprise, I suggest you click on my post: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/01\/18\/institutional-imperative\/\">Institutional imperative &#8211; the good, bad, and ugly<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Internet\"><\/span>Internet<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The commercialization of the Internet more than thirty years ago changed the world. It has created modern technology giants such as Amazon, Alphabet, and META. More than thirty years ago, IBM had the richest resources, talents, market positions, and customers in the technology industry. It was a top technology company that was envied by everyone. However, the conservative IBM seemed like a dinosaur living in modern society and had no desire to do so. Be part of this epoch-making change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Cloud_computing\"><\/span>Cloud computing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2010, IBM began to explore cloud computing business; in 2013, it established a true cloud services department through the acquisition of SoftLayer. However, it was not until 2017 that IBM established a cloud service strategy based on &#8220;Hybrid Cloud&#8221; (Hybrid Cloud, which can be regarded as a combination of public cloud and private cloud), and strengthened this strategy through the acquisition of Red Hat in 2018 Strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it is too late, because the world&#8217;s top four cloud service providers, led by Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Alibaba, have already occupied a favorable position and established a market size that is difficult for later participants to join.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Artificial_intelligence\"><\/span>Artificial intelligence<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Please note that fifty years ago, IBM&#8217;s artificial intelligence technology was at the top of the global technology community, and no one could surpass it. But what about today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/spectrum.ieee.org\/how-ibms-deep-blue-beat-world-champion-chess-player-garry-kasparov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IBM&#8217;s &#8220;Deep Blue&#8221; artificial intelligence defeated world champion Kasparov in 1996<\/a>. You may also remember that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2021\/02\/13\/ibm-watson-jeopardy-win-language-processing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">IBM Watson defeated human players in the &#8220;Jeopardy!&#8221; knowledge competition in 2011<\/a>. Very impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It failed to catch up with the transformation of artificial intelligence technology into deep learning, thus making its accumulation of artificial intelligence technology in the past few decades quickly obsolete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Despise_terminal_devices\"><\/span>Despise terminal devices<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>IBM invented and defined the IBM PC, but it was Intel and Microsoft that made the most money from PCs. IBM not only missed the golden age of personal computers forty years ago, but also failed to learn from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Faced with the emergence of mobile computing devices 20 years ago, IBM remained the same as before, as if it had nothing to do with it, just being a spectator and not wanting to participate at all. The result is that Apple has continued to hold the throne of the world&#8217;s listed companies in terms of market capitalization to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusing_words\"><\/span>Conclusing words<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although it has been rich in the past, there is no guarantee that IBM will not follow Intel&#8217;s footsteps in the long run. This is because investors have very low expectations and confidence in IBM&#8217;s repeatedly disappointing performance in the past few decades. Unless something breaks the boat or something unexpected happens, under the current situation, investors who want to invest in IBM for the long term should think twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you understand the technology industry, compared to 40 years ago when I first came out of society, <em><strong>if IBM suddenly collapses or disappears from the earth, it will not cause much loss to the world<\/strong><\/em>\u2500\u2500This is my view of IBM .<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"178\" height=\"100\" src=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/09\/Decision_Mistake-Custom.jpg\" alt=\"IBM decision\" class=\"wp-image-30386\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">credit: Ideogram<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Related articles<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/02\/08\/deepseek-rout\/\">DeepSeek routed the global AI and stock<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/02\/12\/chinese-ai-companies\/\">Chinese AI progress and top companies<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/19\/ibm-decision-making\/\">IBM decision-making mistakes in the past 4 decads led to today&#8217;s outcome<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/02\/08\/satya-nadella\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Satya Nadella brings Microsoft back to glory<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/18\/how-is-ibm-performing\/\">How&#8217;s IBM performing these years?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/07\/16\/ibm-cloud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How does IBM make money? What&#8217;s next?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/09\/22\/seagate-comeback-ai\/\">Seagate comeback thanks to AI, No 1 S&amp;P 500 perform stocks YTD<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/03\/27\/oracle-db-dominator\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/07\/21\/4-technology-stocks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The rebirth and fall of 4 major technology stocks in 10 years<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/08\/31\/how-bad-is-intel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How bad is Intel right now?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/10\/18\/intel-decisions\/\">&#8220;A series of Intel decisions led to where it is today<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/01\/18\/institutional-imperative\/\">Institutional imperative &#8211; the good, bad, and ugly<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/06\/12\/intel-is-spinning-into-five\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Intel is spinning into five separate companies<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/20\/oracles-oci-ai\/\">Oracle\u2019s cloud computing and AI finally recognized<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/01\/23\/erp-oligopoly-sap\/\">ERP oligopoly SAP succeeds in AI and cloud transformation, How SAP makes money?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2022\/02\/26\/overlord-of-cloud-computing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Microsoft, the dominant overlord of cloud computing<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2024\/09\/24\/hpe-on-enterprise\/\">HPE expertizes on enterprise technology services<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2025\/03\/04\/value-and-problem-palantir\/\">The value of Palantir, pros and cons of Palantir investment<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/2021\/06\/14\/palantir-introduction\/\">What kind of company is Palantir?<\/a>&#8220;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><em>The content of this site is the author\u2019s personal opinions and is for reference only. I am not responsible for the correctness, opinions, and immediacy of the content and information of the article. Readers must make their own judgments.<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><em>I shall not be liable for any damages or other legal liabilities for the direct or indirect losses caused by the readers&#8217; direct or indirect reliance on and reference to the information on this site, or all the responsibilities arising therefrom, as a result of any investment behavior.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IBM has made major and irreparable mistakes in decision-making on many major issues; it can be said that IBM decision-making mistakes caused today&#8217;s predicament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1336,493],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-30384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-critical-decision","category-operating-efficiency","tag-ibm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30384"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38826,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30384\/revisions\/38826"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.granitefirm.com\/blog\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}