Failed major US CEO...James Fellows Akers...passed away at age 80. He presided over the decline of computer giant IBM during the 1980s and left his tenure named the Worst CEO of All Time....IBM had enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the field of computer technology for years, while the industry relied on large networked mainframe computers stored in massive computer complexes...When companies like Apple introduced the idea of the personal computer to the masses...this mainframe model was quickly displaced and made obsolete. The steady profits from this mainframe culture had created a massive bloated...vertically integrated heirachy , where fitting in was a pre requisite to a comfortable career with lifetime employment....Sadly, as the computer market went through the PC revolution....IBMs business model left little room for innovation to respond to changes in consumer demand and needs. Akers, who was known to have been indecisive ...was given the task of...restructuring IBM to a horizontal organization of competing sub units...each closer to the customer and more autonomous....The re structuring eliminated the lifetime employment mecca and hundreds of thousands of employees were terminated....More senior managers were passed over by younger talent....IBM was gaining its market share back...but the loss of morale in a decimated corporate culture...and a stunning $5 billion business loss...in one year signaled Akers end....His benefactor...and competitor...Steve Jobs...praised Akers abilities, particularly as a salesman....but sadly admitted that he was stuck in a mainframe culture and never understood the pc market....Akers ended his career as a senor board member of Lehman Brothers...when it folded in 2008. What a career....
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 14:01:17 +0000
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