Worldwide Speak Up :  
 
Sindelfingen 1992
  
  The 6th IWIS Meeting held in Sindelfingen Germany, from 9-12 November 1992, reflected the problem facing IBM employees, their representative organisations and IBM itself.  
  We held presentations from delegations in this meetings. France, Germany, Japan, Greece, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Austria, United States of America, Portugal, Republic of Korea and Netherlands.  
  Restructuring of IBM  
     
  We consider that it is detrimental not only to the employees, but to IBM itself, that the work force is regarded as a 1iabi1ity and not as an asset; the overriding factor, in the current restructuring is the effort to "get rid of people".  
 

Worlwide, this has resulted in :

    • widespread anxiety and dissatisfaction,
    • worsening working conditions leading to excessive work loads and disrupt ion of many activities.
 
 

In so far as the steps taken so far to reorganise the company stand a long way from being understood, let alone accepted, the employees are not the only victims of the situation:

    • the image of the company is being seriously affected and its distinctive features increasingly sacrificed to short term results ',
    • customer satisfaction is reaching alarming levels which is not surprising considering that improvisation is taking the place of planning,
    • the management system is rapidly approaching the breakdown point with the company generally lacking a sense of purpose and direction.
 
 

The organisations present in this meeting acknowledge the heed for restructuring and do no t oppose any measures for sake of opposition. But experience shows that a few cautionary words are not superfluous :

    • early retirements mergers, joint ventures, sales of parts of business, and so on, are not good or bad in themselves but need to be analyzed against the background of an overall company strategy, right now, the only discernible "strategy" is to have: the best possible finantial results, quarter by quarter,
    • in a sense present-day executives lack the preparation and the credibi1ity to carry out a reorganisation of this nature and scale: one need only reflect on the cases of Rolm and Wang to conclude how the management had already built such a notoriously weak record even before it embarked on the present course.
    • Additionally, a disproportionate emphasis is put on the financial side of the company as if survival depended lesson sound business decisions and more on dividends per share. Traditionally, top executives allocate themselves varying amounts of company stock, so the question begs to be asked: are such executives prepared to take objective decisions, independent of their own persona! Interests. The temptation to take refuge in "holding Gompanies" leaving the tough business decisions to the subsidiaries may have something to do with "the above phenomenae.
 
  As the news of restructuring/reorganizing/transforming IBM unfold week after week, country after country, employees, are concluding that in reality, IBM is being dismantled rather than transformed : neither the stock holders, nor the Employees, have given anybody a mandate for such a task.  
     
  Our Vision of IBM  
     
  We submit that the IBM vision needs to be refocused as that of a company organized for "the supply of information processing solutions to its customers, from the desk top to the computer room according to the highest standards afforded by the technology involved and the excellence of service arid support rendered by IBM personnel".  
 

Consequently, we deemed important to emphasise that:

    • the difference between the objective of the company as a social and economic agent in the marketplace, in the pursuit of its vision, on one side, and the yardsticks by which its performance is measured, on the other. The quarterly and year-end results should be treated, as yardsticks and not the company's "raison d'être".
    • the role to be played by employees at all levels and the need to charter a new set of labour relations in the company, designed to foster employee creativity, involvement and security: the sucess or failure of the IBM of the future will depend mere on the money invested to improve the quality of the professionals, the tools they use and the working conditions impacting their environment, than on money spent to divest IBM of headcount, whatever the cost.
    • the many forms of organization that such a vision can accommodate, so long as our fundamental role in the marketplace is not lost sight of : rather than creating "companies" that do not help the organisation as a whole to focus on its fundamental objectives, the main managerial thrust should be applied on business real realignment of organisational units that justify their existence.