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Letter to Sam Palmisano February 26, 2002 Sam Palmisano, President,
IBM Corporation Congratulations on being named CEO of IBM. I would like to wish you the best of luck and success in your new role. Having worked for IBM most of my career (20 years), I care very much about the long term health of the company. I have several things I'd like to ask that you sincerely consider, as you take the helm of our company. I believe all of these changes, should you implement them, will help IBM be successful in the long run: 1. Please treat employees as assets, rather than as expenses. I would like to see the Basic Beliefs, including "Respect for the Individual", return as guiding principles for IBM. I believe that this is critical for IBM's success in the long run. Businesses can and do succeed without treating employees as commodities – take Southwest Airlines as an example. The IBM culture today is one of fear, self-preservation, and chaos. Dedication and pride of job well done for one's employer are gone. Please end the continuous cycles of firings. And please stop treating younger employees as more desirable than older, experienced employees. 2. Please work to
restore trust between IBM management and employees. This
will not be easy. Long-term employees see IBM management with great mistrust;
shorter-term employees see IBM as merely one employer among many and have
no desire to work 3. Please ask your
HR departments to be honest and straightforward in their
communications, and not resort to using "spin" to obfuscate
the true meaning of changes in policies and 4. Please consider the health of our communities and countries. It is harmful for societies in the long term, to force down the wage scale and eliminate benefits by replacing regular workers with temps, and by moving plants to third-world countries with no laws to protect workers or the environment. 5. Lastly, please invest in IBM by developing new products, making our sales organization strong, or by using any other good business investment strategy, rather than spending billions to buy back shares. I am not suggesting
that IBM return to the "old days" of overstaffed bureaucracy
and slowness to respond to the market. What I'm asking for is a return
to ethics, honesty, and decent As Marjorie Kelly,
the founder of Business Ethics magazine, stated, "Managing
a company solely for maximum share price can destroy both share price
and the entire company". I hope Sincerely,
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