IBM recently announced plans to split into two companies. The company continuing on with the IBM name will focus on cloud and AI solutions, while IBM’s traditional managed infrastructure services will reside in a to-be-named NewCo.
I’m a huge fan of focus, so this is a good thing, perhaps even overdue.
However, I have often said that a company’s purpose should be “forever” and if a company changes its purpose, then that probably means it’s no longer the same company. This planned change is a good opportunity to reflect on the fact that IBM is no longer International Business Machines. While the company’s stock ticker, headquarters location, and even management and employee teams have enjoyed some level of continuity, it is not the same company.
In this article, I discuss how the company’s purpose and very nature have changed over the decades.