-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Scott Ford Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2012 3:13 PM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Career Advice for the Mainframer - Was RE: Another Light goes out
>They are also in the business of making hardware, my father worked for Unisys >and when I mentioned I wanted to get into this industry he's the one that >steered me toward IBM. Not ultimately. Mainframes are hardware. DASD is hardware. Typewriters and punched card sorters are hardware, and they were once IBM's main product lines. Even if their mission statement requires them to continue making hardware, they are free to change their mission statement any time it becomes necessary. It is my opinion that they will also dump their hardware business the day it no longer is profitable. We have already seen IBM sell off their DASD manufacturing business. IBM, and tens of thousands of other American businesses, must follow the federal laws of the United States regarding corporations, and one of those laws requires that the top financial officers of the corporation take care to exercise their fiduciary responsibilities, the primary one being to reward their stockholders. I doubt that our laws require IBM to continue making hardware, however. It's a happy coincidence for CEOs and CFOS that they can always blame US law for requiring that they make cold-blooded decisions that do not sit well with employees or those whose livelihoods depend upon the continued sale of certain products. The US auto businesses have dumped many auto dealerships that depended on the continuous stream of hardware from the auto industry. It may be a long-standing tradition of company X to manufacture product Y, but company X's 1st priority is to stay in business and continue making profits, not to continue making Y. This brutal logic works for all federally chartered corporations. Another way to understand this brutal logic is to ponder "what would I do if I were CEO of IBM and our hardware divisions were no longer profitable?" I know what I would do. Bill Fairchild Programmer Rocket Software 408 Chamberlain Park Lane * Franklin, TN 37069-2526 * USA t: +1.617.614.4503 * e: bfairch...@rocketsoftware.com * w: www.rocketsoftware.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
