Telecommuting at IBM Indiana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

telecommuting at IBM Indiana - Essay ExampleIt was in the 19702 that the comp either enjoyed ab come out 70% of the electronic computer trade share. The reputation that the gild name was tagged with gave the company trusted reputation. Half of the companys demarcation volume was spread out worldwide. It was in the mid-1980s, however, that the company started to have problems. The profits of the company had started to plunge down. Analysts conclude that the reasons behind the downfall(a) were not many but were strong enough to shaken an established company. They were the bureaucratic and slow moving setup of the company, maintenance of old business strategies and reluctance to replace them with newer ones, incorrect appraisal of business risks. As said by Ducker (1993), it is a business sin to sacrifice tomorrows opportunity on the altar of yesterday. This was precisely the reason why IBM got off-track its road to success. Though IBM did try to handle up with the growing trends of the market by introducing a PC in the market almost nightlong after Apple introduced the first PC in the mid-1970s but they could actually never get out of the MAINFRAME mask that they had put on themselves. Then the time came when IBM was being administered by JOHN AKERS who was a career IBMer in the ear 1985. Since the downfall of the company had already begun several steps were being taken by the administered in order to downsize the company. A summary of the downsizing of the company can be viewed in the attached table. Table 1 The IBM Timeline from 1970 to 1994. YEARS PROGRESS AT IBM. 1970s IBM owns about 70% of the computer market share. 1980s IBM continues to grow but at a slower rate. 1985 Profit margins begin to slip. 1985 1993 curtailment resulted in employee list moving from 405,000 to 300,000. 1987 1992 Stocks dropped from $176 to $ 49. 1991-1992 Unprecedented losses. 1994 Employee number decreases to 225,000. The administered however resigned in the year when de spite all his efforts the company continued to lose stocks and suffered major losses in year 1992.Louis V. Gerstner so replaced the former take of the company. Further downsizing of employees was then consented upon by the management of the company. THE PROPOSAL The establishment of the companys lieu in the state of Indiana was an evident example of the problem the company was facing overall. The Indiana self-assurance reduced its number of employees to about 30% in the year 1992. The General Manager Operation s for the State of Indiana was foreseeing an opposite cut in the number of employees. This step was extremely unaffordable as any further cut in the number of employees could have resulted in the deletion of key essential employees of the company that were required to run it. This could have put the company into further trouble. An alternative idea was proposed by the then operations manager of IBM Indiana Office in the year 1993. He proposed that instead of reducing the n umber of personnel working at the organization furthermore the employees should be equipped with technological devices to assist them. This would in turn enable the employees to be able to work from home. The terminology commonly coined for such a job is Telecommuting. TELECOMMUTING While all the other offices of the IBM were trying their hands at downsizing the people at Indiana were eager to try something new. The first person to take up this change was none other than the executive Vice President of the Indiana Operations himself. It was decided that employees who spent more than half of their