IBM workers blast Akers and top management in candid forum comments; 'he puts stockholders ahead of customers and the Japanese are grinning ear to ear.' (John Akers) (Special Report)

IBM employees, frustrated over Big Blue's fading glory, and angry at top management for laying the blame on them, have fired back with a salvo of their own. They charge IBM CEO John Akers with abandoning time-honored company principles and say "he would be respected more if he would resign."

In early June, Software -- Industry Report headlined news that Akers had called managers together ' and blasted them and their subordinates for being "too damned comfortable in a time of crisis" -- and for traveling too much, wasting too much time in pointless meetings and, most of all, for producing low-quality work (see issue, June 3, pg. 1).

Late last month, IBM employees held an electronic "town meeting" to discuss Akers' comments. The bottom-line consensus to the electronic forum was few IBMers believe the company is making good progress, while most are keenly disappointed with their employer. IBM, the rank-and-file seem to be saying, is made up of frustrated workers, middle managers who are too ambitious for the company's own good, and senior executives who are simply out of touch.

They also agree with Akers that IBM products are high in price and low in quality. They stress that cooperation among divisions is rare to non-existent and that management's attention often drifts far from customer concerns. Many employees said they feel the root cause of IBM problems is Akers himself.

The IBM CEO has not commented directly on the employees' electronic forum, through in a recent issue of "Think," IBM's in-house publication, he back-pedaled a bit by saying "Many IBM employees are still executing perfectly, but I think there are some people who still are working in what they perceive as a 'business as usual' environment."

Following is a selection of comments IBM employees have made in their electronic forum on IBM's current predicament and how they feel it got there:

* On John Akers -- "He has resorted to laying the blame for IBM's predicament on the shoulders of others."

"He has abandoned many of those things that have made IBM unique and have done a lot to earn industry respect over the years....If he won't take responsibility for the empty politics and do-nothing performance of middle management, then who should?"

"He has no results to show -- worse, he has presided over the most serious erosion of everything that matters...he would be respected more if he would resign."