Professional Documents
Culture Documents
What caused IBM to lose money in the early 1990s? What options did they face
to handle that problem?
Why was the System/360 platform significant? How did it affect the IT industry?
How was marketing for the IBM PC different from the way it handled
mainframes?
Was IBM a leader in client/server and networked computing?
In Exhibit 2, look for trends, such as: when was IBM most profitable? What
generated most of the revenue?
Exhibit 3 and related text how did IBMs organization affect its ability to use
and sell IT?
What role does technology play in achieving the IBM values?
Your problem analysis doesnt need to include much company history, since the
audience knows that. Focus on the relevant symptoms of the problem.
Your analysis should consider the substantial amount of data (exhibits) provided.
Are different parts of the organization doing better than others? That may inspire
some alternative approaches.
Consider the impact of environmental issues, like the dot com crash.
Assess how the IT aspect of Amazon should be changed, if at all. Is the digital
business infrastructure viable, or should it be changed? Different approaches
might answer that differently!
The changes mentioned at the end of the case study, such as Toys R Us and
Infrastructure Services, should be considered part of the existing conditions
before you make your recommendations.
Profitability is an obvious decision criterion. What else is important to this
organization?
Your alternative approaches could change Amazons strategy, its capabilities, or both. Its
the end of the dot com era, dont be afraid to shake things up!
Solutions such as sell the company or do nothing are considered trivial, so dont
present them.