Group Members

• Adeel Ahmed• Arshad • Adeel Siddique• Agha Habib

Group Members

Summary• IBM has been well known for its quality

products and services but later on, it had to confront certain challenges given by the competitors on the basis of flexible products, lower prices and personalized support.

Summary• IBM boosted the sale by implementing

accounting machine manufacturers. It also added mainframe computers in its portfolio and also launched PCs in order to compete with APPLE.

Summary• Afterwards, IBM faced a number of problems

such as declined economy, fluctuating interest rates and moreover, IBM PCs were incompatible to support all applications as a result the staff got frustrated. This persuaded IBM to integrate NON-IBM PCs with IBM computers.

Summary• Management strategies were applied to focus

on customer related functions and by giving sound incentives to employees. A joint venture was established with APPLE to develop software and multimedia capabilities for IBM. HR functions were also enhanced by training employee performance etc.

Summary• All these strategies helped IBM to bring

change and tackle with competitors and environmental challenges.

Question 1

Question 1• What task environment forces are acting on

IBM? What effect has culture had on IBM’s competitive position?

Answer• The economic forces acting on IBM are

economic, technology, customers, competitors and demographics.

• IBM enjoyed a successful culture initially, but was overwhelmed by this success.

• It responded slowly to the markets demand which was efficiently & affectively done by its competitors.

Question 2

Question 2• What roles does Apple play in IBM’s

environment? What concern might Akers have about Apple’s links with IBM?

Answer• Initially Apple was the Major Competitor of

IBM but later on IBM and Apple started a joint venture.

• Akers might had concerns of dependency of IBM on apple for the capabilities.

Question 3

Question 3• What information might boundary spanning

scales people and service technicians bring to IBM? How can IBM use this information to better scope its environment?

Answer• People were not willing to buy IBM products

as they were not supported with non IBM products.

• IBM, by using this information, can produce multi matching products.

Question 4

Question 4• How can Akers use forecasting to help the

company adapt to environmental turbulence?

Answer• Increase the production of mini computers• Decrease or stop the production of mainframe

computers.