Pros

Real innovation, global company that takes new opportunities very seriously. The research work going on at IBM is perhaps the most cutting-edge in IT and even in other industries. IBM has a tremendous cash-cow in zSeries machines and can continue to capitalize on it for years to come. This will finance other projects .

Cons

If you have not gone above grade 10, your salary will not match your abilities or qualifications. Moreover, cost cutting has become a culture so pervasive that even after a great quarterly result, senior managers are asked to freeze hiring, travel budgets and call off international meetings. Hardly anyone can travel in business any longer, even senior execs. I've seen Sr VPs sitting in open space offices -- these are people with 100s of reports. Something is severely screwed up when seniority no longer has any rewards.

Advice to Senior Management

Concentrate on people as an asset, get rid of Lotus and other frivolous software acquisitions to concentrate on middleware.