IBM

Some very good people to work with. The products used to be good, but now it feels like they should be in hospice.

Much of the upper-middle and upper management are only trying to get their next promotion.

The result is that very shortsighted decisions get made and often hurt the products, integrations, and the people building/selling them.

MVP is a common phrase now with Product Dev/Mgmt. This is not referring to Most Valuable Process. MVP refers to Minimal Viable Product, and they rarely meet this MVP requirement.

The amount of middle-management headcount through most of IBM is surprising. There were four mid-tier managers that had no direct reports in our reasonably small territory. IBM also chose to cut people that were genuinely doing work and adding value instead of repurposing spreadsheets.

Cut the amount of non-value-add management.

Don't be afraid to push back on upper management when you feel you are doing the right thing.

Look beyond the current quarter.