IBM

Smart technical people with great work ethic. Good facilities and compensation. Generally good work/life balance (save crunch times). Some flexibility in working from home. Great opportunities for learning and exposure to a wide range of technologies.

Acquisitions make life hell for developers.

Very limited opportunity to create and innovate (vs. acquire and integrate).

Entrenched products and management make change very difficult to achieve.

Low respect for technical people (seen as replaceable resources).

Very poor project planning with unrealistic schedules and staffing.

Outsourcing trends suggest a short career shelf-life for most employees.

Talk to and listen to your technical people (not just first-line management).

Encourage innovation from within.

Recognize that the pace of acquisition is damaging to employee morale.

Provide 20% discretionary time for development, innovation, and sanity.

Focus less on short-term gains and more on long-term technical innovation.