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The Decline and Rise of IBM

July 15, 1996 | D. Quinn Mills | Strategy

What lessons do IBM's failure in the 1980s and early 1990s and its apparent successful comeback have for other large corporations? In an extensive study of the company's history (only part of which is covered here), the author finds two factors that contributed to IBM's difficulties: it ignored its commitments to customers to provide effective, high-quality technology and service support, and it broke its implied promise to employees to provide job security. Large corporations will survive only if they can avoid some of the hazards that IBM has faced.

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