Infrastructure as a Process: The Case of CRM in IBM

Abstract The early 1990s were years of tremendous change and turnaround for IBM. The growth of this high-tech industry giant was shaken dramatically. In the year after IBM had had the highest profits of its long history, Big Blue went into the red. A radical change at the leadership level was swiftly implemented, and Lou Gerstner arrived-a manager who came, not from inside the company, or even from the IT industry, but from the consumer product industry. The organization structure, which had been on the brink of being totally decentralized through the creation of several separate and independent companies, was suddenly recentralized. Various workforce reduction plans were enacted to change the culture of the corporation and the expectations of its employees.