8 ms·

I see this type of comment thrown around a bit, but a quick pass of the senior management suggests otherwise. https://newsroom.ibm.com/executive-bios https://ne

I see this type of comment thrown around a bit, but a quick pass of the senior management suggests otherwise. https://newsroom.ibm.com/executive-bios https://newsroom.ibm.com/executive-bios? Not a whole lot of MBAs and a decent amount of engineers.

sushshshsh 6y ago
Ask those managers when the last time they wrote a line of production code was :)
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ponker 6y ago
  Even the most technical CEOs like Bill Gates stopped writing code pretty early in their careers
- missedthecue 6y ago
  When's the last time Tim Cook or Satya Nadella wrote a line of code?
  - sushshshsh 6y ago
    Something about cherrypicking outliers compared to the droves of managers who haven't written code in 20 years and have been converted to the dogma of management
rhizome 6y ago
If you loosen your sense of "MBA"... - Rometty (Chair): Technical degrees, held technical positions for first 10yrs at IBM, then in sales for the 90s, two decades working primarily with finance customers and she worked the PWC acquisition. - Krishna (CEO): EE, Idea guy. - Whitehurst (Pres): MBA - Boville (SVP Cloud): Business degrees (UK) - Browdy (SVP Legal): IP attorney - Foster (SVP Services): Art degree, Accenture guy - Gherson (SVP): Management degrees - Gil (Dir IBM Research): EE/CS - Kavanaugh (CFO): MBA - Got bored One trait is pretty dominant: decades at IBM
- Graphguy 6y ago
  The loosening lens is a bit of strawman argument. I would hope someone at the level has experience with the business side of things... Pichai and Nadella weren't tapped to run their business straight after shipping a release. Also, Howard joined in May (which is an important one...because this press release is about Cloud not about HR/patents.)
- lol636363 6y ago
  You don't need MBA to have MBA mindset. A lot of computer science grads use their degree to get foot in the door and then move into management positions. At IBM, to do anything you need to get permissions from 5 different semi-tech approvers. They have not done any real work in a while but read a few blog posts and come up with their own policies that contradicts each other. It is a pita to want to produce high quality code. And that is just middle management. All those people higher up can define tech words but hardly anyone can actually explain the definition of those tech terms.
- x87678r 6y ago
  Ironically Whitehurst came from Red Hat.
- dralley 6y ago
  Whitehurst has a Computer Science degree (BS) and was using Linux on his personal computers in the 1990s and early 2000s, I think it's unfair to drop him in the MBA bucket.

sushshshsh 6y ago

Ask those managers when the last time they wrote a line of production code was :)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ponker 6y ago
Even the most technical CEOs like Bill Gates stopped writing code pretty early in their careers
missedthecue 6y ago
When's the last time Tim Cook or Satya Nadella wrote a line of code?
- sushshshsh 6y ago
  Something about cherrypicking outliers compared to the droves of managers who haven't written code in 20 years and have been converted to the dogma of management

rhizome 6y ago

If you loosen your sense of "MBA"... - Rometty (Chair): Technical degrees, held technical positions for first 10yrs at IBM, then in sales for the 90s, two decades working primarily with finance customers and she worked the PWC acquisition. - Krishna (CEO): EE, Idea guy. - Whitehurst (Pres): MBA - Boville (SVP Cloud): Business degrees (UK) - Browdy (SVP Legal): IP attorney - Foster (SVP Services): Art degree, Accenture guy - Gherson (SVP): Management degrees - Gil (Dir IBM Research): EE/CS - Kavanaugh (CFO): MBA - Got bored One trait is pretty dominant: decades at IBM

Graphguy 6y ago
The loosening lens is a bit of strawman argument. I would hope someone at the level has experience with the business side of things... Pichai and Nadella weren't tapped to run their business straight after shipping a release. Also, Howard joined in May (which is an important one...because this press release is about Cloud not about HR/patents.)
lol636363 6y ago
You don't need MBA to have MBA mindset. A lot of computer science grads use their degree to get foot in the door and then move into management positions. At IBM, to do anything you need to get permissions from 5 different semi-tech approvers. They have not done any real work in a while but read a few blog posts and come up with their own policies that contradicts each other. It is a pita to want to produce high quality code. And that is just middle management. All those people higher up can define tech words but hardly anyone can actually explain the definition of those tech terms.
x87678r 6y ago
Ironically Whitehurst came from Red Hat.
dralley 6y ago
Whitehurst has a Computer Science degree (BS) and was using Linux on his personal computers in the 1990s and early 2000s, I think it's unfair to drop him in the MBA bucket.