Re: IBM's Frank Soltis "let go" -- MIDRANGE-L

Trevor,

Thanks for taking me along for the ride on your logic train while I read your email. The track seemed a little bumpy and I was hoping it didn't derail before it reached its destination. Was there a restaurant car on board ? ;-)

You say
"I, for one, believe Dr. Frank to be a strong influence on the community, and I enjoyed listening to him one-on-one or in an audience."
I'm not sure how you appear to reach the conclusion that I somehow DON'T agree with that.

The title of Dr. Frank's next book may surprise you.

PS - Le Mans is more Frank's style, not the Indy 500.

PPS - don't tell anyone, but I'm also responsible for the stock market crash - I invested some money in my retirement plan the day before it started. I think my investment advisor may have put it in IBM stock. ;-)

Neil Palmer, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

(This account not monitored for personal mail,
remove the last two letters before @ for that)

--- On Thu, 11/13/08, Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

From: Trevor Perry <trevor@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: IBM's Frank Soltis "let go"
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Received: Thursday, November 13, 2008, 9:57 AM
I had to read this several times...let me write down the
history as it
happened according to Neil.

1. Dr. Frank's budget was cut
2. Neil complained at COMMON
3. Dr. Frank's budget was restored
4. In a cost-cutting effort, IBM does a "let go"
on Dr. Frank

So, Neil, you were responsible for getting Dr. Frank's
budget reinstated,
which seems to be the cause of Dr. Frank's
"letting go". Neil, are you ok
with causing Dr. Frank to leave IBM? What a
responsibility....

And, before you complain, this is simply just another
perspective based on
the 'facts'. If all of you can twist IBM's
actions to fit your own biased
view, so can anone else...

How about, instead of whining, bitching, moaning and
complaining about IBM -
a larger business that most of you have ever run - and
celebrate the career
that Dr. Frank had at IBM, and celebrate what he represents
to the industry.
I, for one, believe Dr. Frank to be a strong influence on
the community, and
I enjoyed listening to him one-on-one or in an audience.

Now, what I want to know, is what will Frank do next? What
will the title of
his next book be? ("How Neil caused me to leave
IBM"? or "My fantastic
career"?) What is the next speaking circuit where he
will appear? How famous
will he get post-IBM? Will he win Indy 500?

On 11/12/08 11:41 AM, "Neil Palmer"
<neilpalmer400mr@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

To be precise, Frank was told his job was going away

back in January. By the

time of COMMON in Nashville his travel budget had been

eliminated (it

miraculously reappeared almost instantly after I

mentioned this during the

Town Hall meeting). Frank was told his last day is

December 10th. IBM pulled

the same trick they did on Malcolm Haines last year,

he was informed his job

was going away and offered a choice of some boring

bureaucrat alternatives.

This is so IBM can claim they "chose" to

retire, in the same way a chicken

"chooses" to die when you cut its head off.

It's just more proof that IBM doesn't care

about "i", or certainly doesn't

care what the customers of "i" want or care

about the people who loyally

worked for "i". I asked a question during

Ross Mauri's fireside chat

yesterday about his unfortunate use of the word

"strategic" in his recent

letter to customers in describing the "i"

operating environment. As we all

know declaring a product "strategic" is IBM

code to signal its impending

demise, and I asked if he could assure us that the

"i" product and all its

important advocates can look forward to many more

years of useful service.

For some reason that question never appeared during

the chat.

It's plain to see that there's a purge going

on of the Rochester faithful by

the Armonk politburo. It's all about services

revenue and "i" just doesn't

play that game for IBM because of its ease of use.

Don Rima pulled his head

out of the sand years ago, it's time we all did

the same.

PS - Dr. Frank is speaking at the Toronto User Group

meeting on Wednesday

November 19th. If you're in the Toronto area you

may want to catch one of his

last appearances as an IBM'er.
See http://www.tug.ca/

Neil Palmer, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada

(This account not monitored for personal mail,
remove the last two letters before @ for that)

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