Surprise, Surprise,...blah tech isn't working

Surprise. Surprise. A few days ago, IBM replaced its CEO Ginni Rometti, with Arvind Krishna. According to Barrons, IBM sales have fallen by 25% in the last eight years, while other tech giants sales are doing well. In the previous eight years, I haven't seen IBM make the rounds to sell their products like DB2, Watson, WebSphere, and others.  They are not marketing their services well.

These days when I think about IBM, I see it as a "blah" technology company that lacks excitement. I used to think of Microsoft the same way. Things changed after Satya Nadella took reigns at Microsoft. They made a few exciting acquisitions that tell me Microsoft (specifically the current CEO) have a vision. These acquisitions diversify their offering of services. Here is the timeline:

1. Microsoft made its flagship product Microsoft Office accessible on non-Windows devices.
2. Microsoft purchased Minecraft for $2.5 billion. I thought this was a head-scratcher, but my kids love Minecraft. Right off the bat, Microsoft made inroads with the next generation, which will be earning income in the five to ten years.
3. Microsoft introduces Windows 10, and it is a solid Operation System with a smooth user experience. When l look at Windows 7 and others, I am reminded of Steve Balmer and his poor image of screaming at developers. Steve Balmer and his version of Microsoft.  Steve is not missed. He is better off running the Los Angeles Clippers.
4. Microsoft then bought LinkedIn.
5. Microsoft purchased Github.  As a developer,  I thought it was huge because it showed Microsoft's commitment to the developer community and the open-source community.

When I see IBM,  I don't see any innovation, and it appears to be the "Big Blue Stale Machine."  Is IBM's Watson ready to collect its Social Security checks because it seems to be aging pretty fast?  The company I am really concerned about is Google. Google recently stopped offering its core product Google Search Appliance, and it bundled it with its email.  Gmail is good, but it doesn't provide the email experience of Outlook.  Google's founders stepped away from leadership and gave it an up-and-coming CEO  Sundar Pichai.  The sudden disappearing act by founding computer scientists Larry Page and Sergey Bring doesn't build my confidence in Google.  Memes like this one below or The Wallstreet Journal article will not help Google's image.

For Google to build their trust with me, I want to see Google's founders take a more active role in the technical community.  I would also like to see user-centric innovation.  Having the most robust and secure cloud in the market is not appealing to me because they don't market it, and their tools are not user-friendly.  It's time for Larry and Sergi to stop playing in their lab and step up with the big boys like Satya Nadella, MarkZuckerburg, Reed Hastings, Tim Cook, and others.

Speaking about Tim Cook, who is the CEO of Apple Inc.  He has not done anything earth-shattering, but he has kept Apple with the times.  The launch of Apple TV is great, but I would like to see more innovation come out of Apple. Shrewd CEOs are strategic, operations focused, and can be ruthless.  Very few leaders are also innovative.  I see Steve Jobs in this category.  As you may know, the US government is trying to wrestle with Apple to get into its devices via a backdoor.  It will be interesting to see if Apple will every give-in.

Unlike Apple, Mark Zuckerburg, and his company Facebook seem to give in to external pressures.  According to Facebook, they are going to let politicians publish political ads.  Facebook is trying to diversify its portfolio of products, but I don't know how they can much progress since I don't trust.  It's going to be hard for Facebook to get back in the game until they gain back the public trust. It can be done.

I am interested to see how Netflix will evolve. Scott Hastings and his team revolutionized streaming digital content to mass audiences. Netflix has created a great market for actors, actresses, producers, directors, and other auxiliary roles for making movies, documentaries, and tv shows. With Disney+, Peacock TV, CBS Access, HBO, and others are trying to catch up to Netflix. According to my graphic, Netflix needs to move into gaming and devices to differentiate itself from other sorts of offerings.

I believe Amazon has reached its potential with e-commerce, and I like the way they are going with Amazon cloud and digital content. Amazon will evolve and begin to the left on my image via Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In summary,  big tech companies need to offer a diverse set of services which gives them the flexibility to grow and help them to minimize the risk.