Financial Capitalism and IBM

For the past few years I have begun to question the merits of finance led business--that is to say, where the "bottom line" determines capital allocation and business strategy--management by the spreadsheet if you will. It is an uphill battle as financially-led business is so "logical" in theory--just like free markets. In practice, it leads to something else--inequality, disruption of people's personal lives, and perhaps long term decline due pushing the company to capital rates that are not sustainable over the long run. I don't (yet) know what the solution is and there are a lot of thoughts flowing among people far smarter. Regardless, for a glimpse of how financial capitalism is affecting IBM, see this article from Robert Cringely, one of my favorite IT analysts. Let's see if his prediction of customer revolt in 2010 holds true, though we won't see the financial results until 2011.