IBM Chairman Cracks Down on ‘Comfortable’ Employees : High tech: Akers says employees are ‘too damn comfortable’ as IBM loses business. He reportedly wants more marginal employees fired.

IBM Chairman John Akers has been making blunt speeches to his managers warning that the computer industry is in a crisis and that company employees are “too damn comfortable” as it loses business.

Akers’ comments may indicate deeper trouble at one of the nation’s most important companies than it has publicly let on. IBM has blamed the poor economy worldwide--not internal shortcomings--for lower sales and profit it reported in the first quarter.

On top of the recession, International Business Machines Corp., as other computer makers, must contend with a more competitive industry that is seeing historic growth rates slow.

IBM’s worldwide market share has slipped to about 23% from 37% in 1983, according to Gartner Group Inc., a technology research firm.

In recent weeks, a number of analysts lowered their earnings projections for IBM for this quarter and the year. IBM shares fell $1 to close at $104.125 in New York Stock Exchange trading Wednesday.

One industry analyst said Akers’ comments, reported in several newspapers Wednesday, appear to represent a change in tone.

“I never felt a sense of urgency” before, said Martin Ressinger of the Chicago investment firm Duff & Phelps Inc. “Now you sort of sense that it is time to get a little bit tough.”

According to the newspaper accounts, based on notes taken at one Akers session by an unidentified IBM employee, the chairman told managers a few weeks ago that the company had “too many people standing around the water cooler waiting to be told what to do.”

Akers was said to have told the managers to fire more marginal employees.

“The fact that we’re losing market share makes me goddamn mad. I used to think my job as a (sales) rep was at risk if I lost a sale,” Akers was quoted as telling the managers. “Tell them theirs is at risk if they lose” one.

“The tension level is not high enough in the business--everyone is too damn comfortable at a time when the business is in crisis,” Akers was quoted as saying.

Akers also was quoted as saying IBM needs to improve product quality.