IBM Redraws Its Flow Chart of Top Officers

International Business Machines Corp. said Thursday that it realigned the reporting structure among top executives to eliminate a management layer and to allow its personal computer and minicomputer businesses to respond more quickly to market changes.

“These changes will allow increased focus on key areas of our business, further reduce structure and speed our response to the marketplace,” IBM Chairman John F. Akers said in a statement.

IBM, like the rest of the computer industry, has experienced a slump in profit and revenue. At the same time, the personal computer market in particular has become cutthroat, with prices dropping sharply.

Under the old structure, all its lines of business reported to Senior Vice President Terry R. Lautenbach, who, in turn, reported to IBM President Jack D. Kuehler.

Under the realignment, Kuehler will be the “contact executive” for the personal computer, workstation and minicomputer operations, eliminating the intermediate step of reporting to Lautenbach.

IBM spokesman Rob Wilson said the contact executive helps resolve issues before they come before the company’s management committee, IBM’s top strategy-setting body.

Lautenbach, in turn, was elevated to a position on the management committee, increasing that committee to five members.

Reporting to Lautenbach under the new structure will be the U.S. sales operation, the worldwide manufacturing and development operations, the mainframe business, the computer chip operation, the computer networking division and the operating system division.

“The emphasis that this puts on the personal systems line of business demonstrates IBM wants to be more nimble in that area,” industry consultant Sam Albert said. “This puts an emphasis on what’s an increasingly important revenue stream for the company.”