Re: What the Hell Has Happened to IBM?
"The company replaced him, it is claimed, with younger, less experienced IBM employees" - which might explain why the quality is going down the tubes as well.
However this is a very old problem, and by far not only at IBM. Some 20 years back I attended a seminar led by the CEO of a major international recruitment agency. At Q&A I asked whether any client ever asked for individual excellence in candidates. The answer was "we've never been asked for that".
Only the "Executive" are talented individuals - all other staff are replaceable replicate drones. There's a strong preference for the cheapest drones to run, and "awards" are just a way of keeping the drones quiet. That's not changed in the last 200 years.