IBM CEO Ginni Rometty was the target of irate investors this week after the tech giant reporting dismal quarterly results. The company’s sales were down 4 per cent year-on-year in the September quarter to $22.4 billion, while operating earnings dropped 10 per cent in the same period to $3.68 a share. What spooked investors was the broad-based revenue decline across the globe and in almost all business segments. Revenue in growth markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China declined 7 per cent and the EMEA region witnessed an 8 per cent drop. The decline manifested itself in IBM’s core software business, technology services, business services, system and technology and server and storage.

Since January 2012, when Rometty became CEO, IBM has reported lacklustre results — one quarter of flat revenue and ten consecutive quarters of declining sales. Understandably, IBM’s shares have lost over 12 per cent this year, plunging to a three-year low after the recent quarterly results.

Rometty, who was ranked No. 1 on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list for three years in a row, rose up through IBM’s services businesses. She has been trying to revive the 103-year-old behemoth by divesting lagging businesses — such as the chip manufacturing unit — and investing in high-growth segments such as mobile and cloud.

She has also charted a three-part plan to accelerate the company’s turnaround. This includes creating a dedicated cloud business, giving flexible software offerings and better services delivery, and streamlining operations. It remains to be seen if these small steps will help lift the performance of the tech giant, which employs over 4,30,000 workers in 170 countries across the globe.

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