Times are changing at IBM Deutschland GmbH. Over the past few months the company’s operations in Germany have seen the arrival and departure of several top-level executives, among these the resignation of Bernhard Dorn, managing director of IBM Deutschland’s Berlin office. Dorn was with the company for 30 years and had been groomed to take over IBM in Germany after Hans-Olaf Henkel took over IBM Europe. Dorn’s management style is said to have rubbed management at IBM in the US the wrong way, sources there suggested. Thus Dorn did not rise to the helm of IBM Deutschland and the post was given to Edmund Hug. In any case, Dorn will continue to work as a consultant for the company. But it is not just the personnel that is changing at IBM Germany. Management is restructuring the entire organisation as well. The company has announced plans to move the System & Networks Division back under the umbrella of the holding company – where it was to begin with three years ago. In addition, there are plans to integrate IBM Informationssysteme in Stuttgart with the Dresden-based IBM Deutschland Systeme und Service Ost. The restructuring is necessary to present a unified rather than fragmented IBM to the customer, IBM says.
