John Fellows Akers is a U.S. businessman. At IBM, he was president between 1983 and 1989, the CEO from 1985 until 1993; and chairman between 1986 and 1993.

Akers attended Yale, and while there became a brother of Delta Kappa Epsilon

Delta Kappa Epsilon

Delta Kappa Epsilon is a fraternity founded at Yale College in 1844 by 15 men of the sophomore class who had not been invited to join the two existing societies...

 (Phi chapter).

IBM

Akers was chief executive during IBM's decline in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Steven Paul Jobs was an American businessman and inventor widely recognized as a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. He was co-founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of Apple Inc...

 described Akers as "smart, eloquent, fantastic salesperson, but he didn’t know anything about product.” CNBC has named Akers as one of the "Worst American CEOs of All Time", stating that, "While the rest of the world was moving toward personal computing, Akers remained stuck in the mainframe age, never quite figuring out what to do. Many outsiders viewed Akers as being in over his head. IBM was paralyzed by his lack of decisiveness."

The company's difficulties, however, weren't caused by Akers alone, as some suggested that he was merely doing what he had been "programmed" to do by an outdated "IBM system", while a complacent board of directors was also blamed.

Akers also presided over a major downsizing of IBM's workforce, cutting down from 407,000 to 360,000 by the end of 1991. The company had previously had a lifetime employment policy but the mass layoffs caused a morale crisis. Akers also closed ten plants and trimming manufacturing capacity by forty percent.

On January 29, 1988, in a sweeping restructuring intended to reverse three years of disappointing performance, Akers created five new, highly autonomous organizations responsible for all of the company's innovation, design and manufacturing. The moves were intended to greatly decentralize the company, which had been seen as bloated and unable to keep up with competition, and give significantly more responsibility to a younger generation of managers, while significantly reducing the role of the company's Armonk, N.Y., headquarters in the day-to-day operations. Under the plan, thousands of employees had to switch jobs or find themselves working for new managers. Akers' vision was to autonomize each division into "Baby Blues" with the aim of spinning them off from "Big Blue".

On Tuesday, January 26, 1993, Akers was forced to announce his resignation, after several months of IBM insisting that it had full confidence in his leadership. The company had posted a $5 billion USD annual loss, the largest in corporate history. The dividend was also slashed from $1.21 to 54 cents, after the company had failed to make enough profit to cover its dividend payments for eight business quarters. IBM president Jack Kuehler

Jack Kuehler

Jack D. Kuehler , was an American electrical engineer who devoted the majority of his career at IBM, where he was the firm's highest ranking technologist, serving as president and later vice chairman of the company....

 was shifted to the post of vice chairman, while finance director Frank Metz were also ousted. Paul Rizzo, a rival with Akers for the CEO position in 1985 was restored to the post of vice-chairman and appointed finance director. Akers remained as chief executive for three months while a committee of directors chose a successor, long speculated to be an outsider, which turned out to be Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. KBE was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of IBM from April 1993 until 2002 when he retired as CEO in March and chairman in December. He is largely credited with turning around IBM's fortunes.He was formerly CEO of RJR Nabisco, and also held senior positions...

  The management coup was mounted by longtime IBM director Jim Burke, who organized secret meetings between Gerstner and Rizzo to examine the company's problems.

Akers retired as Chairman and CEO of IBM on April 1, 1993, and was succeeded in both positions by Gerstner.

Post-IBM

He was also on the Board of Directors of Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers

Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...

 when it filed for bankruptcy.

External links

• IBM biography of Akers