Fierce but fair? An offline comment (it's Friday) and I think it's pertinent.
I fought IBM tooth and nail from 1978 to 1992. Throughout that time I found IBM and all other competitors - at management levels - to be fair and honest people. Some might find it amazing, but I think I can claim (some) true friends at most management levels in all PCMs. There are even one or two within IBM who find the aßhole business distressing. There were a lot of good guys out there. Niggles - yes - but mostly at the fringes. When you got to the policy people - no problems. I had several occasions when something IBM Confidential (real, not trivial) turned up. This was in Germany, in the 1980s. We called IBM Stuttgart - Industry Relations - and the response was always the same: "Don't touch it, we will collect it". To my shame, I've forgotten his name. An IBM "lawyer" used to come up to Frankfurt by train and I would collect him at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof. "Herr Dr Something." I'm really ashamed at not remembering his name. Always had a pipe in his mouth - never to my experience lit it. Immensely respected within our organisation. We drove to our offices, he opened his legal-type floppy leather briefcase and dropped the documents in, we shook hands, coffee was offered and accepted, we set off for the Hauptbahnhof and stopped off for a beer on the way. -- Phil Payne http://www.isham-research.co.uk +44 7833 654 800 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
