IBM's computer business is based on strong relationships with business customers. But they are losing business to lower-cost solutions like cloud computing. To stay healthy, IBM needed to create a new competitive advantage. To make the transition, the company needed a leader ...

a. with a drive to succeed and lead

b. who was open-minded and extraverted

c. with the employees' trust and confidence

The correct option is C, the company needed a leader with employees' trust and confidence.

Explanation:

Apparently there is need for change in strategy at IBM's computers, as a result there is need for the company for a leader who would double both as the driver of the change as well as change champion, who has the traits to win employees' trust and confidence because succeeding on the change project requires that employees give their full support.

Ultimately, employees would only be willing to support and cooperate with a leader who has won their hearts through leadership by example.

C) with the employees' trust and confidence

Explanation:

IBM has a history of believing that it is too big and powerful that no one will even dare to put a fight against them, and guess what? They tend to lose very frequently, and it is the small guy that knocks them out. The first small guy to knock them out was Bill Gates. Yes, around 40 years ago Microsoft was a small company that almost destroyed IBM. In common terms, he beat the computer science out of them.

You would think that after liquidating their PC division, IBM would have learned the lesson, but you are wrong. Too many times they lost against apparently smaller competitors, and the only reason they survived was that they were larger than huge.

But even good things can result from tragedies, and now IBM apparently has decided to focus on more modern businesses, (not strange for the company that owns the most patents in the world) and is providing businesses cloud, mobile, and big data solutions.

The change happened a couple of years ago, in 2018, when finally IBM's revenues stopped shrinking. But in order to do so, it had to break away from the past. And most importantly, they themselves had to believe that they could do it. If you do not believe that you can win, then you will never win. During too many years IBM suffered from the same evil as Sears, JC Penny, Yahoo, Kodak, General Motors, and others. A company's history is important, but customers do not purchase your history, they purchase your products and services.