'It might be time to change IBM's nickname from Big Blue to Black and Blue,' wrote the New York Times in 1993 as the company once revered worldwide as the epitome of management excellence and technological prowess reported losses of $ 5.46 billion in just one quarter's trading. Not surprisingly it was forced to make savage cuts in its workforce worldwide, including Britain. Once IBM employees were convinced they had a job for life. Now as Paul Carroll, the Wall Street Journal's IBM specialist, relates, other names in the computer industry - Apple and Microsoft in particular - lead the way. Big Blues is the inside story of why one of the most successful enterprises in business history no longer performs to expectations. Is the phrase IBM compatible simply history? Or is there a future for Big Blue?