About IBM Corporation
IBM Corporation
https://bwordopedia.blogspot.com/2020/01/about-ibm-corporation.html?m=1#more
• Founder: Thomas Watson Sr.
• Distinction: The king of technology throughout the technology age.
• Primary products: Computer hardware, software, peripherals, service.
• Annual sales: $87.548 billion.
• Number of employees: 307,401.
• Major competitors: Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft.
• Chairman and CEO: Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
• Headquarters: Armonk, N.Y.
• Year founded: 1911.
• Web site: www.ibm.com.
Before disgruntled techno-rebels ever heard of Microsoft, IBM was the company they loved to hate. The monolithic Big Blue was the first big dog in technology, dominating the industry. (It was sued three times for antitrust violations.) From the 1920s when its tabulators, time clocks, and typewriters first set their own standards, through the 1980s when its PC became the model for desktop computing, virtually no one—technologically speaking—could escape its grasp. Factor in its infamously conformist corporate culture, and it’s easy to see how International Business Machines consistently drew the ire of dissidents.But then the company—on top since Thomas Watson Sr. peddled mechanical tabulating machines and Thomas Watson Jr. pushed early business computers—inexplicably missed several important waves in technology. It opened its PC design to everyone, but waited too long to market an operating system needed by resultant “clones.” It jumped early into cyberspace, but picked the wrong vehicle in the ill-fated Prodigy online service. It also was unprepared for a shift in corporate purchasing power, which evolved from the massive departments it had always dealt with to individuals making technology decisions in today’s small companies. In 1993, its net loss hit $8 billion.
However, when Lou Gerstner took over, IBM has been remade and resurrected. Gerstner freed it from unproductive habits. He trimmed the bloated workforce, but recruited top newcomers. He introduced important products such as “hub” computers (or servers) that move data between workstations and the Internet. Most importantly, he rejected cries to disassemble the company, correctly sensing it was uniquely qualified to provide integrated solutions for an array of contemporary technological needs. Such services, rather than specific products, thus became the driving force behind his new IBM.
And it worked. Revenues hit record levels. Market capitalization grew 10-fold. Even theculture relaxed, with annual reports now featuring modern folks in blue jeans rather than automatons in dark suits. Some questioned whether it could be maintained, but Gerstner remained upbeat—targeting e-commerce as the next frontier, even as he reluctantly prepared for his retirement in the not-so-distant future.