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THE MARKET
Businesses everywhere, in every sector, have to
compete with the ceaseless march of globalisation
and the incessant competitive activity it creates.
Today’s business leaders must look for new ways
to stand out clearly in markets that are constantly
in a state of flux. This new era brings with it a
seemingly endless stream of new technological
resources and business solutions that help
organisations of every kind identify and grasp
opportunities that surround them. The challenge is
to find innovative ways to share knowledge, ideas
and solutions, gain competitive advantage and stay
ahead of the game.
ACHIEVEMENTS
During 2006, IBMonce again gained an impressive
list of innovation credentials. It was the ninth
consecutive year that IBMwas awardedmore than
2,000 U.S. patents. However, it is the results that
IBM achieves for its customers that make it the
world’s third best global brand (source: Interbrand
2006).
Examples of IBM’s innovation-focused
approach include:
Facing increasing pressure to raise productivity
and cut drug development costs, a leading global
pharmaceutical provider was determined to bring
new drugs to market faster. Working with IBM
Global Business Services, the company replaced
its in-house Electronic Data Capture (EDC)
application and re-engineered its processes
worldwide to extract maximumvalue from the new
system. This reduced the time spent gathering data
fromweeks to near real-time andmade clinical trial
information processingmore efficient, so drugs can
be developed more quickly.
Tennis Australia hosts one of the world’s most
important sporting events, the Australian Open,
the Grand Slam of the Asia Pacific in Melbourne.
For the past 14 years, IBMhas worked with Tennis
Australia to help it meet increasing business
demands, to optimise revenue streams through
business consulting and e-commerce plus increase
the efficiency with which the Australian Open is
organised and run. The result is that more courtside
statistics, analysis and insights are available each
year, and tennis fans around the world are brought
even closer to the action.
HISTORY
IBM’s character has been formed over nearly 100
years of doing business in the field of information
handling. Nearly all of the company’s productswere
designed and developed to record, process,
communicate, store and retrieve information – from
its first scales, tabulators and clocks to today’s
powerful computers and vast global networks.
IBMhelpedpioneer information technologyover
the years, and it stands today at the forefront of a
worldwide industry that is revolutionising the way
in which enterprises, organisations and people
operate and thrive.
In 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording
Co. (CTR) was renamed International Business
Machines Corporation (IBM) under the leadership
of Thomas J.Watson, Sr. IBMprovided companies
inAmerica and Europewith the latest inmachinery
ranging fromcommercial scales and industrial time
recorders to meat and cheese slicers, along with
typewriters and tabulators.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, IBM
managed to growwhile many in the U.S. economy
floundered. While most businesses had shut down,
Watson kept his workers busy producing new
machines evenwhile demandwas slack. Thanks to
the resulting large inventory of equipment, IBM
was ready when the Social Security Act of 1935
brought the company a landmark government
contract to maintain employment records for 26
millionpeople.
Watson created a major division in 1932 to lead
the engineering, research and development efforts
for the entire IBMproduct line. The following year,
IBM completed one of the finest modern research
and development laboratories in the world at
Endicott, New York. 1933 saw the addition of an
entirely new product unit – the Electric Writing
Machine Division – to IBM’s organisation.
The Second World War saw IBM’s first steps
toward computing. The Automatic Sequence
Controlled Calculator, also called the Mark I, was
completed in 1944 after six years of development
with Harvard University.
In the 1950s, IBM developed a range of
mainframes, compatible with multiple printers,
drives and other peripherals, establishing IBM as
an industry leader.
After nearly four decades as IBM’s chief
executive, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., passed the title
of president on to his son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
who foresaw the role computers would play in
business. He led IBM’s transformation from a
medium-sized maker of tabulating equipment and
typewriters into a computer industry leader.
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