The company which believes only change can take to another 100 successful years, IBM – International Business Machines marked Centenary, completed 100 years on 16th June 2011. Today the company stands as a giant against all innovation, technology and services group. During last 100 years IBM has seen all phases of economy, gone through several crisis and success. It has been a true leader.
The Success for company to stand so strong and been leader at the Global Market. There are several stories with IBM that emerged though our history are very complex tales of Big risk, lessons learned and discoveries that transformed the way we work and live.
Here sharing very fine article which walks through the history of IBM, it’s really an inspiring one.
Nearly all the companies our grandparents admired have disappeared.
Of the top 25 industrial corporations in the United States in 1900, only two
remained on that list at the start of the 1960s. And of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 in 1961, only six remain there today.
Some of the leaders of those companies that vanished were dealt a hand of bad luck. Others made poor choices. But the demise of most came about because they were unable simultaneously to manage their business of the day and to build their business of tomorrow.
As you read this, IBM begins its 101st year. Today we take a moment to
step back and view the longer arc of history. We’d like to share some of what
we have learned—sometimes in humbling ways—on our journey so far.
A century of corporate life has taught us this truth: To make an enduring
impact over the long term, you have to manage for the long term.
This seems about the simplest lesson we could share, yet putting it into
practice is a lifetime’s work. Long-term thinking a ects almost every aspect of
how you lead.1 And it turns out to be anything but safe, steady and conservative.
Its rewards are powerful,2 but to achieve them, long-term thinking compels
you to confront some fundamental questions:
How does an organization outlive its founder?
We have learned not to confuse charisma with leadership. In business, there are
archetypal examples where the genius of a founder created tremendous good
fortune—at least in a company’s opening act. The cult of personality is seductive.
But what then? How does an enterprise follow the departure of its founder
or of a larger-than-life CEO?
Without question, the personality, drive and ethos of IBM’s first CEO,
Thomas J. Watson Sr.—his irrepressible optimism, his obsession with performing
tasks in a superior fashion, his belief that the problems of the world could
be settled easily if people were only willing to THINK—made an indelible
imprint on IBM.
But Watson’s most enduring contribution to business was his intentional
creation of something that would outlast him—a shared corporate culture3.
He showed how the basic beliefs and values of an organization could be
perpetuated—to become its guiding constant through time. This is why we
have never defined IBM by what we make, no matter how successful the
product or service.
By values we do not mean ethics or morals, which are requisites for
every enterprise. We mean the characteristics that identify what is both unique
and enduring about any particular enterprise. And by deliberately building
a culture, we don’t mean memorializing the routine of what the founder did.
Rather, it’s about institutionalizing why the organization does what it does—
getting to the essential truths of what makes you, you. Grounding a culture in
such values and purpose is about how employees, anywhere around the globe,
at this very moment and for generations, honor and deliver on that.
Values therefore force choices: Whom you hire. The ways you serve the
customer. How you develop talent at all levels. Which businesses you create,
enter and exit, and when. How much risk taking you promote.
When we have lived our values, IBMers and our company have thrived.
When we haven’t, it hurt us.
How does an organization deal with the inherent tensions among its constituents?
The company which believes only change can take to another 100 successful years, IBM – International Business Machines marked Centenary, completed 100 years on 16th June 2011. Today the company stands as a giant against all innovation, technology and services group. During last 100 years IBM has seen all phases of economy, gone through several crisis and success. It has been a true leader.
The Success for company to stand so strong and been leader at the Global Market. There are several stories with IBM that emerged though our history are very complex tales of Big risk, lessons learned and discoveries that transformed the way we work and live.
Here sharing very fine article which walks through the history of IBM, it’s really an inspiring one.
Nearly all the companies our grandparents admired have disappeared.
Of the top 25 industrial corporations in the United States in 1900, only two
remained on that list at the start of the 1960s. And of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 in 1961, only six remain there today.
Some of the leaders of those companies that vanished were dealt a hand of bad luck. Others made poor choices. But the demise of most came about because they were unable simultaneously to manage their business of the day and to build their business of tomorrow.
As you read this, IBM begins its 101st year. Today we take a moment to
step back and view the longer arc of history. We’d like to share some of what
we have learned—sometimes in humbling ways—on our journey so far.
A century of corporate life has taught us this truth: To make an enduring
impact over the long term, you have to manage for the long term.
This seems about the simplest lesson we could share, yet putting it into
practice is a lifetime’s work. Long-term thinking a ects almost every aspect of
how you lead.1 And it turns out to be anything but safe, steady and conservative.
Its rewards are powerful,2 but to achieve them, long-term thinking compels
you to confront some fundamental questions:
How does an organization outlive its founder?
We have learned not to confuse charisma with leadership. In business, there are
archetypal examples where the genius of a founder created tremendous good
fortune—at least in a company’s opening act. The cult of personality is seductive.
But what then? How does an enterprise follow the departure of its founder
or of a larger-than-life CEO?
Without question, the personality, drive and ethos of IBM’s first CEO,
Thomas J. Watson Sr.—his irrepressible optimism, his obsession with performing
tasks in a superior fashion, his belief that the problems of the world could
be settled easily if people were only willing to THINK—made an indelible
imprint on IBM.
But Watson’s most enduring contribution to business was his intentional
creation of something that would outlast him—a shared corporate culture3.
He showed how the basic beliefs and values of an organization could be
perpetuated—to become its guiding constant through time. This is why we
have never defined IBM by what we make, no matter how successful the
product or service.
By values we do not mean ethics or morals, which are requisites for
every enterprise. We mean the characteristics that identify what is both unique
and enduring about any particular enterprise. And by deliberately building
a culture, we don’t mean memorializing the routine of what the founder did.
Rather, it’s about institutionalizing why the organization does what it does—
getting to the essential truths of what makes you, you. Grounding a culture in
such values and purpose is about how employees, anywhere around the globe,
at this very moment and for generations, honor and deliver on that.
Values therefore force choices: Whom you hire. The ways you serve the
customer. How you develop talent at all levels. Which businesses you create,
enter and exit, and when. How much risk taking you promote.
When we have lived our values, IBMers and our company have thrived.
When we haven’t, it hurt us.
How does an organization deal with the inherent tensions among its constituents?
