The technology behemoth turns 100 today. Celebrations have been going on for some time now and if you follow IBM you’d have read enough and more about the company’s accomplishments in this journey. The Economist has a start-to-finish report and others have done their bit to salute this “Elephant” which has indeed shown that it “can dance”.
So while Kal and Aaj are pretty clear, what is interesting to ponder is the next Kal. IBM has been one of the first, if not the first, big corporations to realize the new dynamics of innovation which sunk some large tech ships, those that failed to sail in the vast sea of change that technology industry has had to swim through. After a near-death experience in 2000, it’s currently doing very well, with revenue poised to cross $100 billion this year. Ironically, it’s also a time when its younger peers like Microsoft, Cisco, Nokia and SAP are busy managing their midlife crisis. Even if it were an “Elephant”, what must be going through its mind? Who will succeed Sam Palmisano? What should the strategy be for the next decade (can’t say century as the tech industry is extremely ruthless, ideas and products become obsolete even before their potential is realized)?I think it's a thought provoking article, there are just two giants in technology space- IBM and HP; and they both have remained strategically static for almost a decade. Does IBM want to do another magic of '69 - unbundling of software and services from hardware; then it needs an outsider. Will '93 crisis revisit it; very remote; but if it does then it will need an outsider. I feel they will go with an insider this time around too. A woman or a man doesn't matter so much but it will be nice to see another woman climbing the Everest of technology. On a side note, I do agree that Carly's "leap of faith" created the space for Mark Hurd to mine pots of dollars and become a stock market darling. Two more years to Carly would have definitely made women a better self-believer for the top job.
on Jun 16, 2011