[Editorial]IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, or Universal Business Machines Corporation, referred to as IBM (International Business Machines Corporation), the company's Web site: ://ibm//.
Headquartered in Armonk, New York, the company, founded in 1911 in the United States, is the world's largest information technology and business solutions company, currently employs more than 300,000 people worldwide, with operations in more than 160 countries and regions.
In 2006, IBM's worldwide revenue reached $91.4 billion.
The company was founded primarily as a commercial typewriter, then moved to word processors, and then to computers and related services.
In the past 90 years, the world economy continues to develop, modern science is changing rapidly, IBM has always been advanced technology, excellent management and unique products to lead the development of the global information industry, to ensure that the world almost all the users of the industry on the full range of information processing needs.
As we all know, as early as 1969, the Apollo spacecraft carrying three astronauts, shouldering the mission of mankind, the first time on the moon; in 1981, the Space Shuttle Columbia and successfully flown into space.
These two historic space flights were the result of IBM's unparalleled ingenuity.
[edit]Introduction
IBM was founded by Thomas Watson, Sr. and later led by his son Thomas Watson, Jr. to usher in the computer age.
IBM's current CEO is Samuel Palmisano, whose Chinese name is Ming Sheng Peng.
IBM China, that is, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) Greater China is the current chairman of the board of directors is Henry Chow (Henry Chow), by the beginning of 2007, Qian Daqun as CEO.
IBM for the computer industry's long-term leader in the mainframe / minicomputer and portable (ThinkPad) the most notable achievements.
IBM created the personal computer (PC) standard, which is still used and developed today.
In addition, IBM led the industry in mainframes, supercomputers (represented by Deep Blue and Blue Gene), UNIX, and servers.
On the software side, IBM Software Group has five integrated software brands, including Lotus, WebSphere, DB2, Rational, and Tivoli, all of which are leaders or strong competitors in their respective fields.
It was only after '99 that Microsoft's overall size surpassed that of IBM Software.
As of today, IBM Software is also the second largest software entity in the world.
IBM also has a great deal of expertise in materials, chemistry, physics, and other sciences.
Hard disk technology was invented by IBM, scanning tunneling microscope (STM), copper wiring technology, atomic etching technology was also invented by IBM Research.
IBM still holds the position of having the most patents in the world.
For thirteen consecutive years, since 1993, IBM has appeared at the top of the list of U.S. patent registrations.
By 2002, IBM's R&D staff*** had accumulated 22,358 patents, an unprecedented record that far exceeds the combined patents of the top eleven U.S. companies in the IT industry, which include HP, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, Dell, and others. IBM filed 2,941 patent applications in 2005, which is less than the 3,248 patent applications filed in 2004, but still leaves the second-place company far behind.
In 2003, IBM had total revenue of $89.1 billion and 230,000 employees worldwide.
In 2004, IBM's revenue totaled $96.5 billion and it employed 310,000 people worldwide.
In 2005, IBM's total revenue was $91.1 billion (after the sale of the PC division to Lenovo).
Full year 2006 operating results
-- Revenues totaled $91.4 billion, up 4% excluding the divested PC business;
-- Earnings from continuing operations were $9.4 billion, an increase of 18% year-over-year, and up 9% excluding 2005 non-recurring items;
-- Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was 6.06, up 23% year-over-year, excluding 2005 non-recurring items up 14%;
-- Net cash from operating activities was $15.3 billion, excluding a $2.2 billion increase in items receivable from the Global Financing business unit
IBM China consists of:
The IBM China Development Center and the IBM China Software Development CenterCSDL :/ / /ibm//cdl/
IBM China Research Institute (formerly IBM China Research Center) CRL : ://ibm//ibm/crl
IBM China Web site ://ibm/
Collaboration with Hong Kong Cultural Communications Group in 2004 to promote cash registers with Chinese language CPUs
The IBM software portion of the company is five parts
DB2, Webshpere, Tivoli, Rational, Lotus
[edit]Dynamic
May 1, 2005, Lenovo Group Ltd. and IBM announced that Lenovo completed the acquisition of IBM's global personal computer business, which marks the world's third largest personal computer companies from this Lenovo Group is the third largest personal computer company in the world. Lenovo owns the ThinkPad and ThinkCenter trademarks and can use the IBM brand for five years.
IBM is also a highly respected company.
One of the reasons for this respect is the ability to lead many industrial revolutions over the course of its nearly 100-year history, particularly in the IT industry, setting standards and working to help customers succeed.
In addition, the company has consistently ranked among the top 500 companies in the world.
More importantly, IBM is respected for its adherence to the Watson Philosophy throughout its nearly 100-year history:
When he founded IBM in 1914, Thomas Watson, Sr. developed a "Code of Conduct" for the company. "
In 1914, when IBM was founded, Thomas Watson, Sr. established a "Code of Conduct" for the company, which has always been in the hearts and minds of every person in the company, and any one of the actions and policies are directly affected by these three rules.
These include:
1. The individual must be respected.
2, must give customers the best possible service.
3. Must strive for excellence in performance.
"The Watson Philosophy," in quotation marks, is the expression of the Watson Philosophy's attitude toward customers.
[edit]History
Early years
IBM's history can be traced back to decades before the development of electronic computers, before the development of electronic computers, it perforated card data processing equipment.
IBM was incorporated as CTR on June 15, 1911, in Endicott, New York, a few miles west of Binghamton.
Three separate companies merged to create CTR Corporation: the List Machine Company (founded in Washington, D.C., in 1896), the Computing Table Company (founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1901), and the International Times Record Company (founded in Endicott, New York, in 1900).
At the time, the president and founder of the List Machine Company was Herman Hollerith.
The key figure behind the merger was financier Charles Flint, who brought together the founders of the three companies to propose a merger and served on CRT until his retirement in 1930.
Thomas. J. Watson, the founder of IBM, became general manager of CTR in 1914 and president in 1915. In 1917, CTR entered the Canadian market as International Business Machines Ltd. and on February 14, 1924, changed its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
The companies merged to form CTR, which manufactured a variety of products, including employee timekeeping systems, scales, automatic meat slicers, and, most importantly, computers, and perforated card equipment. For a time, CTR concentrated on the perforated card business and was not involved in any other activities.
World War II, The Holocaust Era
In 2001, author Edwin Black published IBM and the Holocaust (ISBN 0609808990), a book that purported to illustrate how IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas. The book purports to show how IBM's New York headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson, through overseas subsidiaries, supplied the Third Reich with perforated card machines that they knew would help the Nazis carry out the "Final Solution".
The book says that, with the cooperation of New York, IBM's Geneva office and Dehomag, its German subsidiary, were actively involved in supporting Nazi atrocities.
Black also says that the machines made the Nazis work more efficiently. A 2003 documentary on the company also explores this issue.
IBM has been cleared of these charges, and a lawsuit based on them has been dismissed.
During World War II, IBM produced the M1 carbine and the Browning automatic rifle.
The Allies used IBM equipment extensively for military computing, logistics, and other munitions.
IBM perforated card machines were used extensively for calculations at Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project's development of the atomic warhead; this has been specifically discussed by Richard Feynman in his bestseller You're Kidding, Mr. Feynman! specifically discussed.
IBM also built the Harvard Mark I for the Navy during the war, the first large-scale automated digital computer in the United States.
Air Force and Aeronautical Engineering
In the 1950s, IBM became the prime contractor for the development of computers for the U.S. Air Force's Automatic Defense System.
Working on the reproduction of the anti-aircraft gun system, IBM was exposed to critical research at MIT; work on the first generation of real-time, digital computers (among many others moving forward such as a comprehensive video presentation, magnetic core experience transfer, lightweight guns, the first effective algebraic computer language, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion technologies, digital data transfer phone lines, duplexing, multiprocessing, networking). IBM built 56 intelligent computers priced at $10,000 each, with more than 7,000 employees (20% of the total workforce) devoted to the project at its peak. However, in the long run more important than profitability, is the use of cutting-edge electronic computers for research in the military investment.
IBM neglected to pursue a more dominant emerging industry to enable the RAND Corporation to take over the design of new computers because, according to one of the project participants (Robert PCrago): "We can't imagine that work in this area will disappear later and we will have to take 2,000 programmers from wherever we can get them to do this work at IBM".
IBM would use its vast design experience to synthesize real-time network design with the launch of the Wise Air reservation system, which was a great success.
The 60s to the 80s
In the 60s IBM was the largest of the eight largest computer companies (Univac, Metropolitan Life, Scientific Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, Radio Corporation of America, Honeywell). People talk about it as "IBM and the seven astral bodies" because the other companies or their computer divisions are smaller. Only Urban Life, UNIVAC, NCR, and Honeywell produced mainframes, after which it was said "IBM and B.U.N.C.H." Most of IBM's competitors are now long gone, except for Univac, due to a number of mergers that included Univac and Urban Life. NCR, Honeywell abandoned general mainframes and small divisions and focused on profitable product markets, NCR made cash registers (hence the name National Cash Register), Honeywell became the dominant thermostat in the market. General Electric was still the largest company in the world, but no longer operated in the computer market. At that time the IBM line of computers won the position on the market and is still growing today. Originally known as the IBM System/360, the more modern 64-bit form is now known as the resident IBM system (often referred to as the "IBM mainframe").
IBM's success in the mid-1960s led the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate IBM for antitrust violations on January 17, 1969. A complaint was filed against IBM in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit claimed that IBM violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by monopolizing or attempting to monopolize the market for general-purpose digital electronic computer systems, particularly commercially designed computers. The litigation continued through 1983 and had a significant impact on the company's practices.
Recent history
On January 19, 1993, IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion for the 1992 fiscal year, which at the time was the largest annual corporate loss in U.S. history.
Because of this loss, IBM has undergone significant changes in its operations, shifting its focus from hardware to software and services.
In 2002, IBM strengthened its consulting capabilities through the acquisition of Pricewaterhouse Coopers, a specialty consulting services firm. The company is increasingly focused on driving enterprise solutions consulting, services, and software, with an emphasis on hardware and high-value chip technology; as of 2005, the workforce was approximately 195 technical professionals. In 2002, IBM announced the start of a $10 billion research program and the implementation of the necessary technology infrastructure to provide the super-resources "required" for effective metrics used by all businesses. Since then the program has been implemented.
IBM has been increasing its patent portfolio in recent years, which is a valuable cross-license with other companies. Each year from 1993 to 2005, IBM has been granted significantly more U.S. patents than any other company. With over 31,000 patents in this 13-year period, IBM is the first to do so.
Protecting the company's intellectual property has become an increasingly corporate endeavor, generating a $10 billion bottom line for the company during this period.
. In 2003 Fortune magazine quoted Paul, IBM's head of research, as saying that IBM generated $1 billion in profits from intellectual property licenses.
In 2004, IBM announced a proposed sale of its personal computer business to Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group, a Lenovo enterprise partly owned by China ***, for $650 million in cash and $600 million in Lenovo stock. The Exchange Commission approved the foreign investment in March 2005 and it closed in May 2005. IBM has a 19% stake in Lenovo, which will be headquartered in New York State and for which IBM has appointed a chief executive officer. The company will retain the right to use certain IBM brands for an initial period of five years.
With the purchase and inheritance of the Lenovo product line, which includes Thinkpad laptops, laptops have become IBM's most successful products.
More recently, IBM has focused much of its efforts from a hardware science and technology perspective on providing consulting and acquisition reengineering services. This change is reflected strongly in the new IBM's enhanced global distribution capabilities in consulting, software, and technology services.
IBM is currently involved in the development of the Cell project (along with Sony), multimedia design of next-generation processor architectures, and high-tech gaming.
On June 20, 2006, Georgia, along with IBM***, announced a new technology record for silicon-based chips with speeds up to 500ghz.
This was done by freezing the chip to F-451C (-268.0C), not comparable to CPU speeds.
The chip operates at approximately 350ghz at room temperature.
IBM is a longtime leader in the computer industry, most notably in mainframe/small form factor computers and portables (ThinkPad).
IBM created the personal computer (PC) standard, which is still used and developed today.
On December 8, 2004, its PC division was sold to Lenovo for $1.75 billion and a stake in Lenovo.
IBM also has great attainments in the fields of materials, chemistry, physics and other sciences.
Hard disk technology was invented by IBM, scanning tunneling microscope (STM), copper wiring technology, atomic etching technology was also invented by IBM Research.
In 2003, IBM had revenues of $89.1 billion and 230,000 full-time employees.
IBM China includes: IBM China Software Development Center CSDL, China Research Center CRL
In 2004, the company cooperated with Hong Kong Cultural Communications Group to promote Chinese CPU cash registers.
On December 8 of the same year, Lenovo, which owns nearly one-third of the PC market in China, announced that it would acquire IBM's global desktop and laptop manufacturing and marketing business for $1.25 billion in cash and stock.
In 2005, the desktop and laptop business was sold to the Chinese IT company Lenovo, which would remain under the IBM brand for five years.
The ThinkPad and ThinkCentre brands were owned by Lenovo.
IBM in China
IBM has a long history of business relationships with China.
As early as 1934, IBM installed the first commercial processor at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital.
In 1979, after a break of nearly 30 years, IBM came back to China with the reform and opening up of China.
In the same year, the first IBM medium-sized computer was installed at the Shenyang Blower Factory after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
With the deepening of China's reform and opening up, IBM's business in China has been expanding.
In the mid to late 80s, IBM set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai.
In 1992, IBM formally announced the establishment of International Business Machines China Ltd. in Beijing, which is a wholly owned enterprise of IBM in China.
This move enabled IBM to take a substantial step forward in the implementation of its strategy in China, and opened a new chapter of business in China.
Subsequently, in 1993, IBM China established branches in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
By now, IBM's offices in China have further expanded to 24 cities, including Harbin, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Xi'an, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Changsha, Kunming, Urumqi, Jinan, Tianjin, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Nanchang, Nanning, Ningbo, and Shijiazhuang, further expanding the business coverage in China.
Along with the development of IBM in China, IBM China has a growing workforce of more than 8,500 employees.
In addition, IBM has established nine joint ventures and wholly owned companies in manufacturing, software development, services and leasing.
IBM emphasizes on investing in technology research and development.
In 1995, IBM established the China Research Center in China, which is one of the eight major research centers in the world, with more than 200 Chinese computer experts.
Subsequently, in 1999, IBM took the lead in setting up a software development center in China, with more than 2,000 Chinese software engineers specializing in the integration of middleware, database, Linux and other areas of product development.
Over the past two decades, IBM's various information systems have become the most reliable means of information technology in China's finance, telecommunications, metallurgy, petrochemicals, transportation, commodities, *** and education, and many other important business areas.
IBM's customers are all over the Chinese economy.
At the same time, IBM occupies a leading market share in a number of important areas, including: servers, storage, services, software and so on.
IBM has always been committed to the principle of taking from society and giving back to society for the benefit of mankind.
IBM actively supports education in China and has an outstanding performance in community activities.
The beginning of IBM's relationship with Chinese universities can be traced back to 1984, when IBM made a series of donations of computer hardware and software to Chinese universities.
In March 1995, IBM and China's State Education Commission (now the Ministry of Education) signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation as a symbol of the official launch of the "IBM China University Cooperation Program", the basic purpose of this long-term comprehensive partnership is to commit to strengthening China's colleges and universities in the field of information science and technology disciplines and talent training. The basic purpose of this long-term comprehensive partnership is to strengthen the Chinese universities in the field of information science and technology discipline construction and talent training.
Over the past 12 years, the IBM China University Cooperation Program has continued to develop to a higher level, deeper level, and broader field, and has played an active role in promoting the construction of disciplines and training of talents in information technology-related majors in Chinese universities.
Since 1995, IBM has donated more than 1.5 billion RMB worth of computer equipment, software and services to Chinese universities.
In terms of university cooperation programs, IBM has established partnerships with more than 50 renowned universities in China.
570,000 students have participated in IBM technology-related courses and training, 58,000 students have obtained IBM global professional and technical certification, and more than 4,000 teachers have participated in different forms of teacher training organized by IBM.
In addition to the cooperation with the Chinese education sector in the field of higher education, IBM has also actively expanded the scope of cooperation to the field of basic education.
Following the introduction of the IBM KidSmart "Little Explorers" early childhood development program in China in 2001, IBM has carried out this program in China for six consecutive years.
At present, IBM has cooperated with nearly 430 early childhood education institutions in 68 cities across provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions***, and donated 2,350 sets of KidSmart children's computer learning centers.
Since 2003, IBM has further cooperated with the Ministry of Education to carry out the Reinventing Education "Basic Education Innovative Teaching Program" in 20 elementary school in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu, taking more and more valuable support to introduce mature foreign experience and resources into China, and fully integrating them with Chinese education. The Reinventing Education "Innovative Teaching in Basic Education Program" takes more and more valuable support to introduce mature foreign experience and resources to China, and fully integrates with China's status quo and needs to better help schools improve teaching and learning through IT.
Through these two programs, more than 10,000 key teachers in basic education have received free training from IBM, and 100,000 children have benefited.
In 2003, the IBM TryScience Around the World youth science program was officially launched in China.
Through this program, IBM donated computer terminals to science and technology museums in China, which are connected to off-site servers through high-speed networks and present the rich content on the servers to visitors of the science and technology museums.
"Eye on Science" covers a wide range of topics such as ecological archaeology, space exploration, extreme sports, marine biology, and more, and opens up a whole new door for young people to get in touch with science knowledge and understand scientific concepts.
Currently, IBM has donated 40 sets of IBM TryScience Kiosk multimedia terminals to science and technology centers in 11 cities.
IBM has been recognized by the media for its outstanding performance and contribution in China.
IBM has been named "China's Most Admired Company", "China's Most Admired Foreign-Invested Enterprise", and "China's Most Valuable Brand", China's Most Valuable Brand", "China's Best Employer" and so on.
In 2004, IBM China was recognized as one of the "Most Admired Companies in China" by FORTUNE China and ranked first.
In 2005 and 2006, IBM was awarded the honorary title of "China's Outstanding Corporate Citizen" by the Corporate Citizenship Committee of the China Association of Social Work for the second consecutive time.
IBM's former CEO, Mr. Kersten Kuusner, said fondly of IBM China: "IBM is committed to building one of the world's premier information technology companies for China.
It is based in China, serving the Chinese people, and one day the world.
IBM China will certainly become the 'IBM of China' and part of the Chinese economy.
" Looking back on IBM's growth in China, from the initial stage of strategic experimentation, to the mid-term stage of strategic investment, and then to the stage of full integration, IBM has always had a deep commitment to China.
Since 2004 to give a new definition of innovation, in 2006, IBM further extended the connotation of innovation to six levels, namely, "product innovation", "service innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation", "business process innovation" and "business process innovation". In 2006, IBM further extended the meaning of innovation to six levels, namely, "product innovation", "service innovation", "business process innovation", "business model innovation", "management and cultural innovation", and "policy and social innovation".
In the same year, IBM also introduced the concept of "service innovation" to China, signing a contract with the Ministry of Commerce to assist the "Thousand Hundred and Ten Project", which promotes the development of China's modern service industry and the upgrading of the export-oriented industrial structure; signing a "Modern Service Science Direction" contract with the Ministry of Education; and signing a "Modern Service Science Direction" contract with the Ministry of Education.
In order to better match the implementation of the service strategy, IBM has moved its global procurement headquarters to Shenzhen, China, and Lehman Brothers *** with the launch of the $180 million "China Investment Fund", and will be one of the world's two SOA solution centers in Beijing.
Through these initiatives, IBM hopes to bring IBM's leading skills in global information technology services to China to help Chinese companies and *** realize innovation, and thus more strongly support China's growing demand for development in the service industry.
In 2007, IBM China will adhere to the core values of "customer success, innovation, integrity and responsibility", and strive to become the innovation partner of Chinese customers under the vision and layout of globalization, and build an "innovative country" for China. "
The company's core value is to achieve customer success, innovation, integrity and responsibility.
The corporate brand was ranked 11th in the 2006 World Brand 500 list compiled by World Brand Lab, and 49th in the 2006 Respectability Ranking of the World's 100 Largest Companies published by Barron's.
The corporate brand is also recognized as one of the most respected brands in the world.
[edit]Culture
IBM is often described as having a sales-centered, or sales-oriented, corporate culture. Traditionally, many specific executives and general managers would come from its sales force. In addition, middle and senior management are often the ones who directly support the sales force in the process of selling to key customers.
For most of the 20th century, a blue suit, white shirt, and black tie was the public **** uniform for IBM employees. But since the 1990s, IBM has relaxed these requirements; the dress code and the performance of its employees are not significantly different from their counterparts at the big tech companies.
In 2003, IBM embarked on an ambitious program to rewrite the company's values by using "Jam" technology - an Intranet-based web-based discussion of key issues involving more than 50,000 employees over a three-day period. The Jam technology, which includes text analyzing software (eclassifier) for my online comment threads, has been used six times within IBM. As a result of Jam 2003, the company's values were updated to reflect three modern business, marketing, and employee views: "Dedication to the success of every customer," "Innovation in our company and the world," and "Trust and personal accountability in all relationships. "
In a 2004 Jam, more than 52,000 employees spent 72 hours sharing best practices. The focus of the event was to identify the values that were being complained about in order to support the implementation of previously defined values. The development of such a new Jam allowed IBM members to select important ideas to support the values. (For further information see Harvard Business Review, 2004, interview with Sam Palmisano, Chairman of IBM).
More recently IBM's culture has been influenced by the open source movement. The company has invested billions of dollars in software and services through the Linux-based IBM Linux Technology Center. This includes more than 300 core Linux developers. IBM's open source is not without its troubles.
[edit]Disparity and workforce issues
IBM's efforts to promote equal opportunity and diversity in the workforce date back at least to World War I, when the company hired disabled veterans.
IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies for 2005 (the other being Hewlett-Packard).
The company is traditionally unionized, although some U.S.-based IBM workers dispute this.
In the 1990s, two major pension program changes, including a cash balance plan, eventually led to a class action lawsuit by employees claiming age discrimination.
IBM employees won the case and reached a partial settlement, but are still appealing.
IBM has a long history of connecting with some of the largest layoffs in the world, and it has a history of generating goodwill. In recent years there have been some major staff reductions as IBM has tried to adapt to changing market conditions and declining base profits. The results have been less than expected, with IBM eliminating 14,500 jobs in the first quarter of 2005, primarily in Europe.
2005. On June 8, 2005, IBM Canada Limited eliminated 700 people. Now IBM India and other IBM offices in China, the Philippines, and Costa Rica have seen a steady increase in hiring.
On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to formally commit to a hiring decision that does not use genetic information.
This announcement comes just months after IBM announced its support for National Geographic's genographic program.
IBM has about 500 employees in China, and also maintains a year-long internship program of 500 interns, with reliable internal sources saying that the chance of an internship turning into a full-time job is about 20%