Imperial College Business School organise a series of Distinguished Guest Lectures every year to discuss forward-looking business issues. These lectures are a brilliant opportunity for business students at Imperial College Business School students to gain access to some of the most influential business leaders in the world.
This month Imperial College Business Students heard IBM’s Chief Executive discuss his company’s 100 years of successful business. Samuel J. Palmisano is the Chairman of the world’s largest IT and consulting services company. IBM is headquartered from New York and operates 170 countries and employs around 426,000 people.
Samuel J Palmisano looked back at business lessons his 100 year-old company can teach and the prospect of building a smarter, more secure and more sustainable planet.
Mr Palmisano referred back to a speech given in 1962 by Tom Watson Jr., chairman of IBM at that time and son of the founder. “Tom was right – success is fleeting. Of the top 25 companies on the Fortune 500 at the time of Watson’s lecture, only six remained in 2010.”
He went on to say that a reason for IBM’s enduring success is the company’s ability to change. "We started off making clocks, scales and, believe it or not, cheese slicers," he said, "but I would argue that the need for a foundation of belief and values is greater today than ever before – precisely because we are all moving to the future with such incredible speed."
Mr Palmisano described IBM’s strategy as one that looks to move to “where value will be greatest – and profits will be highest.” Adding that although every company has unique beliefs, “translating those beliefs into action is what separates the company from all others, and that is what keeps those beliefs alive.”
The Imperial business students heard from Mr Palmisano about the two challenges he believes will drive change in the future; technology and the rebalancing of economies. He spoke of IBM’s Corporate Service Corps as one example of how the company is thinking globally. This scheme is modelled on America’s Peace Corps and links up diverse IBM teams from around the world and sends them to emerging markets from around the world, from Ghana to Vietnam for a month. These teams then work in the local communities with NGOs and local leaders to boost the local economies. "These targeted interventions are having a transformative impact, both on local communities and on the IBMers themselves. Most say it is one of the most meaningful experiences of their lives."
Giving the business titans of the future some advice, Mr Palmisano explained that any company can succeed if it sticks to its core values. “To keep that front of mind, the CEO has to set the pace.” He said that he comes to work every day with the mindset that IBM will outlive him and “with a determination that I and my colleagues will pass on a better IBM than the one we inherited. One thing that leading a company like IBM teaches you is not to see yourself as a ‘captain of industry’ but as the temporary steward of a great enterprise.”
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