1.Introduction
Making theWorld WorkBetter:TheIdeasThatShaped a Centuryand a Companyby K.Maney,S.Hamm,and J.M.O’Brien (2011)waswritten to commemoratethe100th anniversary ofInternationalBusinessMachines(IBM). Itisactually threebooksin one,each written by oneofthethreeauthors.
Thepurposeofthispaperisto provideasummary ofthebook and,atthe end,somepersonalcommentsaboutit.Thepaperisorganized asfollows:
1.Introduction
2.Part1:Pioneering theScienceofInformationby Kevin Maney covering thehistory and futureofcomputing.
3.Part2:Reinventing theModern Corporationby SteveHamm covering thehistory ofIBM from fourperspectives.
4.Part3:Making theWorld Betterby Jeffery M.O’Brien proposing a roadmap fortackling complex problemswith which organizationsmust dealin thisday and age.
5.Commentson thebook.
2.Part1:Pioneering theScienceofInformation
Pioneering theScienceofInformationby Kevin Maney isdivided up into 195
Summa r y a nd Comme nt s on Mak i ng t he Wor l d Wor k Be t t e r : The I de as That Shape d a Ce nt ur y
and a Company
RobertB.Austenfeld,Jr.
(Received on May 31,2012)
thesesix partsplusalook atthefutureofcomputing and information science:
• Sensing
• Memory
• Processing
• Logic
• Connecting
• Architecture
Sensing.How do computersgetdatato work on?Initially itwasvia Hollerith punched cards,something used forsix decadesup to the1960s.Then camethecomputerterminal,theforerunnerofthekeyboard,using theASCII1) codeto convertthealphabetinto computerlanguage.Now theprimary input devicesarethekeyboard and themouse.However,computerscan now getdata from many othersourcessuch astheubiquitousbarcodethatinitially saw use in grocery storesand now findsalmostunlimited applications.Beyond that therearesourcessuch asvideo surveillancesystems,voicecommands,and any numberofsensorsdetecting almostanything ofaphysicalnature.And now touch technology iscoming into common useasaway to inputdataas exemplified by Apple’siPhoneand iPod.
Memory.TheHollerith punched card wastheearliestform of“memory”and, asmentioned,wasin useforsome60 years.Then camethemagnetictapedrive ableto storemuch moreinformation in amuch moreconvenientway,butthe datawasnotrandomly accessible.
Thedisk drive,introduced in themid-1950s,changed allthatmaking it possibleto randomly accessand even changestored data.Also much moredata could bestored.FurtherstoragedevelopmentsincludetheDRAM (dynamic random accessmemory),thesolid-stateflash drive,and betterand fasterhard
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1) American Standard CodeforInformation Interchange
disk drives(HDDs).Now we’reseeing moreand moresolid-stateHDDs,which eliminatetheneed fortherelatively cumbersomemechanicsoftheread/write arm,greatly speeding up thatoperation.
Whatthefutureholdsforstorageisunclearbutitissureto add to the remarkableadvancesthusfarand perhaps,asthebook says,to thepointwhere thereisalmostno physicalorfinanciallimitto theamount.Indeed,thebook speculatesthateventually wewillneed to inventamachineforforgetting to avoid dataoverload!
Processing.Thehistory ofelectroniccomputing beginswith theENIAC2) developed attheUniversity ofPennsylvaniafortheU.S.Army during WWII. Although much fasteratcalculationsthan theelectro-mechanicalmachines,it used unreliableand power-hungry vacuum tubes.ENIAC and itssoon to be follow-on UNIVAC3)led to aflurry ofdevelopmentsby US companieswith heavy governmentsupportsincethesewerethedaysofCold War.IBM,not wanting to beleftout,cameoutwith itsfirstelectroniccomputerthatnotonly had electronicprocessing butalso included an electronicmain memory supplemented by slowerdisk and tapememories.Thiswasits701 model.
With theinvention ofthetransistortheneed forhighly inefficientvacuum gradually wentaway.Then cametheintegrated circuit,which broughteven morespeed to processing and,justasimportant,massiveminiaturization became possible.The1971 System 370/Model145 wasIBM’sfirstuseofintegrated circuitsin acomputersystem and featured anew memory chip thatcould hold 512 kilobytes—aremarkableadvancementatthetime.The370/145 wasfive timesfasterthan the360/40 modelitreplaced dueto itsintegrated circuitry.
By the1970sthedemand formoreand morespeed spawned theageof supercomputersto do evermorecomplex taskssuch asweatherforecasting and
197 2) ElectronicNumericalIntegratorAnd Computer. 3) UNIVersalAutomaticComputer.
geneticsresearch.Thissurgein supercomputerswaslead by SeymourCray’s Cray Research Company.IBM eventually gotinto thebusinessin the1990s with one-offmachinesforthegovernmentand later,in the21stcentury,with a new design called BlueGene.Thekey to theability ofthesemachinesto do computing atsuperspeedslay in amassiveparallelarchitecturewherelotsof relatively simpleprocessorswork simultaneously on theproblem.
What’snext?Asthebook pointsouttherearetwo waysto improve computing speed:(1)makethecomponentssmallerand (2)comeup with differentmaterialforbuilding thecomponents.Smallercomponentsmean the electricalsignalsdon’thaveto travelasfarplusmorechipscan bepacked into thesamespace.Asfordifferentmaterial,onepromising approach istheuseof superconductors.Superconductorsareperfectconductorswith zero resistance when cooled to alow enough temperature.According to thebook they’venot yetbeen used in computersdueto thecooling problem.Butthatmay change with thedriveto moveinto theexascalelevelofcomputing speed4)—aspeed about500 timesthespeed ofsupercomputersin 2010.
Logic.Setting up computersto usetheirhardwareto makethelogical choicesdesired hasevolved from theuseofwireson plugboardsto whattoday vergeson trueartificialintelligence.From plugboardsto machine-readablecode wasabig leap buttheearly codeswerecumbersomeand errorprone.Early work to makeaprogram thatwould translatehuman termsinto machinecode5) wasanotherstep forward butthetranslation wasslow and inefficient.
Thebreakthrough camein 1957 when an IBM team led by John Backuscame
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4) A computerableto perform amillion trillion calculationspersecond (1018).In computertermsthiswould beexaFLOPS or1018Floating-pointOperationsPer Second.Floating-pointisthecommon typeofcalculation computersuse.
5) Known asacompiler.
up with theFortran6)languageallowing thosenotexpertsin programming to do it.From Fortran many otherprogramming languagesdeveloped such as COBOL7)and BASIC8)each eitherasan improvementon Fortran orforsome specializeapplication.Also certain languagesbecamestandardssuch asUnix as theoperating system formidsizebusinesscomputersand C++ for“serious” programming.
In the1970sand 1980scomputersbecamemorestandardized and easierto program but,ironically,now therewaslessreason fortheaverageuserto do so asprogramming became“builtin”to theapplicationsand operating systems such asWordStar,WordPerfect,and eventually MicrosoftWord,and the Apple/Windowsoperating systems.
Although wearestillfarfrom developing acomputerthatcan think likea human,advancesin both hardwareand softwarehavebroughtusremarkable advancesin theareaofartificialintelligence.In the1980sateam ofgraduate studentsatCarnegieMellon University builtDeep Thought,acomputerthatwas capableofplaying expertchess.IBM hired theDeep Thoughtteam and put them to work on building Deep Blue,also specialized forplaying chess.In 1997 thereigning world champion played againstDeep Blueand,aftersix meetings,Deep Bluewon.ThisbroughtIBM into thesupercomputerbusiness and itsnextartificialintelligenceproject:DeepQA.Thegoalofthisprojectwas to createaprogram thatcould understand human language.Led by IBM’s David Ferrucci,theteam’sgoalwasto build acomputerthatcould compete with expertsatthetelevision gameshow Jeopardy!—atremendouschallenge given notonly theneed to understand English butthesubtletiesthatwould be involved in aJeopardy!question.Theshowdown cameoverthreedaysin
199 6) FORmulaTRANslating system.
7) Common Business-Oriented Language. 8) A relatively simpleprogramming language.
February 2011 when Watson (thecomputer’sname)competed againsttwo formerJeopardy!champions.By theend ofthethird and finalday Watson had won morethan threetimestheamounteach oftheothertwo had won.Thekey to Watson’ssuccesswasnotonly aremarkablecombination ofprocessing hardwareand programming (to apply themany algorithms9)involved)buta massivedatabaseofinformation to betapped into.
The implications of the Deep QA/Watson project are enormous. For specialized applicationsitshould bepossibleto writeprogramsthatwillallow naturallanguagequeriesto bemadeofacomputerthatcan draw on adatabase no oneperson could acquireormaintain up-to-date;forexamplein thefield of medicineorlaw.And,who knows,maybesomeday wewillbuild acomputer thatwillnoteven berestricted to aspecialized area.
IBM continuesto takethelead in supercomputing.A BBC news story of18 June2012 carriesthisheadline:“IBM supercomputer overtakesFujitsu asworld’sfastest.”
According thearticlethecomputer,called Sequoia,“tested at16.32 petaflops/s”orathousand trillion (1015)floating-pointoperations (calculations)persecond.Thisiswellabovethesecond-place JapaneseFujitsu K computer’s10.51 petaflops/s.
Quoting from thearticle:“Sequoiawillbeused to carry out simulationsto help extend thelifeofaging nuclearweapons,avoiding theneed forreal-world underground tests.”(http://www.bbc.co.
uk/news/technology-18457716)
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9) Algorithm:aprocessorsetofrulesto befollowed in calculationsorotherproblem- solving operations,esp.by acomputer:abasicalgorithm fordivision.(Source:Apple computerdictionary Widget)
Connecting.Theearliestmachine-to-machineconnectivity wassomething called Radiotypedeveloped forusein WWII.A typewriter-likemachinewould punch holesinto apapertape—theholesforming themessageto besent.Then thetapewasfed into anothermachinethatwould send thehole-coded message by radio to areceiving machinethatwould recreatethetapeatthatend.This tapewould then befed into atapereaderto activatethe“typewriter”atthatend.
IBM decided notto pursueacivilian version oftheRadiotypesinceitwould haveplaced itin directcompetition with AT&T’sTeletypebusinessand AT&T wasoneofitsbestcustomers.
So computerconnectivity remained mostly dormantuntilthe1970 when The US DepartmentofDefense’sAdvanced Research ProjectsAgency (ARPA) activated theARPANET.Untilthistimethemain computerconnectivity was something called time-sharing whereby multipleuserswould shareasingle computeron ahub-and-spokenetwork.Itwasthecontinued improvementin speed and storagethatmadetime-sharing possible,quickly processing each user’srequest.Onereason therewaslittleinterestby companieslikeIBM in making connectivity friendly computerswasacommon approach by computer companiesto besureallconnected equipmentwasby thesamecompany.In facttheIBM 360 serieswasmeantto beastand aloneall-in-onesystem and wasnotmadeforconnecting to other,non-IBM,computers.
TheARPANET,activated in 1970,wastheanswerto connecting multiple computersto multipleusers.Itused something known aspacketswitching—
instead ofasinglemessagegoing overasinglelineto itsdestination,the messagedatawasbroken up into smallchunkscalled packets.Each packethad thealltheinformation necessary to berouted to therightplaceand be reassembled in therightorderto completethedesired message.Thebig advantage,besidesmaking computerto computercommunicationspossible,was ifsomeportion ofanetwork wasdown orknocked outthepacketcould go by
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anotherrouteand stillgetthrough—arealboon forimproving network survivability in wartime.Asforcomputernetworking,theARPANET provided scientistsand engineersacrossthecountry accessto themostpowerful computers—atruly revolutionary thing.
However,noteveryonecould accesstheARPANET so acoupleofengineers atStanford10)with ARPA supportdeveloped something called transmission controlprotocol/Internetprotocol(TCP/IP)thatallowed theARPANET to initially connectwith an academicnetwork called CS/NET.Howeverthe turning pointcamewhen theUS governmentfunded aprojectthatconnected fivesupercomputerson aNationalScienceFoundation network called NSFNET.
Sincethisnetwork ran on TCP/IP,itconvinced othernetworksto switch to the TCP/IP protocol thus, in effect, giving rise to the Internet. Further improvementssoon followed such asaway to quickly link to documentscalled hypertext11)and thefirstgraphicalbrowser12)allowing navigation oftheInternet by simply clicking on an imageversus“typing in stringsofcommands.”
Thenextbig step wasthedevelopmentofthelocalareanetwork (LAN), which broughttheInternetto notjustbig computersbutto allthepersonal computersthatweremaking theirway on to so many company desktopsatthis time.With thefurtherdevelopmentofInternetsearch capability such as Google,theInternetnow madeitpossibleforalmostanyoneto haveinstant accessto avastamountofinformation aboutalmostany conceivablesubject.It also madepossibletoday’smassivesocialnetworking industry and,ofcourse, theburgeoning “dot-com”commercialenterprisesselling almostanything via
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11) Invented by Tim Berners-LeeattheEuropean particlephysicslaboratory (CERN). 12) Known asMosaicand invented by MarcAndreessen and fellow studentsatthe
University ofIllinois.According to Wikipediatherewereafew lesser-known browsersbeforeMosaic.
theInternet.
Thelasttwo big stepsin computerconnectivity werethedevelopmentofthe Wi-Fiforwirelessconnectivity and,morerecently,cloud computing.With cloud computing even asmallmobiledevicecan haveaccessto almost unlimited documentstorageand whateverapplicationsdesired.
Today wehavenotonly peopleaccessing theInternetand communicating with each otherbutnow,moreand more,machinesdoing thistoo.Asthebook putsit:“In thecoming decades,machine-to-machineconversationswill skyrocket,overtaking datacommunicationsthatrelieson having ahuman atone orboth ends”(p.101).
Architecture.Borrowing from Wikipedia,onedefinition ofcomputer architectureis:“…a blueprint,adescription oftherequirementsand basic design forthevariouspartsofacomputer.”In termsofhow itplayed outwith IBM’smachinesthestory startswith ameeting between aColumbiaUniversity professorand IBM CEO ThomasWatson,Sr.in 1928 and continueseven to this day with severalremarkabledevelopmentssuch astheIBM 1401 and 360 systemsand theIBM personalcomputer.
In 1928 ColumbiaprofessorBen Wood metwith Watson,Sr.and convinced him thatcomputing could beused formorethan justbusinesspurposesashad been thecaseup to thattime—namely forscientificresearch.Thisopened up a wholenew areaofcomputerapplicationsand becameamajorfactorin how futurecomputerswould bedesigned.
Up untilthelate1950,mainly dueto theircost,computerswererelatively few in numberdespitetheremarkableadvancesin processing,logic,and storage.With theIBM 1401,introduced in 1959,allthatchanged.The1401 wasageneral-purposecomputerrenting for$2,500 amonth.Thiswasmuch lessthan previousmodels,which werealso much lesscapable.Obviously IBM had struck acord with themarketsince,asthebook tellsit:“IBM wasshocked
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to receive5,200 ordersforthe1401 in justthefirstfiveweeksafterintroducing it—morethan waspredicted fortheentirelifeofthemachine”(p.108).The 1401 wasaturning pointin thehistory ofcomputing in thatitmoved computing from something only the“elite”did to an essentialtoolforenterprisesofall sizes.An importantfeatureofthe1401 wasitsall-transistorarchitecture.
Thenextbig advancein computing architecturecamewith theIBM 360 introduced in 1964.Oneproblem,both within IBM and theindustry asawhole atthistimewasaproliferation ofincompatiblehardwareand software.IBM sensed itwastimeto do something aboutthisincompatibility problem and a majorinvestmentwasmadeto develop anew computerthatwould have
“…strictcompatibility among allprocessors[and]standard interfacesto permit interchangeability among input-outputdevices…”(p.110).Theresultwasthe System/360.The“system”in thenamewasmeantto indicate“an aggregation ofinterchangeablehardwareunitswith program compatibility from top to bottom”and the“360”thatitwasacompletesystem suitableforallkindsof applications(p.111).
The360 proved even moresuccessfulthan the1401 with morethan a thousand ordersreceived within thefirstfourweeks.The360,on which Watson had essentially gambled thecompany,wasabetthatpaid off!The successofthe360 so overwhelmed theindustry thatthe360 interfacessoon becamestandardsfortheproductsofothercompanies.
Thenextsignificantadvancein architecturewasin theareaoftime-sharing, which wasbecoming popularin the1960s.Themajorcomputercompanies including IBM didn’tseethisasan areaworth investing in and,in fact,time sharing was“nearly impossible”with the360.13)Time-sharing terminalsthat would connectmultipleusersto asinglehigh-speed computerwerethe
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13) IBM did eventually getonboard thetime-sharing train with the360/70 introduced in 1970.
forerunnersofthenextmajorarchitecturaladvance:thepersonalcomputer(PC). ThefirstpracticalPC wastheMITS14)Altair8800,which wassold asamail orderkit.TheAltair8800 wasquickly followed by RadioShack’sTRS-80 and Apple’s Apple II. About this same time the great success of the first spreadsheetprogram,VisiCalc,proved thatPCscould bevery usefulbusiness tools.
IBM realized itwastimeto actand,in August1981 introduced theIBM PC.
Thisprojectrepresented acompletechangein IBM’sapproach to building computers—no longerwould thecomputerbecompletely proprietary.Instead mostofthepartsforthePC would beboughtwith IBM essentially being the assembler, and sales would be through retail outlets such as Sears and ComputerLand.TheIBM PC becameenormously popularand spawned aboom in both softwaredevelopmentand copycatclones.By thissametimeBillGates and PaulAllen had started Microsoft,which began playing amajorrolein producing PC softwaresuch asMS-DOS15),theearly operating system.
Thislatestarchitecturalmoveonceagain changed theway peoplethought aboutcomputing,bringing itatareasonablecostto almostanyone.Within the nextten years“computing had becomeapartofeveryday lifein business…
…and [was]quickly becoming partofpersonallifetoo”(p.121).PCscontinue to becomeevermorepowerfuland,with connectivity to theWeb,peopleare finding morethingsto do with them.And,thisnow also appliesto smart phonesand tabletcomputerssuch astheiPhoneand iPad.
Anotherphenomenon thatbegan to takeplacewastheideaof“information”
asan areaofstudy in itsown right.Thebook mentionsthework ofpeoplelike ClaudeShannon atMIT who,in the1930,showed how electroniccircuitscould
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14) Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems.Thiswasan American electronics company thatby theend ofthe1970shad merged with anothercompany.
15) MicrosoftDisk Operating System.
perform Boolean algebraand theability ofalgorithmsto modelalmostanything.
Sincethen peoplelikeAlan Turing16)and NarendraKarmarkar(BellLabs) havecomeup with improved algorithms—and thesearch forbetteralgorithms goeson.And,ofcourse,information technology (IT)isacommon sciencenow.
Today wenow areentering theareaofcloud computing madepossibleby advancesin connectivity and server/datacenters.With cloud computing even a smalldevicelikeasmartphonecan mustercomputing poweronce“reserved for giantcorporations.”Also wearemoving moreand moreinto theageof machinesand sensorswheredataisgathered and operated on sanshuman intervention.Truly computerarchitecturehascomealong way in arelatively shorttimeand onecan only speculatewhereitwillgo next.
Conclusion.Thispartofthebook concludeswith an exampleofwhatmight bepossiblein thenextten yearsgiven how fastcomputing technology is advancing.Thispartalso takesalook atsomespecificthingswecan look for in thefuture.
Theexampleisofaman standing on thecornerin Shanghaiwho needsto get to an addressacrosstown.Hespeaksinto an app on hiscellphoneand asked:
“Taxiorsubway?”An answercomesback immediately “Niceday,traffic’s terrible,you could usetheexercise—geton thesubway and here’stheroute.” GPS knowswhereheisand whereallthetaxisin theareaareand how fast they’removing (and thusthetrafficconditions)and how long itwilltaketo get ataxi.Also how farhewould haveto walk to thenearestsubway station and to walk from thestation nearesthismeeting place.Monitorswillknow theman’s currentphysicalcondition and currentweatherconditionsand how thosethings would affecthim should hehaveto walk very far.
Someofthethingswecan expectin thefuture:
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─ 16) An English mathematician.
•Computing thatdoesn’tfollow the“ifthis,then that”oftraditional programming17)butbebased moreon how thehuman brain workswith logicthatis“moreabstractand fuzzy.”Thiswillallow computersto be
“trained”and “learn”so they can supplementourcurrentarchitectures.
•Onepath to such processing isquantum computing using thespin of atoms.Such acomputercould comeup with “allpossibleanswersto a problemsatthesameinstant.”
•Naturallanguagesoftwareand immediatelanguagetranslation so anyone can query dataforanswers.
•Machinevision thatwilldraw conclusionsaboutwhatseen.
•Simulationsthatpreviously required supercomputers.
•Improved security to stay “ahead ofthebad guys.”(pp.132–133)
Wecan also expectthecurrenttrend ofcomputing taking on moresophisticated analysisatthetop end and providing morecomputing powerforeveryday lifeto continueasithasforthelast100 years.Thiswillcontinueto freepeopleto do thosethingsuniquely human such asbeing creativeand,quitefrankly,thinking ofnew waysto usecomputing.Thislastpointisoneoften mentioned in this partofthebook;i.e.,aswegetmorecomputing poweritallowsusto do new thingswhich,in turn,drivesourdesireforgetting morecomputing power—an endlesscycle!
3.Part2:Reinventing theModern Corporation
Reinventing theModern Corporation by SteveHamm coversthehistory of IBM from thesefourperspectives:
• Theintentionalcreation ofculture
• Creating economicvaluefrom knowledge
207 17) Known asthevon Neumann architecture.
• Becoming global
• How organizationsengagewith society
Using IBM astheprimeexample,Hamm discussestheimportanceofeach of thesefourelementsforasuccessfulorganization.
Theintentionalcreation ofculture
Thebook suggeststhatIBM wasin theforefrontofintentionally creating a cultureand itbegan with itsfirstCEO ThomasWatson,Sr.Thekey to thekind ofculturedesired isasetofpositivevalues.ForWatson,Sr.thesewere:
respectfortheindividual,pursuitofexcellence,and providing thebestcustomer service.
Someoftheotherthingsovertheyearsthatshaped and improved IBM’s culturewere:
•Watson seeing allemployees,regardlessofposition,asequaland working aspartners—amostradicalideain 1915 when hefirststated it.
•Hiring and treating women on an equalbasiswith men (starting in 1935).
•Overtheyearsreducing theworkweek,setting up a“study club”for employees,shifting from piecework to salaries,instituting vacation pay for hourly employees, and, in 1945, establishing pensions for all employees.
When ThomasWatson,Jr.took overin the1950s,hecontinued to seek ways to improvethecultureby promoting moredelegation and giving theoperating divisionsmoreautonomy.Healso setup aformalmanagementeducation program and,in 1963,established theIBM Fellowsprogram to recognize excellenceon thepartofIBM’sscientistsand engineers.Watson,Jr.also instituted arigorousenforcementofIBM’scodeofconduct.
AnotherpartoftheculturewasIBM willingnessto takerisksasevidenced by the“bet-your-company”investmentin the360 computerin the1960sand a similarly risky program to develop theIBM PC in theearly 1980s.
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However,by thelate1980s,“…IBM had becomecomplacentaboutits position in thecomputerindustry and rapidly lostbusiness”(p.158).Thiswas asign itwaslosing sightofsomeofthecoreelementsofitstraditionalculture such asawillingnessto takerisksand dedication to thecustomer.By thetime LouisGerstnertook overin theearly 1990sthesituation had becomeacuteand hebegan concentrating on oncemorereviving theculture.
Although Gerstnerdid improvetheculture,thenextCEO,SamuelPalmisano, who took overin 2002,soughtto makeiteven betterdueaconcern that(1) Watson Sr.’sBasicBeliefshad cometo mean something differentfrom their originalintent,(2)therewasaneed forsomething to betterknitthecompany togetherin atimeofmassiveglobalexpansion,and (3)therewasaneed to reengageon the“values”level.Accordingly in July 2002 heheld athree-day
“ValuesJam”involving allemployees.Sadly itstarted offasaforum simply airing complaints.Eventually,however,itbecameconstructiveand yielded this revision to theoriginalvalues:
Although thereissomeresemblance,thesenew valuesaremuch broaderwith a globaloutlook and morein linewith currenttechnology and interpersonal relations.And,even moreimportant,they camefrom theIBMersthemselves versusbeing top-down imposed.
Whatcan welearn from theway IBM hascontinuously soughtto createand improveitsculture?Firstand foremostthatthekey isto haveitbased on aset
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New ones Old ones
Trustand personalresponsibility in all relationships
Respectfortheindividual
Innovation thatmatters—forourcompany and fortheworld
Pursuitofexcellence
Dedication to every client’ssuccess Bestcustomerservice
ofpositivevaluesthatarenotonly explicitly setforth butarepracticed by how thecompany treatsitsemployees.Second,in linewith Palmisano’sthinking of having theemployeestakeownership oftheculture—think the2002 ValuesJam experienceand outcome—theidealsituation isformanagersto play asmaller rolein running thecompany.Thatistheemployeesatalllevelswillbeso imbued with thecompany’svaluesthey’llinstinctively know how to actand behave in most situations. Couple that with the advances in computer technology theday may soon comewheresophisticated decision-management softwarewillbedeveloped “thatin many caseswillenableemployeesto make decision thatthey formerly depended on managersto make”(p.166).
Given the ever more competitive and complex environment in which businessesoperateitisprobably nottoo farfetched to say survivalwilldepend on notjustproactively creating aculture,butcontinually striving to improveand makeitsecond natureto allemployees.In thisregard,thereisalotto learn from IBM’sexperience.
Creating economicvaluefrom knowledge
IBM hasalong history ofcreating economicvaluefrom knowledge.You mightsay itstarted with Watson,Sr.’sadmonition to hisemployeesto
Asan exampleofhow IBM’scultureplaysoutin therealworld,I asked aretired IBM SeniorEngineer/Manager18)to tellmehis approach to management;i.e.,whatwerehismanagementskillsthat helped him beso successful.Theappendix to thispaperishis verbatim response.Ibelieveitreflectsin many waysthepositive culturecreated by IBM overtheyears.Notein particularhislastitem aboutrespectfortheindividual,oneofWatson Sr.’soriginalvalues.
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18) Worked in Technology ProductsProcessDevelopmentwith 28 plusyearsofservice.
“Think”—an ideathatsoon spread throughoutthecompany and seemsto have becomeingrained within theculture.
OneofWatson’sfirstactupon taking overthecompany in 1914 wasto set up aproductdevelopmentdepartmentstaffed with engineers“to dream up new waysofdoing things…”;by 1935 IBM had 300 engineersworking forit.Ten yearslaterWatson setup thefirstcorporatescientificlaboratory atColumbia University.Theideawasnotjustto engagein research with adirectapplication to IBM’sbusinessbutalso to comeup with ideasthatwould bettertheworld.
Thesmalllab atColumbiawasjustthestartofIBM investmentin general research.Theimpetusforsignificantly furtherexpansion wasWatson,Jr.who, in theearly 1950s,setup an independentresearch facility similarto thefamous BellLabsofAT&T.Although theaim ofthisresearch was,ofcourse,to create economicvalueitdidn’tmatterifsomeprojectsdidn’tlead anywheresinceso many did pay off.
IBM wassoon becoming aleaderin scientificresearch asevidenced by its lead in patentsand thenumberofitsscientistsreceiving NobelPrizes(fivethus far).
Sincetheearly 1970stherehasbeen aconsistentpush to focustheresearch moreand moreon productdevelopmentand,in 1980,IBM setup “joint programs”thatmarried researcherwith productdevelopers—itproved abig success!Today IBM hasnineresearch labsthroughouttheworld and “dozensof hardwareand softwaredevelopmentcenters.”
SomeoftheotherwaysIBM hascomeup with to gain knowledgefor creating economicvalue:
•Collaboration with academia and thegovernment.IBM workswith some6,000 collegesand universitiesand,overthelastfiveyears(up to 2011 when thebook waspublished),hasinvested morethan $500 millionsin theseprograms.A governmentcollaboration exampleis
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IBM’swork with theDefenseAdvanced Research ProjectsAgency (DARPA)in association with someuniversitiesto createacompact computing system with human brain capabilities.
•Collaboration within IBM.IBM haspioneered in thisareawith oneof thefirstintranetslong beforelocalareanetworks(LANs)cameon the scenewith itProfessionalOfficeSystem (PROFS).With theadventof theInternetand advanced softwareithasbecomeeven easierto share ideaswithin acompany.IBM’spoliciesalso encouragepeopleto work together and think creatively. For example in 2006 IBM’s InnovationJam broughttogethermorethan 150,000 IBMersand clients and spawned severalnew businessinitiatives.
•Collaboration with clients.IBM hascometo realizethevalueof working with itsclientsto notonly improvecustomersatisfaction butto getideasfornew productsforwhich therewasahidden marketuntil then.
•Gaining innovation through acquisition.Thisissomething thatbegan with the venture capital movement starting in the late 1940s. It representsaquick way to fillgapsin acompany’stechnology to better satisfy customer needs by buying up smaller companies. IBM’s acquisition ofLotusDevelopmentCorp.during Lou Gerstner’sreign to takeadvantageofitsspreadsheetand collaboration technology providesa good exampleofthis.
•Open collaboration.With theadventoftheInternetand Web the potentialforcollaboration with almostanyone,regardlessofwherethey are,hasbecomeareality.Besidesjustbeing ableto usetheInternetfor collaboration on any project,anotherform ofcollaboration isworking togetheron open sourcesoftwaresuch asLinux.In factLinux provides a good example of how IBM has taken advantage of this sort of
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collaboration by making substantialinvestmentin thissystem starting in 2000.IBM recognized thatLinux would eventually succeed and eatinto itsequivalentbusinessso thedecision wasmadeto partnerwith itand thishaspaid offsince.Italso represented aseachangefrom theway IBM had been doing business:now IBM would “participatein open sourceeffortsforbuilding-block technologiesand differentiating itself from thecompetition with homegrown proprietary technologiesbuilton top ofthem”(p.194).
•Collaboration acrossglobalsystems.Itwillbenecessary to look for even moreinnovativemethodsofcollaboration forthepurposeof creating valueamid theopportunitiesand challengesofthefuture.For examplefutureresearch may taketheform ofcombining multiple disciplines. An example is IBM working with Roche, a Swiss pharmaceuticalcompany,to develop away to quickly and cheaply map thegenomesofmany individualsto help doctorstreatdiseases.In this caseacombination ofresearch in theareasofnanotechnology,data analysis,and geneticsisbeing used.
Whatcan besaid abouthow thebusinessofcreating economicvaluefrom knowledgewillevolvein thefuture?According to theauthorofthispartofthe book (Hamm)IBM scientistsseeadvancesin threeareasthatwillgreatly improveourability to createvaluefrom knowledge:computing power, understanding human cognition,and analytics19).Itissuggested thatfuture
“analyticengines”willbealmosthuman-like,knowing an organization’s
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19) Onedefinition ofanalyticsis“theprocessofdeveloping optimalorrealistic decision recommendationsbased on insightsderived through theapplication of statisticalmodelsand analysisagainstexisting and/orsimulated futuredata.”Itdraws on thedisciplinesofcomputertechnology,operationalresearch and,ofcourse, statistics.(Wikipedia,May 2012)
capabilitiesin termsofitshuman and softwareresources;and thereforebeable to greatly improvedecision-making.Asaresultorganizationswillbecome moreproductivein achieving theirgoals.Given such advancesin almosthuman behavioritwillbeimportantthatsuch acapability beused “profitably,ethically and forthebenefitofhumanity.”
Becoming Global
Theideaofdoing businessglobally probably began with companiesthatdid tradewith coloniesin the17th century such astheBritish EastIndiaCompany. Eventually internationalbusinesswasno longerjust“colonial”tradebuttrade with theentireopen market.Then camethefully independentinternational corporations,butthey stillworked on thehub-and-spokemodelwith operations still managed from the home office. Post-WWII saw the rise of the multinationalcorporation with fully sufficientoperationsin each foreign areaof interest.Thiswasalso atimewhen thesecorporationshad to begin dealing moreand morewith tariffs,nationalized economies,and othercomplexitiesof doing businessin foreign lands.
IBM’spredecessor,C-T-R20),wasalready doing businessinternationally but becameeven moreglobalwith Watson,Sr.atthehelm.In 1924 Watson changed thenameto InternationalBusinessMachinesto reflectthis.By the timeLou Gerstnertook overin 1993,IBM wasaclassicmultinationalwith autonomousoperationsin almost100 countries.Unfortunately theseforeign subsidiarieswereoften tooautonomousand often failed to work in harmony with thecorporateheadquarters.To correctthisproblem Gerstnerreorganized IBM “around globalteamsfocusing on adozen majorindustries.”Now IBM would no longerbea“country-centric,product-focused company”but“aglobal, client-oriented organization”and onemuch betterableto respond to customers’
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20) ShortforComputing-Tabulating-Recording Company.
needs(p.208).
TheriseoftheInternetand theability offoreign companiesto begin competing with American companieswith equalorbetterservicesatlesscost wasareason forIBM to oncemorerethink it’sglobalapproach to doing business.IBM soon realized itmadesenseto begin hiring moreforeign workersand takeadvantageofwhatthebestand brightesthad to offer.
When Sam Palmisano took overin 2002 hebegan an even moreradical reorganization ofIBM by selling offcommodity businessesand moving work into higherprofitareassuch astech services,consulting,and software.Healso began shifting alotofwork to low-costcountriesand setup “globalservice delivery centers”around theworld.ThusIBM wascontinuing to movecloser to theidealglobalorganization:one“integrated through common valuesand processes”and ablelocate“operationsand functionsanywherein theworld based on thebestmix ofcost,skillsand businessenvironment”(p.214).
A key issueishow do you coordinatesuch diverseand far-flung operations? IBM tacklesthisissuethreeways:leadership training,good collaboration technology,and theuseofspecialteamsto help localmanagers.Also,abig factoristheIBM culture,which bindsevery IBMerto acommon setofvalues no matterwherethey are.
Asfaraswhatthefutureholds,IBM expectsthepaceofinternational businessto continueunabated with moreopportunitiesopening up in places such astheMiddleEastand Africa—placesnotonly asmarketsbutas“nodes in itsglobaltalentnetwork.”
Itisalso anticipated thatitwillbenecessary to work moreand morewith otherbusinesses,governments,and universitiesto notonly promoteeconomic growth in countriesbutalso enhance“globalsecurity and order.”In other words,thecomplexity oftoday’sworld problemscan no longerbehandled by justbusinessorgovernmentalonebutwillrequirejointefforts.IBM issureto
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bein themiddleofsuch jointefforts. How OrganizationsEngagewith Society
Theworld’sproblemsmakeitimperativethatbusinessesbecomeinvolved in thebettermentofsociety versussimply worrying aboutmaking aprofitfortheir shareholders.Such involvementisnotonly forthesakeofsociety butforthe sake of the corporation too; as societies improve so does the business environment.
Thebook citesaclassicexampleofhow thisworks.In themid-1990s Mexico’slargestbuilding materialscompany,CEMEX,began selling directly to individualMexicanswho wanted to build theirown homes.By combining the productsaleswith financing and advisor/logisticsservicestheprogram proved highly successfulforallconcerned.Typically construction timeand costswere greatly reduced and theway oflifemuch improved forhundredsofthousandsof people.And,ofcourse,CEMEX hasdeveloped alucrativenew market,which isnow expanding into otherLatin American countries.
Asalready mentioned,businessescan no longeroperatein isolation.
Economic growth and society betterment go hand in hand and require
“governments,businessleadersand individualsto work togetherto optimize thoseglobalsystemsforthehealth,wealth and sustainability ofthewhole” (p.228).
Thehistory ofcorporateinvolvementin “helping”society goesback to the daysofpeoplelikeAndrew Carnegieand theirphilanthropy.Watson,Sr. believed companies,justasindividuals,had asocialresponsibility and showed thisthrough both corporatephilanthropy and being socially responsibleasa company—e.g.,by adopting progressiveworkplacepracticessuch asbeing at theforefrontofcivilrightsand protecting theenvironment.
Since then IBM has moved from just handing out money to direct involvementin such issuesasclean energy,curing HIV/AIDS,developing more
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nutritiousrice,and facilitating volunteerism.
No matterwhat,themodern corporation willplay amajorrolein making society eitherbetterorworse.Mostcorporationswillseethewisdom ofthe former—notjustforsociety’ssakebutfortheirown successand,even,survival.
Conclusion
Thispartofthebook haslooked athow corporations,and IBM in particular, haveevolved in thefourareasofcreating aculture,creating economicvalue, becoming global,and engaging with society.Itisvery likely thatdespitethe progressto date,theworld asitcontinually changeswillrequired even more creativewaysto addressthesebasiccorporateconcerns.And,no doubt,IBM willbein theforefrontofthiseffort.
4.Part3:Making theWorld Better
Making theWorld Betterby Jeffrey O’Brien isdivided up into fiveparts: seeing,mapping,understanding,believing,and acting.
In thispartofthebook,O’Brien setsforth away to maketheworld better based on thesefivesteps.Hispurposeisto provideaway to movefrom the plethoraofdataavailabletoday to finding waysto usethatdatato actually makethingsbetter.In asenseitissimply anotherapproach to problem solving.
However,O’Brien seemsto befocusing moreon solving thosereallybig problemsthatwecontinueto facein thismodern world.And to takeadvantage oftheremarkableadvancesin technology thathaveenabled usto “see,”“map,” and “understand”betterand thushavetheconfidenceto believewecan makea differenceand,therefore,acton whatwe’vecometo understand.Mostofthis partisproviding examples,many ofwhich involveorhaveinvolved IBM.
O’Brien callsthisstep-by-step proceduresmubaforshort. Briefly smubacan bedescribed asfollows:
• Seeing:Collecting dataabouttheissueofinterest. 217
• Mapping:Organizing thatdatain ameaningfulway.
• Understanding:Analyzing thedatato makesenseofit.
•Believing:Trusting theanalysisto thepointyou’reready to acton it.
•Acting:Taking theaction necessary to makethingsbetterthrough organization,collaboration,persuasion,etc.
Seeing
Ourability to gatherdatahasincreased immensely.Wecan now do things likeusepowerfultelescopesto peereven furtheroutinto theuniverseand more mundanethingslikemonitortraffic.Also theInternethasprovided an enormoussourceofdatarightatourfingertips.Also wecan look inwardly at thingslikewhat’shappening within thehuman body.Thisremarkableability is allowing usto seeareality neverbeforeavailableto us,something in thejargon called “augmented reality.”
Mapping
When wemap weareusing thedatawe’vegathered selectively towardssome goal.Oneexamplegiven isthemapping doneby John Snow during the1850s to pinpointthesourceofaraging choleraepidemicin London.Orhow about theDewey decimalsystem fororganizing knowledgein librariesortheperiodic tableofelements?
Beyond thesehistoricalexampleswecan look atwhatisavailabletoday to help usorganizeourdatainto ameaningfulmap.Thebook citestheStructured Query Language(SQL)and thespreadsheetaspowerfulmapping toolsnow available.Also thepowerfulability to comeup with customized mapsusing GoogleMaps.Wikipedia,in asense,isamassivemap ofallknowledgefrom which an individualcan draw selectively forhisorherown purposes.And networkslikeLinkedIn afford onetheability to “map”peopleofpotential businessinterest.A classicand challenging presentday undertaking isthe mapping thehuman genomewith far-reaching implicationsifsuccessful.
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Severalotherexamplesaregiven.
Understanding
Oncewehavethedataorganized in amap wewantto seewhatuseful information can begained from it.An excellentexampleofunderstanding coming from mapping isthework ofNorman Borlaug in themid-twentieth century.Heisfamousnow fordeveloping disease-resistantwheatthatmay havesaved countrieslikeChina,India,and Pakistan from famine.Hedid this by trying outdifferenttypesofwheatand carefully recording how they did in variousenvironments—and allthisbeforemodern-day computing wasavailable.
A good exampletoday ishow Amazon organizescustomerbuying datain a way itcan begin to makeagood guessatwhateach customermightwantto buy nextand then suggestitto thecustomer.
Oneinteresting examplecited isVextec,acompany thathasadatabaseof
“theworld’sknown metals,ceramics,compositesand plastics”(p.288).With thisinformation,Vextechastheability to actually predict“thedurability, performanceand lifetimecostofmachinepartsby understanding thebehaviorof their component materials.” The advantage of this is obvious: greater predictability in when apartmightfail.Thusan airlineforexamplewillknow when to replaceapartbeforeitfails.
Theauthordiscussesalso thepartpredictivemodelsplay in understanding data.Beforewehad today’svery powerfulcomputers,itwasnecessary to keep such modelsfairly simpleso they could besolved analytically.Now however wecan usethebruteforceofcomputerpowerto rerun thesimulation many timesbased on alessthan perfectmodeland “erroneousconclusionstend to fall to thefarendsofthebellcurve”(p.291).
Again,severalotherexamplesaregiven.
Believing
Thispartwasnotthatclear.Iwasn’tsureifO’Brien wastalking aboutthe 219
individual(orgroup)thathasdonethefirstthreestepsto believein themerits ofwhatthey havelearned orin getting othersto believe.Perhapsitisboth sincehetalksaboutEdison asan exampleofsomeonewho notonly believed in thelightbulb butalso worked hard to promoteitwith othersso itcould become apracticalreality.
Also cited isPresidentKennedy’sfamous1961 “moon-shot”speech thatwe would belanding aman on themoon by theend ofthedecade.Kennedy’s beliefthatthiswaspossiblemusthavebeen based in largeparton the remarkabletechnologicaladvancesthathad been taking placeand were considered possibleatthattime.Thebook tracesthesevariousadvances starting with thework doneon something called theAstronomicalCalculator donated to ColumbiaUniversity in 1945 by IBM.Itturned outIBM played a majorrolein many ofthesetechnologicalbreakthroughs.Ithink thepointis thaton theroad to thegoaloflanding aman on themoon,alotofdatahad to begathered,mapped and understood,butittook someonelikeKennedy to focus allthateffortinto action by getting enough otherpeopleto believesuch afeat waspossible.
Anotherexamplewhereitwasnecessary to getenough peopleto believein something to beableto implementit(theactstep)isaplan concocted to relieve congestion in thecity ofStockholm.Although mostly resisted by thecitizensof Stockholm becauseitinvolved a“congestion tax,”aseven-monthstrialwith the promiseto hold areferendum afterthatconvinced thecitizensofthemeritsof the program which significantly reduced congestion and emissions and improved thequality ofdowntown life.Onepurposeofthisexampleisto show theimportanceofleadership in getting othersto believein something.
Acting
JustasIhad troubleunderstanding thelaststep of“believing,”Ifound this onehard to distinguish from whatO’Brien said aboutthatlaststep.For
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example,hetakesthereaderthrough acoupleofexamples—AlamedaCounty’s (California) social services and the Memphis (Tennessee) police department—whereitseemslikethoseleading theeffortareagain doing the
“believing”step by running pilotprogramsto gain consensus(belief)forthe project.
Howeverhedoesgo into somegood pointsabout“acting”orrunning a complex project.Forexampleitoften may bebetterto makewhathecalls
“pinpoint”interventionsratherthan trying forawholesaleintervention.Healso stressestheneed to makecontinuousreassessmentsastheprojectisin progress to seewhatwe’velearned thusfarand how thatmightbeapplied aswego forward.Also theimportanceofstrong leadership isdiscussed which includes being agood collaboratorand communicator.
Someotherpointsrelevantto thisstep:
•Aswemovethrough thisacting step wemay find thesituation has changed so much weneed to considertaking unforeseen actions.An examplegiven isaprojectto improveSan Francisco’swastewater treatmentfacility—astechnology wasused to bettermonitorthefacility, itturned outlessmaintenancepeoplewereneeded.Thiswasbecause faulty componentsofthefacility werenow lesslikely to failbeforebeing detected by thecomputerized monitoring system.On theotherhand moreIT personnelwereneeded.Accordingly itbecamenecessary to makesignificantadjustmentsto theskillsetsemployed (and dealwith theassociated ramifications).
•Given theability wehavenow to gathermassiveamountsofdata(the
“seeing”step),issuesofprivacy and datasecurity willbecomeofmore importantthan ever.Related istheneed to do allwecan to ensureour datadoesn’tfallinto thehandsofthosewho mightuseitforcriminal acts.
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•Realizethatin solving oneproblem you may learn thingsthatcan be applied to otherproblems,even thosein acompletely differentfield.
•Finally,considerthesmubaprocessasacontinuouscycle;i.e.,assoon as you’vemadetheworld alittlebetterin oneareaconsiderusing itagain to makefurtherimprovementsin thatarea.Thispointisreminiscentof thefamousPDCA Shewart/Deming21)Cycle,which issimply Plan,Do, Check,and Act.
5.Commentson theBook
Exceptforpart3 (Making theWorld WorkBetter),Ienthusiastically endorse thebook.Thefirsttwo partsaremosttimely in telling thestory ofcomputing from itsearliestdays(part1)and,using IBM asan example,how alarge company can besuccessful(part2).
Part1,Pioneering theScienceofInformation,isafascinating look athow far we’vecomein such ashorttimein being ableto gather,process,and share information.Itseemsmostappropriatethatthispartiswritten mostly around IBM activities over its last 100 years given IBM’s role in developing information technology.In fact,arguably no othercompany hascontributed moreto theadvancementofthefield asshould beevidentfrom thebook and, even,thesummary provided in thispaper.22)
Part 2,Reinventing the Modern Corporation, I also found extremely interesting and believeworthwhileforanyonerunning abusiness.Itsfour perspectives—culture,useofknowledgeto createvalue,going global,and social responsibility—areimportantand timely topicsand providemuch usefulfood
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21) WalterA.Shewhartand W.EdwardsDeming arefamousfortheirpioneering work in thefield ofstatisticalprocesscontroland quality management.
22) Irecallbeing told oncethatIBM wasso wellrespected in thefield ofcomputing thatasaying developed in business:“No onewaseverfired forbuying IBM.”
forthoughton how abig corporation oreven smallerorganizationscan improve theirchancesatsuccess.Although fourtopicsarediscussed itstruck methat themostimportantonewasdeveloping ahighly ethicalculture—onethatbreeds adesireon thepartofallmembersoftheorganization to notonly beethicalbut also striveto maketheworld betterin whateverway they can.In away ithas much in common with thebasicphilosophy oftotalquality management (TQM);namely continuousimprovement.
Part3,Making theWorld WorkBetter,did notgrab melikethefirsttwo parts.Even afterrereading itIstillcameaway with thefeeling itwasan interesting ideabutonethatwastrying to justify itselfversusbeing ableto stand on itsown.Theideaofseeing,mapping,and understanding thedata needed to help you solvesomeproblem seemsvery obvious.And theauthor’s stepsofbelieving and acting again seem obviousprerequisitesto accomplishing whatevergoalmightbein mind.In factIfeltthe“believing”step could have been leftoutaltogetheraswhy would onego to allthetroubleoftheprevious stepsifyou didn’thaveastrong beliefthatwhatyou weredoing wasright?
Partthreedid providealotofexamplesofseeing,mapping,understanding, believing,and acting which mighthelp someonegetabetterhandleon doing thesethingsin thecourseofsolving someproblem,especially avery large problem which istheauthor’sfocus.
In conclusion, I recommend anyone interested in computing and/or organizationalchangein adynamicworld environmentread and study whatthis book hasto say.
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Appendix
Commentsby a Retired SeniorEngineer/Managerwith 28 plusyearsof servicewith IBM regarding hismanagementapproach—
an insightinto IBM’sculture
(Source:June27,2011 emailto author.Verbatim with someabbreviated termsspelled out.)
1. Ididn’ttry to be“chiefengineer”ofmy departments,likesomeother managersdid.Ihad well-paid and intelligentengineersand techs,and I didn’twantto makethem into “gofers.”
2. I’d try to spend sometimewith each every day on theirturf,allowing them to talk aboutwhateverthey wanted to.Could bejob,family,etc.
3. Iwasblessed with somegood bosseswho gavemealotoffreedom.Iwas alwayshonestwith them –gavethem my opinion,good orbad.Also, alwaysbacked them up,and tried to makethem look good.In addition, nevertried to BS uppermgmt.Ifwehad problems,I’d givethem the straightstory,and outlineexactly whatweweredoing to resolvethem.
4. Iwassortofan IBM “wild duck,”* butIflew in formation mostofthetime. Iwasknown to subtly recruitgood workersfrom otherdepartmentswho I knew wereunhappy orin an assignmentthatthey werenotreally suited for. Also,when wehad re-organizations,I’d manageto getsomegood onesand shed somethatdidn’treally fit.Thenetwasthatthedepartmentwasa pretty good team.
5. Every few yearstherewould bealengthy opinion survey,covering IBM,job, pay,management,etc.My departmentsalwayscameoutnearthetop in my particularorganization.In my 24+ yearsin management,Ihad anumberof differentdepartmentsand atotalofabout90 differentpeopleworking forme overthoseyears.Somewerewith me(theirchoice)for10 to 15 years.
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*According to thebook theIBM “wild duck”conceptoriginated with amemo written by Watson,Jr.in 1959.Wild ducksare“rebelswho sometimesbuck theorganization.” According to Watson,“Weareconvinced thatany businessneedswild ducks,and in IBM wetry notto tamethem”(p.160).
6. Wedidn’talwaysgetourparticularassignmentsdoneon time,butthe processeswedeveloped and theequipmentweinstalled werealwaysin place and working properly priorto otherstepsin themanufacturing process. Thus,wewerenevertheholdup.
7. OneofIBM’skey tenetswasRespectForTheIndividual.Thatwasmine also.
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