Posted by John Patrick on Dec 8, 2004 in
IBM 
In 1992 I was fortunate to have an assignment in IBM’s personal systems group. I had been CFO in the computer integrated manufacturing unit of IBM just prior to that and was quite happy with what I was doing. However, a friend of mine, who was #2 guy in the personal systems group at the time, knew of my passion for personal computing and he convinced me to take a marketing role in the group. I was a newcomer at marketing but I had a great appreciation for the importance of having good names for things. We were looking for an "independent" sounding name for a newly formed PC division that had aggressive plans to become a major player in the corporate market. We decided on the "IBM PC Company". The organization was fast on it’s feet and quite successful. A few months later it was time to announce the company’s first tablet computer. The product used a handwriting recognition program from a company called Go (later bought by AT&T and eventually folded). The "tablet" was two inches thick and weighed eight pounds or so. The worst part was the tentative name — the "IBM 486SLC-2 Tablet Computer". A consultant came up with an alternative name — the IBM ThinkPad. It was descriptive but seemed very strange at the time (more on that story in the future). With last night’s announcement of the sale of IBM’s PC business, what is the future of the ThinkPad? I would say very bright.
The deal that was announced sounds very good to me as a stockholder and as a former member of the PC team. The IBM PC and IBM ThinkPad are sentimental to millions of people but the deal was not about sentiment — it was about strategy. The jewel in the transaction is not in the numbers — it is in the people. I have known Steve Ward — the new CEO — and Fran O’Sullivan — the new COO — for a long time. They are top notch executives. Steve has been IBM’s CIO, a former ThinkPad general manager, and head of IBM’s global industrial sector. With a proven management team in place it shows the customers that both IBM and Lenovo Group are serious about keeping them as customers. It also shows the employees in the new venture a leadership that they already know and trust.
There are a number of more subtle benefits to the deal that go beyond the initial numbers. One is increased presence in the China market. IBM has been operating successfully in China for many years and has thousands of customers and employees there, but now, with a strong "local" partner, they will be able to expand the relationships beyond the current base. Lenovo has a lot of experience in dealing with high volumes of products and, combining that with the world class research and development of IBM, Lenovo will be able to expand their capabilities and continue the innovation that has been a hallmark of IBM. By "untethering" the PC business from IBM the new venture will have more flexibility to bob and weave around the competitive landscape. Meanwhile IBM can focus on high value businesses such as software, support, consulting, and other services. The bottom line with the deal is that there is synergy breaking out all over the place.
I have confidence they can make the combination successful. IBM has a good track record of both acquiring and spinning off businesses. A spin-off of a low-end printer division in 1991became Lexmark International, Inc., which is a $5 billion company with a market capitalization of more than $11 billion. The spin off of the low-end storage business to Hitachi Data Systems has gone very smoothly. Same thing on the acquisition side. In 1995 IBM acquired Lotus Development Corporation which is now at the forefront of redefining client software for the enterprise. The acquistion of Price Waterhouse Coopers Consulting is a text book case of leveraging two companies into one. In the past two years IBM has had more than two dozen acquisitions (mostly middleware companies), such as Rational, that have been seamlessly integrated. The IBM management team knows how to work with other companies. Although handheld devices are becoming the majority player in the connected world, the PC is not going to go away anytime soon. I expect to be using ThinkPads for a long time to come.
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Posted by John Patrick on Nov 26, 2004 in
IBM Innovation is one of those words that is a bit hard to internalize. Merriam-Webster says innovation is the introduction of something new or a new idea, method, or device. That would be a narrow definition — perhaps even obsolete. Innovation is much more than invention or introducing new technology. Some would say that innovation is more of a state of mind. An attitude. One thing is for sure: innovation is happening more quickly, it is more open and more collaborative.
All three of these factors — speed, openness, and collaboration — are caused by or driven by the Internet. Speed for sure. A new idea emerging in a country we never heard of can be globally recognized in minutes. The openness factor is really about standards. The Internet is not the first thing to be built on standards but it is arguably the most significant. As one travels around the world you can find cars with the steering wheel on different sides, railroad systems of different track sizes, and electrical and telephone connectors of every size and shape. The Internet, on the other hand, works exactly the same way at every corner of the Earth. Collaboration is one of the many applications of the Internet, enabling people in different time zones to share workloads and ideas. The old model of tightly controlled intellectual property is falling by the wayside to the new model of innovation.
To better understand what the new model of innovation may mean for business and society, IBM convened the Global Innovation Outlook (GIO). . The concept was that IBM would open up its legendary technical and business trend analysis processes to outsiders and collaborate with them to gain insight to then share with everybody. Over the course of 10 meetings in 24 days on 3 continents, more than 100 leaders from business, academia, government, and other organizations joined with IBM’s top researchers and consultants to examine three areas that affect the key aspects of society that are ripe for innovation:
the future of healthcare, the relationship between government and its citizens, and the intersection of work and life.
The findings from these discussions were released on November 16, 2004 at a major event at Rockefeller University in New York City. I felt quite fortunate to attend. It was very nice to see many former colleagues from IBM, the media, consulting firms, companies, and universities that I have worked with over the years. The meeting was kicked off by Nick Donofrio, Senior Vice President for Technology and Manufacturing at IBM. Nick spearheads many important issues at IBM, including IBM Research, and engages actively in science, technology, and governments around the world. The keynote address, "The Changing Nature of Innovation" was given by Sam Palmisano, Chairman and CEO of IBM. This was followed by a summary of the GIO findings described by Ginni Rometty, Managing Partner for IBM Business Consulting Services.
The remainder of the day included three excellent panel discussions. The full story shows the subjects, moderator and participants on the panels. The GIO conference did not attempt to provide all the answers or offer solutions to major issues raised in the three areas. The conference certainly placed IBM in a very good light and showed off the company’s unique combination of world-class technology leadership and deep expertise in business and industry. The deep relationships IBM has with a broad range of clients, governments, universities and other ecosystem members around the world resulted in a really top-notch set of participants. The value of the conference will come from the continuing and expanded dialogue which will wrestle with the questions, implications and even contradictions inherent in the topics discussed. There is no doubt that the collaborations coming out of this will make the world a better place.
You can download the Global Innovation Outlook paper here.
Posted by John Patrick on Oct 29, 2004 in
IBM There was a lot going on at IBM in October. Here are the announcements made by the company. The complete index of prior IBM Happenings is here.
Here are a few I found particularly interesting.
Clinic adopts IBM genomics solution
IBM and The Cleveland Clinic will develop a translational medicine platform that will use information from medical records to support genetic research. I think this is really important stuff. Today, diagnostics, prescriptions, and treatments are mostly based on the experience of the doctor. Nothing wrong with that per se, but much better outcomes will be possible when a large amount of experience is extracted from the cumulativerecords of millions of patient records (on an anonymous basis).
IBM unveils first biometric ThinkPad
IBM introduced the first ThinkPad with an integrated fingerprint reader. I can’t wait to get one of these. I am currently using a fingerprint reader plugged in to my keyboard. It makes much easier and more secure when logging in to web sites and desktop applications.
Stop & Shop to roll out intelligent shopping carts
Stop & Shop’s new “Shopping Buddy” is equipped with a touch-screen IBM computer and a laser scanner. Self check-out works really well at Home Depot. Stop & Shop is taking things a step further.
Index for IBM Happenings – October 2004
Complete index of IBM Happenings
Posted by John Patrick on Sep 28, 2004 in
IBM Many companies slow down during the late summer and take a while to get back in high gear in September. Based on the announcements from IBM, it did not seem that the company took much of a breather. Here are the announcements from IBM since early August. The complete index of prior IBM Happenings is here.
Starting with this posting of "IBM Happenings", I will do the postings monthly. I may highlight a couple of the announcements that I personally found quite interesting. Out of the current couple of dozen announcements the ones about voice recognition, RFID, and speech enablement of Apache are quite leading edge. These projects show where the future is going to be — and already unfolding.
IBM delivers in-car speech recognition - Working with Honda Motor Company, the two have jointly developed an in-vehicle speech-recognition system using IBM’s Embedded ViaVoice software.
IBM expands RFID offerings - A broad suite of services has been announced to to speed the benefits of RFID systems to industrial companies and mid-market businesses. RFID is going to be part of our everyday life very soon.
IBM to contribute speech software to Apache - Sounds boring, but contributing Reusable Dialog Components to Apache Software Foundation and proposing a project at Eclipse to donate markup editors for speech standards will accelerate making the Web something we can talk to and listen to.
Index for IBM Happenings – September 2004
Complete index of IBM Happenings
Posted by John Patrick on Aug 16, 2004 in
IBM
There were a lot of interesting announcements from IBM this past week. Some of the headlines may be of interest. I was particularly interested personally in the story about what is going on at Mayo Clinic. Here is an index to the latest …
Posted by John Patrick on Aug 10, 2004 in
IBM 
Last month I took a ride up to Cambridge, Massachusetts and visited with the Extreme Blue interns — top computer
science and business students from some of the top universities in America. The Extreme Blue program, which began in 1999 at an IBM facility in Cambridge operates at more than ten IBM locations around the world and brings together a couple of hundred incredibly talented young people to work on projects for the summer. The students are split into teams of three or four computer science students and a business school student. Each of the projects has a sponsor from somewhere in IBM and a an IBM mentor who provides advice and support during the project.
The grand finale occurred in Armonk, New York, where IBM has it’s worldwide headquarters. The EB students from around the United States spent a couple of days demonstrating the results of their summer projects to senior IBM software, services, and hardware staff and management and to the top executives of the company.
The projects are very real (see related links for more info about them), they result in significant contributions to the company and also to the development of the students. Extreme Blue interns almost always exceed everyone’s expectations. The thing about students is that they have no & baggage& . They don’t know all the things that may not have worked in the past or all the reasons why something can’t get done in a short period of time. No blinders. Totally uninhibited. They have the summer all of twelve weeks or so. Whatever it takes, they will get the job done. The date for their grand finale is set at the beginning of the summer — ten minutes on stage in front of an auditorium full of fellow interns as well as the IBM staff and management. Projects can’t slip like they might in the "normal" world. Students are fearless and tireless. They learn a lot about IBM and from their mentors but I think IBM learns even more from the students. How they think and work together. Their attitudes about technology. The trends they see. Their view of the future. It is so uplifting and enriching to talk to the students and learn from them.
I finally tore myself away from the Extreme Blue dinner at 10:30 so I could get home for some sleep before an early train to NYC for a board meeting this morning and then on to San Francisco for WebSec 2004. WebSec is a conference offered by the MIS Training Institute and will be covering
many important topics including Securing Web Transactions,
Identity Theft and Digital Identities,
Securing Internet Information Servers,
Developing a Superior Web Security Architecture, and
Penetration Testing for Financial Organizations. I will be kicking things off in the morning with my view of The Future of the Internet.
Extreme Blue posting from July 2004
Extreme Blue posting from April 2004
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 31, 2004 in
IBM There were a lot of announcements from IBM this past week. Some of the headlines may be of interest.
Index of all headlines is here.
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 23, 2004 in
IBM There were a lot of interesting announcements from IBM in the past couple of weeks. Some of the headlines may be of interest.
Here are the latest …
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 15, 2004 in
IBM This was a very special week for me as I was privileged to spend a lot of time with students. On Tuesday I met with Extreme Blue interns — top computer
science and business students from some of the top universities in America. The Extreme Blue program, which began in 1999 at an IBM facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, operates at a half dozen IBM locations around the world and brings together incredibly talented young people to work on projects for the summer. The students are split into teams of three or four computer science students and a business school student. Each of the projects has a sponsor from somewhere in IBM and a an IBM mentor who provides advice and support during the project.
The projects are very real and result in significant contributions to the company and also to the development of the students. In the final week the students get to present their ideas and progress to senior executives of the company, including the chairman of the board. The projects I saw were impressive and far-reaching focused on database technology to enable doctors to be more effective in prescribing medications or treatments, sophisticated algorithms for provisioning of grid computing resources, a workflow model to improve efficiency for researchers, enhancements for help-desk support for users, and technology to enable IBM consultants to find business partners for specific kinds of client projects. All of the projects were built using using the very latest in open standards technologies. (read more)
Posted by John Patrick on Jul 8, 2004 in
IBM After thirty-five years at IBM, it is hard to cut the cord. I am officially a retiree (e-tiree) but I do maintain a strong interest in what is going on at the company — needless to say. The good news is that there is a lot going on there! I will occasionally post a list of headlines of "IBM Happenings" that may be of interest.
Here are the latest …
