International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has its own website:/. Headquartered in Armonk, new york, the company was established in the United States 19 1 1. It is the largest information technology and business solution company in the world, with more than 300,000 employees worldwide, and its business covers 160 countries and regions. In 2006, IBM's global revenue reached $965,438+$400 million. When the company was founded, its main business was commercial typewriters, and later it switched to word processors, and then computers and related services.
For more than 90 years, with the continuous development of the world economy and the rapid development of modern science, IBM has always led the development of the global information industry with advanced technology, excellent management and unique products, ensuring the all-round demand of users in almost all industries around the world for information processing. As we all know, as early as 1969, the Apollo spacecraft carried three astronauts, shouldering the mission of mankind and landing on the moon for the first time; 198 1 year, the space shuttle Columbia successfully flew into space again. These two historic space flights condensed IBM's unparalleled wisdom.
[Edit this paragraph] Introduction
IBM was founded by thomas watson Sr. Later, under the leadership of his son Thomas Jr., the company began the computer age.
The current CEO of IBM is, transliterated in, and his Chinese name is Peng.
The current chairman of IBM China, namely IBM (International Business Machines Co., Ltd.) Greater China is Zhou, and Qian Daqun became CEO in early 2007.
As a long-term leader in the computer industry, IBM has made the most remarkable achievements in mainframe/minicomputer and ThinkPad. The personal computer (PC) standard it founded is still in use and development.
In addition, IBM also leads the industry in mainframes, supercomputers (mainly representing deep blue and blue genes), UNIX and servers.
In terms of software, IBM Software Group has integrated five major software brands, including Lotus, WebSphere, DB2, Rational and Tivoli, all of which are leaders or strong competitors in the software industry in their respective aspects. After 99 years, the overall scale of Microsoft surpassed that of IBM software department. Up to now, IBM software department is also the second largest software entity in the world.
IBM has also made great achievements in materials, chemistry, physics and other scientific fields. Hard disk technology was invented by IBM, and scanning tunneling microscope (STM), copper wire technology and atomic etching technology were also invented by IBM Research Institute.
IBM still holds the position with the most patents in the world. Since 1993, IBM has been ranked first in national patent registration for 13 years. By 2002, IBM's R&D personnel had obtained a total of 22,358 patents, which was unprecedented, far exceeding the total number of patents obtained by 1 1 enterprises in the IT industry in the United States. These IT giants of 1 1 include: HP, Intel, Sun, Microsoft, Dell, etc. In 2005, IBM proposed 2946544.
In 2003, IBM's total revenue was $8.9/kloc-0.0 billion, and it had 230,000 employees worldwide.
In 2004, IBM's total revenue was $96.5 billion, and its global employees were 365,438+00,000.
In 2005, IBM's total revenue was $965,438 +0 1 billion (after the PC division was sold to Lenovo).
Annual operating results in 2006
-The total revenue was $901400 million, excluding the divested PC business, increasing by 4%;
-The income from continuing operations was US$ 9.4 billion, up by 65,438+08% year-on-year, excluding the 9% increase of non-recurring items in 2005;
-Diluted earnings per share from continuing operations was USD 6.06, up 23% year-on-year, excluding the increase of 65,438+04% in non-recurring items in 2005;
-The net cash generated from operating activities was $6,543.8+$05.3 billion, excluding an increase of $2.2 billion in accounts receivable from the Global Financing Division.
IBM China includes:
IBM China Development Center and IBM China Software Development Center CSDL /cdl/
IBM China Research Institute (formerly IBM China Research Center) CRL:/IBM/CRL
IBM China Website
In 2004, we cooperated with Hong Kong Cultural Communication Group to promote China CPU cash register.
The IBM software part consists of five parts.
DB2、Webshpere、Tivoli、Rational、Lotus
[Edit this paragraph] Dynamic
On May 1 2005, Lenovo Group Co., Ltd. and IBM announced that Lenovo had completed the acquisition of IBM's global personal computer business, which marked the birth of the third largest personal computer enterprise in the world. Lenovo Group owns ThinkPad and ThinkCenter trademarks and can use the IBM brand within five years.
At the same time, IBM is also a respected company in the world. One of the reasons why people are respected is that they can lead the industrial revolution many times in the historical process of nearly a hundred years, especially in the IT industry, formulate a number of standards and strive to help customers succeed. In addition, the company has been in the forefront of the world's top 500. More importantly, it is respected because IBM has always adhered to the "Watson philosophy" in the history of nearly a hundred years:
19 14 When IBM was founded, thomas watson Sr. formulated a code of conduct for the company. These rules have always been in everyone's mind in the company. Any action and policy are directly influenced by these three codes. Watson's ideas have contributed more to the company's success than technological innovation, marketing skills or huge financial resources. Mainly includes:
1, individuals must be respected.
We must give our customers the best service possible.
3. Excellent work performance must be pursued.
For example, from the website of IBM China Company, you can find the following words: "IBM China Company adheres to the core values of' achieving customers, innovation is the most important, honesty and responsibility' and leads China customers to the road of on-demand transformation." The content in quotation marks is the expression of Watson's philosophy on customer attitude.
[Edit this paragraph] History
one's early years
The history of IBM can be traced back to decades before the development of electronic computers. Before the development of electronic computer, it was a punched card data processing device. IBM was registered as CTR Company in endicott, new york, a few miles west of Binghamton on June1915.
Three independent companies merged to form CTR Company, namely: List Machine Company (1896 was established in Washington), Calculation Table Company (190 1 was established in Dayton, Ohio) and International Times Records Company (1900 was established in endicott, new york). At that time, the president and founder of the list machine company was HermanHollerith. The key figure behind the merger is financier CharlesFlint, who called the founders of three companies to propose the merger and worked in CRT until 1930 retired.
Thomas. J. Watson is the founder of IBM. 19 14 years as general manager of CTR, 19 15 years as president. In 2007, CTR entered the Canadian market in the name of International Business Machines Co., Ltd., and in February 2008, CTR entered the Canadian market.
The company incorporated CTR to manufacture various products, including employee timing systems, scales, automatic meat cutters, and most importantly, to develop computers and punching equipment. For a while, CTR concentrated on punching in and stopped taking part in other activities.
World War II, the Holocaust era.
In 200 1 year, the writer Edwin Black published "IBM and the Holocaust" (ISBN0609808990), in which he claimed to explain how IBM's new york headquarters and CEO Thomas J. Watson provided punching machines to the Third Reich through overseas subsidiaries. They knew that machines could help the Nazis implement the "final solution". According to the book, with the cooperation of new york, the Geneva office of IBM, De Homagk and German subsidiaries actively participated in supporting Nazi atrocities. Blake also said that these machines made the Nazis more efficient. In 2003, the company's documentary also discussed this issue.
IBM rejected these allegations, and lawsuits based on these allegations were also rejected.
During World War II, IBM produced M 1 carbine and Browning automatic rifle. Allied forces widely use IBM equipment for military calculation, logistics and other military supplies. When Manhattan planned to develop an atomic bomb head, IBM punch cards were widely used in Los Alamos for calculation. Richard feynman described this point in his best-selling book "Are you kidding, Mr. Feynman?". During the war, IBM also built Harvard Mark I for the Navy, which was the first large-scale automatic digital computer in the United States.
Air force and aviation engineering
In 1950s, IBM became the main contractor for computer development of automatic defense system of US Air Force. Only when IBM began to copy the anti-aircraft gun system did it come into contact with the key research conducted by MIT; This work is about the first generation of real-time and digital computers (including many other advanced computers such as integrated video display, core experience inheritance, light gun, the first effective algebraic computer language, analog-digital and digital-analog conversion technology, digital data transmission telephone line, duplex, multiprocessor and network). IBM has manufactured 56 intelligent computers at the price of 10000 yuan each, and invested more than 7000 employees (accounting for 20% of the total employees) in the peak project. IBM neglected to strive for more dominant emerging industries, which led Rand to take over the design of new computers, because according to a project participant (RobertPCrago), "We can't imagine that the work in this field will disappear in the future. Where can we attract 2,000 programmers to do this work at IBM?" . IBM will use its huge design experience to combine real-time network design with the start-up of Wise Airlines booking system, and achieve great success.
60 to 80 years old
In the 1960s, IBM was the largest of the eight computer companies (Univac, City Life, Scientific Data System, Control Data Company, General Electric Company, American Radio Company and Honeywell). People will say "IBM and Seven Stars" when talking about it. Because other companies or their computer departments are very small, only Urban Life, UNIVAC, NCR and Honeywell produce mainframes, and then some people say that "IBM and B.U.N.C.H" Now most of IBM's competitors have long since disappeared, except Unisys. This is because many mergers, including Univac and Urban Life, NCR and Honeywell, abandoned general mainframes and small departments and focused on profitable product markets. NCR is a cash register (hence the name National Cash Register) and Honeywell has become a market-oriented thermostat. General electric company is still the largest company in the world. But it doesn't work in the computer market. At that time, IBM computer series won the market position, and it is still growing. Originally called IBM System/360, it is a more modern 64-bit form, and now it is called IBM resident system (usually called "IBM host").
In the mid-1960s, IBM's success led the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate IBM's antitrust violations, and on June1969+1October 17, the lawsuit filed by American IBM was submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of new york. According to the lawsuit, IBM violated Article 2 of the Sherman Act, monopolizing or trying to monopolize the general digital electronic computer system market, especially the commercially designed computers. The lawsuit lasted until 1983, which had a great impact on the company's practice.
modern history
199365438+1October19, IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion in the fiscal year of 1992, which was the biggest annual loss of the company in American history at that time. Because of this loss, IBM's business activities have undergone major changes, and the focus will shift from hardware to software and services.
In 2002, IBM strengthened its consulting ability by acquiring PricewaterhouseCoopers, a professional consulting service company. The company pays more and more attention to promoting enterprises to solve consulting, services and software, and focuses on hardware and high-value chip technology. By 2005, there will be about 195 professional and technical personnel. There are about 350 outstanding engineers and 60 IBM researchers, and a large number of senior engineers. In 2002, IBM announced the launch of10 billion US dollars research plan, implemented the necessary technical infrastructure, and provided super resources to "require" all enterprises to use them effectively. Since then,
In recent years, IBM has continuously expanded its patent portfolio, which is a valuable cross-licensing with other companies. From 1993 to 2005, IBM obtained significantly more American patents than other companies. During the period of 13, there have been more than 3 1000 patents, and IBM is the first one.
Protecting the company's intellectual property rights has gradually become the enterprise's cause, during which the company created a bottom line of 654.38+0 billion US dollars. In 2003, Fortune magazine quoted Paul, the research director of IBM, as saying that IBM brought 1 billion dollars in profits through intellectual property licensing.
In 2004, IBM announced that it would sell its personal computer business to Lenovo Group, a computer manufacturer in China. Lenovo is partly controlled by the China Municipal Government. The transaction was completed with $650 million in cash and $600 million in Lenovo stock. The foreign investment was approved by the Trade Commission in March 2005 and completed in May 2005. IBM owns 0/9% of Lenovo/KLOC-and is headquartered in New York State. The company will reserve the right to use certain brands of IBM. By purchasing and inheriting Lenovo's product line, including Thinkpad notebook computer, notebook computer has become the most successful product of IBM.
Recently, from the perspective of hardware science and technology, IBM has focused most of its efforts on providing consulting and acquiring corporate restructuring services. In the process of consulting, software and technical services, the new IBM has enhanced its global distribution capabilities, and this change is very strong.
At present, IBM is participating in the development of Cell project (together with Sony), multimedia design of next-generation processor architecture and high-tech games.
On June 20th, 2006, Georgia and IBM announced a new technology. The recording speed of silicon-based chip reaches 500ghz. This is done by freezing the chip to F-45 1℃(-268.0C), which is not as fast as CPU. The wafer 350ghz operates at about room temperature.
As a long-term leader in the computer industry, IBM has made the most remarkable achievements in mainframe/minicomputer and ThinkPad. The personal computer (PC) standard it founded is still in use and development. On February 8, 2004, 65438 sold its PC division to Lenovo for $ 1.75 billion, and held shares in Lenovo.
IBM has also made great achievements in materials, chemistry, physics and other scientific fields. Hard disk technology was invented by IBM, and scanning tunneling microscope (STM), copper wire technology and atomic etching technology were also invented by IBM Research Institute.
In 2003, IBM earned $896,543.8 billion and had 230,000 full-time employees.
IBM China includes CSDL of IBM China Software Development Center and CRL of China Research Center.
In 2004, we cooperated with Hong Kong Cultural Communication Group to promote China CPU cash register.
On February 8th of the same year, 65,438, Lenovo Group, which accounts for nearly one-third of the personal computer market in China, announced that it would acquire IBM's global desktop and notebook computer production and sales business for125 billion dollars in cash and stock.
In 2005, the desktop computer and notebook computer business were sold to China IT enterprise Lenovo Group, and Lenovo will still use the IBM brand in five years. ThinkPad and ThinkCentre brands are owned by Lenovo Group.
IBM is in China
The business relationship between IBM and China can be traced back to ancient times. As early as 1934, IBM installed the first commercial processor for Peking Union Medical College Hospital. 1979, after nearly 30 years of interruption, IBM came to China again with China's reform and opening up. In the same year, the first IBM medium-sized computer was installed in 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 is expanding day by day. In the middle and late 1980s, IBM successively set up offices in Beijing and Shanghai. 1992 IBM officially announced the establishment of International Business Machines Corporation China Co., Ltd. in Beijing, which is a wholly-owned enterprise of IBM in China. This move made IBM take a substantial step in implementing its strategy in China and opened a new chapter in its business in China. Subsequently, in 1993, IBM China Co., Ltd. set up branches in Guangzhou and Shanghai. Up to now, IBM's office in China has 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 its business coverage in China. With the development of IBM in China, the number of employees in IBM China has been increasing, and now it has exceeded 8,500. In addition, IBM has established nine joint ventures and wholly-owned companies, which are responsible for manufacturing, software development, service and leasing respectively.
IBM attaches great importance to investment in technology research and development. From 65438 to 0995, IBM established the China Research Center in China, which is one of IBM's eight research centers in the world, with more than 200 computer experts from China. Then 1999, a software development center was established in China. At present, more than 2,000 China software engineers specialize in developing integrated products in middleware, database, Linux and other fields.
For more than twenty years, various information systems of IBM have become the most reliable information technology means in many important business fields in China, such as finance, telecommunications, metallurgy, petrochemical, transportation, commodity circulation, government, education and so on. IBM's customers are all over China's economy.
At the same time, IBM has a leading market share in many important fields, including servers, storage, services and software.
It is IBM's consistent principle to learn from society, give back to society and benefit mankind. IBM actively supports education in China and has made outstanding achievements in community activities.
The cooperation between IBM and universities in China can be traced back to 1984, when IBM donated a series of computer equipment, hardware and software to universities in China. 1March, 1995, marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding between IBM and the State Education Commission of China (now the Ministry of Education), the "IBM China University Cooperation Project" was officially launched. The basic purpose of this long-term and comprehensive cooperative relationship is to strengthen the discipline construction and personnel training in the field of information science and technology in China universities. Since 12, the cooperation projects between IBM and universities in China have been developing to a higher level, deeper level and wider field, which has played a positive role in promoting the discipline construction and personnel training of information technology-related majors in universities in China. Since 1995, IBM has donated computer equipment, software and services worth more than 65,438.05 billion yuan to universities in China. At present, it has established cooperative relations with more than 50 well-known universities in China. 570,000 students participated in the study and training of IBM technology-related courses, 58,000 students obtained IBM global professional technical certification, and more than 4,000 teachers participated in different forms of teacher training organized by IBM.
In addition to the cooperation with China's education sector in the field of higher education, IBM is also actively expanding the scope of cooperation to the field of basic education. Since 2006 54 38+0 IBM KidSmart "Little Explorer" early childhood intelligence development project was introduced to China, IBM has been carrying out this project in China for six consecutive years. At present, IBM has cooperated with nearly 430 preschool education institutions in 68 cities across the country and donated 2,350 sets of KidSmart children's computer learning centers.
Since 2003, IBM has further cooperated with the Ministry of Education, and started the "Innovative Teaching Project of Basic Education" in 20 primary schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, adopting more and more valuable support methods, introducing mature foreign experience and resources into China, fully combining the current situation and needs of China, and better helping schools to improve the teaching effect with IT.
Through the above two projects, * * * more than 65,438+0,000 backbone teachers in the field of basic education received free training from IBM, and 65,438+0,000 children benefited.
In 2003, IBM TryScience Toured the World Youth Popular Science Project was officially launched in China. Through this project, IBM donated computer terminals to China Science and Technology Museum. The terminal is connected to a remote server through a high-speed network, and presents rich contents on the server to visitors of the Science and Technology Museum. Watching Science covers ecological archaeology, space exploration, extreme sports, marine life and many other aspects, which opens a new door for young people to get in touch with popular science knowledge and understand scientific concepts. At present, IBM has donated 40 sets of IBM TryScience Kiosk multimedia terminals to the Science Museum in 1 1 city. The media spoke highly of IBM's outstanding performance and contribution in China. IBM was once rated as "the most respected enterprise in China", "the most respected foreign-funded enterprise in China", "the most valuable brand in China" and "the best employer in China". In 2004, IBM China was selected as "the most admired company in China" by Chinese edition of Fortune magazine, and ranked first. In 2005 and 2006, IBM was awarded the honorary title of "Excellent Corporate Citizen of China" by the Corporate Citizen Working Committee of China Social Workers Association twice in a row.
Mr. Guo Shina, former CEO of IBM, once said with deep affection when talking about IBM China: "With its commitment to China, IBM will build a world-leading information technology company for China. It is located in China, and will serve the people of China and the world one day. IBM China will definitely become' IBM of China' and become a part of China's economy. " Looking back on the growth process of IBM in China, from the initial strategic trial stage, to the medium-term strategic investment stage, and then to the comprehensive integration stage, IBM has always had a deep commitment to China.
Following the new definition of innovation in 2004, in 2006, IBM further expanded the connotation 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, and successively signed contracts with the Ministry of Commerce to help the "Thousands of Projects" and promote the development of modern service industry and the upgrading of export-oriented industrial structure in China; Signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ministry of Education on "Modern Service Science Direction" to introduce service science courses to universities in China; Cooperate with the Ministry of Health to promote the construction of medical information service platform in China and improve the quality of regional medical services. In order to better cooperate with the implementation of the service strategy, IBM moved its global procurement headquarters to Shenzhen, China, and jointly launched the "China Investment Fund" with Lehman Brothers of US$ 654.38+0.8 billion, setting one of the world's two SOA solution centers in Beijing. Through these measures, IBM hopes to bring IBM's leading skills in the field of global information technology services to China, and help China enterprises and governments achieve innovation, so as to better support China's growing development needs in the service industry.
In 2007, IBM China Company will adhere to the core values of "achieving customers, focusing on innovation, being honest and responsible", and strive to become an innovative partner of China customers under the global vision and layout, and make contributions to the construction of an "innovative country" in China.
This enterprise brand ranked 1 1 in the list of the top 500 brands in the world compiled by the World Brand Lab in 2006, and ranked 49th in the list of global 100 big companies published by Barron's Weekly in 2006.
[Edit this paragraph] Culture
IBM is often described as having a sales center or a sales-oriented corporate culture. Traditionally, many specific executives and general managers will come from their sales teams. In addition, in the process of selling to important customers, middle and senior managers usually give direct support to salespeople. For most of the 20th century, blue suits, white shirts and black ties were the official uniforms of IBM employees. But since the 1990s, IBM has relaxed these requirements. There is no significant difference between clothing and employees and big technology companies in their peers.
In 2003, IBM began an ambitious plan to rewrite the company's values by using "Jam" technology-enterprises will discuss key issues on the Internet based on the intranet for a certain period of time, involving more than 50,000 employees for three days. Jam technology includes text analysis software (eclassifier). My online comment topic, Jam, has been used within IBM for 6 times. Due to Jam in 2003, the company's value update reflects the opinions of three modern enterprises, markets and employees: "the success of dedication to every customer", "the innovation of our company and the world" and "the trust of all relationships and personal responsibility."
In a Jam in 2004, more than 52,000 employees spent 72 hours exchanging best practices. The focus of this activity is to find out the value of the complaint to support the implementation of the previously determined value. The development of such a new Jam event allows IBM members to choose important ideas to support values. (For more information, see Harvard Business Review, interview with President SamPalmisanoIBM in 2004).
Recently, the culture of IBM has been influenced by the open source movement. The company has invested billions of dollars in software and services through the IBM Linux Technology Center based on Linux, including more than 300 Linux development core personnel. IBM's open source is not trouble-free.
[Editor] Differences and Labor Issues
IBM's efforts to promote equal opportunities and diversity in the workforce can be traced back at least to World War I, when the company hired disabled veterans. IBM is the only technology company that ranked in the top ten of Working Mother magazine in 2004, and it is also one of the two technology companies in 2005 (the other is Hewlett-Packard).
The company has a traditional trade union organization, although some IBM employees in the United States have raised objections. In the 1990s, changes in two major pension plans, including the cash balance plan, eventually led to class actions of employees claiming age discrimination. IBM employees won the lawsuit and reached a partial settlement, but they are still appealing.
IBM has been in contact with some large-scale laid-off workers for a long time, which has produced a good reputation in history. In recent years, there have been some big layoffs, and IBM has tried to adapt to the changing market conditions and the decline of basic profits. The result is not as expected. In the first quarter of 2005, IBM mainly cancelled 65,438+04,500 jobs in Europe. On June 8, 2005, IBM Canada Limited laid off 700 employees. Now, the recruitment of Indian IBM and other IBM offices in China, the Philippines and Costa Rica has increased steadily.
On June 10, 2005, IBM became the first large company in the world to formally promise not to use genetic information in employment decision. This is another announcement just a few months after IBM announced its support for the National Geographic gene map project.
IBM has about 500 employees in China, and the number of interns maintained for many years is also 500. According to internal reliable sources, the probability of internship becoming a full member is about 20%.