IBM总裁：企业如何活到100岁?

加州 -IBM前不久度过了百年华诞。能存在百年之久的企业可不多，在市场发生大变动时，许多科技企业都挺不过。何以IBM能存在如此之久呢？ 在山景城计算机历史博物馆(ComputerHistoryMuseum)，IBM总裁兼CEO彭明盛上周四晚在纪念IBM的诞辰100周年的演讲时表示，企业需要传递价值、宽泛协作、拥抱变化才能在长远竞争中生存。 在1900年美国25大企业中，至今只有2家幸存。1961年蓝色巨人IBM已经创办50周年，当年《财富》500强企业只有6家今天还在运营。 彭明盛说：“我们去年的表现是100年中最好的，股价也是最高的。”彭明盛认为，将研究与开发相连是成功的关键，他说：“你必须将发现转为利润，这是企业角色的根本。” 研究和开发相结合，是成功的关键之一，彭明盛说。 “你要把发现变成利润，这是一个公司最基本的作用。”他说。 在产业依赖原材料的时代，彭明盛就游说各方，主张基础研究是成功的根本。彭明盛称：“今天，我们比过去更需要基础科学。” 他还说：“竞争是很好的兴奋剂，但是它没有足够的资金。即使是在竞争对手间，激烈的竞争也需要协作来补充。” 彭明盛还引用了小托马斯·沃森(ThomasJ.WatsonJr)的话来阐述自己的观点。沃森曾说，除了核心理念外，一家企业应该随时准备好改变自己。彭明盛说，这意味着企业不应该根据一款产品、一种技术或者一种业务模式来定义自身，而只能根据企业价值来定义。 彭明盛已经担任IBM CEO 9年，这位首席执行官说，IBM并不总是大胆地尝试改变。当年IBM放弃大型主机的业务模式，员工由41.2万人猛降到21.4万。彭明盛说：“架构改变了。我们今天有42.6万人，业务模式改变后又获得了新生。上个季度，我们的大型主机业务增长50%，它很难死亡。” 不久前，IBM才抛弃硬盘业务和PC业务。当他们出售给日本日立公司和中国的联想。彭明盛说：“关键是不要将成功绑在一种业务模式或者一种技术上。” IBM的历史上并非所有产品都是高科技的，该公司在1914年曾经出售钟表和奶酪切片机。 “我们还有一大堆的奶酪切片机，”彭明盛打趣说。 当然，它也有重磅产品，比如PC和OS/2操作系统。 彭明盛说：“曾经我们被视为一家市场营销公司，有一个老笑话说，IBM的产品不是上市，而只是想从室验室逃出来。我们有另一个说法，它叫作"山姆想把钱讨回来"。” 编译：Luffy Liu 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：IBM CEO: How to live to be 100，by Rick Merritt

相关阅读：
• IBM瞄准中小客户，进一步打造“大机”生态链zvKesmc

{pagination} IBM CEO: How to live to be 100 Rick Merritt MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – In a speech commemorating IBM's 100th anniversary, chief executive Samuel J. Palmisano said companies need to deliver value, collaborate broadly and embrace change to survive the long haul. Only a handful companies have lasted as long as Big Blue. Just two of the top 25 U.S. industrial firms of 1900 remained when IBM turned 50 in 1961, and only six of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies of that year remain in business today. "We're off to the best year in 100 years and our stock is at a 100-year high even after the sell off today," said Palmisano in a talk at the Computer History Museum Thursday night. Linking research and development is one key to success, said the IBM CEO. "You have to turn discovery into profits, that’s the fundamental role of a company," he said. In an era of crowd-sourcing, Palmisano lobbied for the importance of basic research as fundamental to success. "Today we need deep science more than ever, serious highly institutionalized research and collaborations that are multidisciplinary," he said. "Competition is a wonderful stimulant, but it's not sufficient," Palmisano said. "The wild West of competition needs to be complemented with collaboration even between competitors," he added. The IBM executive quoted a 1962 speech by Thomas Watson Jr. highlighting another key pillar of success. A company must be prepared to change everything about itself except its core beliefs, Watson said. That means companies should never define themselves by a product, technology or a business model, but only by their corporate values, said Palmisano, only the ninth chief executive in IBM's history. IBM has not always embraced change boldly, the CEO said. "In the '90's we held on to the mainframe business model long after it was obsolete," he said. When it finally did jettison the "old mainframe model of entitlement" it meant slashing the IBM workforce from 412,000 to 214,000 people. "That’s structural change," said Palmisano. "We're back to 426,000 people today, so there's life after a change of business model," he said. Indeed, "in our last quarter our mainframe business was up 50 percent, so it's hardly dead," he added. More recently IBM jettisoned its hard disk drive and PC businesses when they became commodities, selling them to Japan's Hitachi and China's Lenovo respectively. "The key is don’t get wedded to your successes in a business model or technology," he said. Not all of IBM's history was glamorous or high tech. The company sold clocks and cheese slicers in 1914. "We had one hell of a cheese slicer," Palmisano quipped. It also had bombs like the PC Junior and OS/2 operating system. "We haven’t been known as a marketing company," said Palmisano. "There's an old joke that IBM products aren’t launched, they just escape from the lab," he said. "We have another principle that’s called 'Sam wants his money back,'" he joked. For example, the artificial intelligence researchers that got millions to build the Watson system that beat human contestants in "Jeopardy" are gearing up to make their return on that investment. Their work will be productized next year for applications in finance and a physician's assistant, he said.