I’ve been lucky enough to observe, and in some way be a part of, two remarkable IBM transitions in my working career. IBM is an old and very large company. One that is deserving of respect. For many years it has felt like it lost some of that, including the self-respect of its many great employees. Clarity and unshakeable confidence in true front-runner thought leadership was overshadowed by scripted teleprompter presentations. Genuine inquiries answered with rhetorical polish. Inevitable politics of a company once again in transition.
The new IBM is authentic; casually so. And it’s focus areas moving forward are very simple: Data, Automation, Security, and Cloud. These areas are underpinned by a rich vein of technology (hardware and software) and services (consulting) that will serve the transformation agendas of thousands of organisations over the coming decade and beyond. By then, at around 40 years into the 21st century, a transition to a new technology order will be largely complete. In a largely unrecognisable future, IBM will be there, waiting to lead on.
Between now and then, IBM recognises that every organisation has to get serious about addressing the under-utilisation and management of business data and modernising legacy applications and automating processes, services and roles, and truly digitising and virtualising every last remnant of 20th century computing technology and management thinking. A monumental task for us all.
Amongst its executive ranks, no one understood the value of these data and information-heavy changes better than Arvind Krishna. For almost two decades before becoming CEO he drove the messaging of great industry events like IBM Information on Demand, then IBM Think into the cohesive strategy that exists today.
The quasi-religious wars of big tech will continue, but even the heated and highly competitive cauldron of enterprise technology selling is becoming evermore co-operative as the world settles into a hybrid and multi-cloud truce. Enterprise clients will, for the most part, find the mono-platform hubris of the early 2000’s replaced with easy access to major hyper-scalers, partners and integrators right through the IBM front door.