IBM Globally Integrated Enterprise Essay

IBM Global Services, the technology services and consulting division of International Business Machines (IBM), is the world’s largest provider of systems integration and technology consulting. It offers services in areas such as application development, data storage, infrastructure management, networking, and technical support (Datamonitor Plc., 2007, p.4). IBM Global Services is also among the world leaders in providing business consulting and outsourcing services. IBM Global Services’ headquarter locates in Armonk, New York. The company has more than 190,000 employees around the world.

Challenge of Globalization W. L. GORE & ASSOCIATE had been expending their business in more than 30 over country; there are Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, Central America, North America and South America, leading manufacturer of thousands of advanced technology products for the electronics, industrial, fabrics and medical markets. With the employees of 9.500 people around the world, managing the people also bring along the trouble as well. With the diversity of culture, people, background, language and norms, challenges and problems occur within the company and beyond the boundaries of the company. This is the major problems that will occur when a company goes global and expanding to the world. This challenge of globalization

IBM is a 400,000 strong employee organization working with clients in 170 countries thus making it the biggest consulting and technology corporation in the world (IBM Facebook, 2014)

To answer the many external environmental factors affecting IBM’s personal computer business they must raise structural complexity and decentralize decision making through increasing the number of departments and personnel which individually address such boundary spanning environmental points as pricing, customer representation, and new technologies. Human resources must be effectively utilized as key personnel must be recruited both quickly in the transformation and in the future.

At IBM, we strive to lead in the invention, development and manufacture of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, storage systems and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions, services and consulting businesses worldwide. Create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices We recognize and seize opportunities for growth that builds upon our strengths and competencies N/A

Dell Computer Corporation is one of the most visible success stories in the computer market. By selling personal computers directly to customers over the Internet, offering a build-to-order sales system, and then linking suppliers, workers, managers, customers, and service personnel together on the Internet, Dell has built a series of rapid-response systems that have revolutionized organizational communication. Dell’s rapid-response systems have led to fear, admiration, and attempts at

Question 1. What competences has IBM had to invest in arising from its transformation from a ‘product-centric’ to a ‘service-centric’ organization?

Organization wants to achieve the objectives of sustained growth and increased profitability, organization must constant innovation its product or service, also need to carry out some plans to expand its business to enable an organization to have a better development. Organization expands its business cannot be confined to the domestic market must also move abroad, which effectively allows an organization closer to the global market and broadening the scope of business and profitability. However, business expansion is not as easy in this global environment, globalization has not only changed the enterprise competitive landscape also influence the way leaders conduct business (Caligiuri, 2006). Furthermore, with globalization, global leadership in terms of cultural knowledge needed to become more acute and require more advanced level of cognitive ability on the complexity of managing the demand of multiple cultures while completing managerial tasks (Caligiuri, 2006, Grosse, 2011). Therefore, the development of global management skills is very important for the global organizations and managers. Only effective in developing global management skills can help the organization reduce the risk of international business

Prior to their cultural change that took place in the early 1990’s, many would have said that IBM was on a fatal downhill slide. At this point they were beginning to become obsolete. IBM at one point was among the leaders within the world for hardware/software development and information technology services, but all divisions within the organization were run independently from one another. They were not a unified enterprise. To solidify this even further, “rather than working together as a team, divisions competed against each other both internally and in the field” (DiCarlo, L., 2002).

IBM has weaknesses in the transformation of its business model. It is lack of flexibility in the transition because of its large company

The advent of social networking and other media has transformed the way citizens interact and how businesses market, promote, and distribute their products globally. The same can be said for mass collaboration efforts occurring through digital, online technology for the development of new and innovative systems, products, and ideas. Both social networking and mass collaboration bring new power and influence to individuals across borders and transform the nature of their relationships with global organizations. As in the past, these developments underscore and reinforce the importance of understanding different cultures, national systems, and corporate management practices around the world. Students and managers now recognize that all business is global and that the world is now interconnected not only geographically but also electronically and psychologically; it is hard to imagine any business or nonbusiness organization that is not directly affected by globalization. Yet, as cultural, political, and economic differences persist, savvy international managers must be able to develop a global mindset in order to effectively adjust, adapt, and navigate the changing landscape they face on a day-to-day basis. In this new eighth edition of International Management, we have taken care to retain the

The world offers significant business opportunities for every company, however, opportunities are accompanied by significant challenges for managers. Managing global operations across diverse cultures and markets represents a big challenge and opportunity for companies. To compete in the global market and be successful, companies must learn the strategies, policies, norms and technology necessary to conduct international business. The opportunities for global expansion are numerous, and attaining success is a matter of developing the right strategy to win local markets and its consumers.

Over the past five years, IBM has quietly transformed itself into a "software, solution and services" company. With the transformation from a hardware vendor to a solution provider, it has entered the area of consulting services.

As trade increases hyper-competition grows forcing organizations to go global. By a company going global it requires them to rethink strategy and reform (Ananthram and Pearson, 2008). Global organizational structure is the way a company aims to merge local preferences with global strategy. The definition of global strategy is “strategic choices that have the characteristics of being globally uniform or integrated,” (Yip et al., 1997) such as standardization of products, uniform marketing, and competitive moves, but all globally (Townsend et al., 2004; Zou and Cavusgil, 2002; Bayraktar and Ndubisi, 2014). Global strategic strategy is a way to adjust to globalization. Globalization is “the economic and social process by which economies and communities grow inextricably interdependent “(Jhirad et al., 2009). The recent financial crisis (Das, 2010), large amount of poverty, and climate change are all problems that show how the world is globally connected because all countries impact each other (Jhirad et al., 2009).

In 1995, IBM reengineer and redesign its logistics and procurement and outsourced its activities if it could be done faster and cheaper. Within one year of reengineering, costs were down 20% and time needed to complete and confirm supply orders had decreased from average of 48 hours to 2.5 hours. By 2000, $370 Million were saved annually by procuring goods & services online (94%). Also, year-to-year growth in procurement volume increased by 60% between