加州 -IBM前不久度過了百年華誕。能存在百年之久的企業(yè)可不多，在市場發(fā)生大變動時，許多科技企業(yè)都挺不過。何以IBM能存在如此之久呢？ 在山景城計算機歷史博物館(ComputerHistoryMuseum)，IBM總裁兼CEO彭明盛上周四晚在紀念I(lǐng)BM的誕辰100周年的演講時表示，企業(yè)需要傳遞價值、寬泛協(xié)作、擁抱變化才能在長遠競爭中生存。 在1900年美國25大企業(yè)中，至今只有2家幸存。1961年藍色巨人IBM已經(jīng)創(chuàng)辦50周年，當年《財富》500強企業(yè)只有6家今天還在運營。 彭明盛說：“我們?nèi)ツ甑谋憩F(xiàn)是100年中最好的，股價也是最高的?！迸砻魇⒄J為，將研究與開發(fā)相連是成功的關(guān)鍵，他說：“你必須將發(fā)現(xiàn)轉(zhuǎn)為利潤，這是企業(yè)角色的根本?！? 研究和開發(fā)相結(jié)合，是成功的關(guān)鍵之一，彭明盛說。 “你要把發(fā)現(xiàn)變成利潤，這是一個公司最基本的作用。”他說。 在產(chǎn)業(yè)依賴原材料的時代，彭明盛就游說各方，主張基礎(chǔ)研究是成功的根本。彭明盛稱：“今天，我們比過去更需要基礎(chǔ)科學?！? 他還說：“競爭是很好的興奮劑，但是它沒有足夠的資金。即使是在競爭對手間，激烈的競爭也需要協(xié)作來補充。” 彭明盛還引用了小托馬斯·沃森(ThomasJ.WatsonJr)的話來闡述自己的觀點。沃森曾說，除了核心理念外，一家企業(yè)應(yīng)該隨時準備好改變自己。彭明盛說，這意味著企業(yè)不應(yīng)該根據(jù)一款產(chǎn)品、一種技術(shù)或者一種業(yè)務(wù)模式來定義自身，而只能根據(jù)企業(yè)價值來定義。 彭明盛已經(jīng)擔任IBM CEO 9年，這位首席執(zhí)行官說，IBM并不總是大膽地嘗試改變。當年IBM放棄大型主機的業(yè)務(wù)模式，員工由41.2萬人猛降到21.4萬。彭明盛說：“架構(gòu)改變了。我們今天有42.6萬人，業(yè)務(wù)模式改變后又獲得了新生。上個季度，我們的大型主機業(yè)務(wù)增長50%，它很難死亡?！? 不久前，IBM才拋棄硬盤業(yè)務(wù)和PC業(yè)務(wù)。當他們出售給日本日立公司和中國的聯(lián)想。彭明盛說：“關(guān)鍵是不要將成功綁在一種業(yè)務(wù)模式或者一種技術(shù)上。” IBM的歷史上并非所有產(chǎn)品都是高科技的，該公司在1914年曾經(jīng)出售鐘表和奶酪切片機。 “我們還有一大堆的奶酪切片機，”彭明盛打趣說。 當然，它也有重磅產(chǎn)品，比如PC和OS/2操作系統(tǒng)。 彭明盛說：“曾經(jīng)我們被視為一家市場營銷公司，有一個老笑話說，IBM的產(chǎn)品不是上市，而只是想從室驗室逃出來。我們有另一個說法，它叫作"山姆想把錢討回來"。” 編譯：Luffy Liu 本文授權(quán)編譯自EE Times，版權(quán)所有，謝絕轉(zhuǎn)載 參考英文原文：IBM CEO: How to live to be 100，by Rick Merritt

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{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.