IBM's has a vision and a mission, "At IBM, we strive to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry's most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions and services businesses worldwide.".
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As discussed in our business book, a path towards success in a business can be broken down in to a continues four step cycle. The first step is realizing the indicators of success. IBM is concerned with financial performance. IBM has a fancy web site dedicated to its financial reports, http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/, it's updated every year. The diagram to the left shows IBM's revenue over the past ten years. Meeting customer needs is critical for IBM. But who are IBM's customers? From students attending PartnerWorld (IBM's new university), to companies buying new technologies to produce high tech devices, IBM sells to the world. The United States, Russia, and China all have strong bonds with IBM and it's technology.
IBM understands whom its customers are and deliver quality in their products and services. Take IBM's latest notebook series the "T-Series". The standard model comes with a 800mhz Intel CPU, a 32 gigabyte hard drive, and 13.3" 1024x768 - TFT - active matrix screen. What does this translate to? IBM decided not to use the fastest processor or the biggest screen (my Toshiba boasts a 15.1 1600x1200 UTFT). This is due to a bottle neck in battery life. The battery life on IBM's latest notebook is eight hours. My Toshiba notebook had the greatest hardware available with a graphics card that will make your head spin, but the battery life is two hours. IBM realizes that its customers are more likely to use MSWord or browse the web with their notebooks than play a game.
