Since the beginning, IBM has been viewed as the backbone into the field of Information Technology. Leading the market in technology, it has provided services to different sectors ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. This report aims to highlight IBM’s use of technology to manage through the challenges that were forced upon companies during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) from 2007-2009. It explores how IBMs response to the GFC was mainly focused around the concept of ‘Smarter Planet’, which was the use of Smart Technology as the company’s effort preserve costs and improve profit levels to maintain innovativeness and competitiveness within the market.
Furthermore, a discussion into the use of technology both pre and post GFC can be seen to analyze the different approach IBM took after the recession. The report concludes with a discussion into IBMs success before and after the GFC its main focus around the introduction of Watson, IBM Cloud and cognitive solutions. International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is an American multinational technology company situated in the United States. The company was established in 1911, and originally named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). It was later renamed in 1924 as “International Business Machines” and now provides its services in over 170 countries (IBM 2008). IBM not only manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware, and software but is also a major research organization which offers to host and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology (Mourdoukoutas 2016). Some of the key inventions of IBM include; the ATM, floppy disk, hard disk drive, SQL and DRAM (Raftery 2011, para.4) From then into this generation, IBM has created numerous inventions, such as Watson which is IBM’s invention that had been created to assist in managing large amounts of unstructured data using natural language processing and machine learning to turn the data into useful and meaningful information (IBM 2016). The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had been the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of 1929 (Pendery 2009). The GFC caused a lack of cash flow and forced businesses to cut major expenses but still maintain their operations (Lorette n.d.). IBM 's primary goal was to keep their business operations afloat throughout the recession as well as remain competitive within the IT industry. The financial crisis were mainly contributed by: The effects that stemmed from the interest rate changes from the global economy (Claessens and Köse 2013). Disturbances in the banking sectors, specifically within lending departments (Claessens and Köse 2013). Different problems in within a large-scale balance sheet such as households, financial intermediaries (Claessens and Köse 2013). The domino effect of the liquidity crisis within the major US banks. Stock markets were crashing globally, additionally causing severity within financial markets. The effects of the GFC on IBM have been illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, where a dramatic drop in common stock can be directly linked towards the GFC. …show more content…
Where the stock markets crashed, and financial markets became very unstable (Google Finance, Yahoo Finance & MSN money 2016). Additionally, IBMs stock drastically declined from 113.24 to 80.59 from August 2007, to December 2008 (IBM 2009). Despite the plummet of their common stock towards the end of 2008, IBM’s financial status remained constant and managed to break their gross profit earning by 16.1% (IBM 2008). Their success was mainly contributed by their softwares, services and financing. IBM managed to survive to the global financial crisis by, ‘…saving money, preserve capital and reduce cost’ (IBM 2008, p. 5). IBM reported their 2007 performance revenue at US$98.8 billion at the start of the GFC (IBM 2008). The revenue flourished during 2008, reporting at US$103.6 billion (IBM 2009). Regardless of their successful year in 2008, IBM did not receive …show more content…
Additionally in Smarter Money, IBM assisted in microfinance, to provide the lesser wealthy community sectors with unsecured loans globally, and also to financial services to support businesses through such as business installment loans (IBM 2009). Smarter telecommunications provide traditional telecommunication services such as the implementation of the atlantic 's cables across the continents connecting the Internet from America to Asia (IBM 2009). Through this concept, it helped IBM with real-time communications globally
Furthermore, a discussion into the use of technology both pre and post GFC can be seen to analyze the different approach IBM took after the recession. The report concludes with a discussion into IBMs success before and after the GFC its main focus around the introduction of Watson, IBM Cloud and cognitive solutions. International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation is an American multinational technology company situated in the United States. The company was established in 1911, and originally named the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). It was later renamed in 1924 as “International Business Machines” and now provides its services in over 170 countries (IBM 2008). IBM not only manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware, and software but is also a major research organization which offers to host and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology (Mourdoukoutas 2016). Some of the key inventions of IBM include; the ATM, floppy disk, hard disk drive, SQL and DRAM (Raftery 2011, para.4) From then into this generation, IBM has created numerous inventions, such as Watson which is IBM’s invention that had been created to assist in managing large amounts of unstructured data using natural language processing and machine learning to turn the data into useful and meaningful information (IBM 2016). The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) had been the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression of 1929 (Pendery 2009). The GFC caused a lack of cash flow and forced businesses to cut major expenses but still maintain their operations (Lorette n.d.). IBM 's primary goal was to keep their business operations afloat throughout the recession as well as remain competitive within the IT industry. The financial crisis were mainly contributed by: The effects that stemmed from the interest rate changes from the global economy (Claessens and Köse 2013). Disturbances in the banking sectors, specifically within lending departments (Claessens and Köse 2013). Different problems in within a large-scale balance sheet such as households, financial intermediaries (Claessens and Köse 2013). The domino effect of the liquidity crisis within the major US banks. Stock markets were crashing globally, additionally causing severity within financial markets. The effects of the GFC on IBM have been illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, where a dramatic drop in common stock can be directly linked towards the GFC. …show more content…
Where the stock markets crashed, and financial markets became very unstable (Google Finance, Yahoo Finance & MSN money 2016). Additionally, IBMs stock drastically declined from 113.24 to 80.59 from August 2007, to December 2008 (IBM 2009). Despite the plummet of their common stock towards the end of 2008, IBM’s financial status remained constant and managed to break their gross profit earning by 16.1% (IBM 2008). Their success was mainly contributed by their softwares, services and financing. IBM managed to survive to the global financial crisis by, ‘…saving money, preserve capital and reduce cost’ (IBM 2008, p. 5). IBM reported their 2007 performance revenue at US$98.8 billion at the start of the GFC (IBM 2008). The revenue flourished during 2008, reporting at US$103.6 billion (IBM 2009). Regardless of their successful year in 2008, IBM did not receive …show more content…
Additionally in Smarter Money, IBM assisted in microfinance, to provide the lesser wealthy community sectors with unsecured loans globally, and also to financial services to support businesses through such as business installment loans (IBM 2009). Smarter telecommunications provide traditional telecommunication services such as the implementation of the atlantic 's cables across the continents connecting the Internet from America to Asia (IBM 2009). Through this concept, it helped IBM with real-time communications globally