Casos

Our Values at Work on being an IBMer

|Business value, and a company's values |
|We've been spending a great deal of time thinking, debating and determining|
|the fundamentals of this company. It has been important to do so. When IBMers |
|have been crystal clear and united about our strategies and purpose, it's |
|amazing what we've been ableto create and accomplish. When we've been |
|uncertain, conflicted or hesitant, we've squandered opportunities and even |
|made blunders that would have sunk smaller companies.|
|It may not surprise you, then, that last year we examined IBM's core values |
|for the first time since the company's founding. In this time of great change,|
|we needed to affirmIBM's reason for being, what sets the company apart and |
|what should drive our actions as individual IBMers. |
|Importantly, we needed to find a way to engage everyonein the company and get|
|them to speak up on these important issues. Given the realities of a smart, |
|global, independent-minded, 21st-century workforce like ours, I don't believe |
|somethingas vital and personal as values could be dictated from the top. |
|So, for 72 hours last summer, we invited all 319,000 IBMers around the world |
|to engage in an open "values jam" on ourglobal intranet. IBMers by the tens |
|of thousands weighed in. They were thoughtful and passionate about the company|
|they want to be a part of. They were also brutally honest. Some of what they ||wrote was painful to read, because they pointed out all the bureaucratic and |
|dysfunctional things that get in the way of serving clients, working as a team|
|or implementing new ideas. But wewere resolute in keeping the dialog |
|free-flowing and candid. And I don't think what resulted - broad, |
|enthusiastic, grass-roots consensus - could have been obtained in any...