IBM 2011 Annual Report Download - page 9

A Letter from the Chairman 7
We hear again and again from schools, governments,
nongovernmental organizations and communities that
the thing they value most is the expertise of IBMers
—
more even than donations of cash or technology (although
those are also welcome, and plentiful). IBMers bring
expertise in engineering, nance, marketing, management
and more to help cities actually become smarter; to
reimagine existing school models, as with P-TECH in
New York City; and to develop global citizens and leaders,
as we’re doing through Corporate Service Corps.
One consequence of this business-citizenship fusion is
that we can deliver its benets at increasing scale. Our
On Demand Community, for example, has grown ninefold
in volunteers since it began. In one example alone
—
our Centennial Celebration of Service — more than
300,000 IBMers performed more than 4 million hours
of service across 120 countries.
Fourth, why would someone work here? In an earlier
era, this had a lot to do with job security and stability.
We learned the hard way that that was unsustainable.
And yet, IBM today remains an employer of choice.
Why? I believe it is because, at this institution, an individual
can actually change the world, can learn something new
every day, can collaborate with some of the smartest people
on the planet, can work in a progressive environment and
can truly be a global citizen.
Since 2002 we have invested about $100 billion in
non-salary employee compensation
— bonuses,
commissions, benets and employee equity
— including
more than $5 billion in employee learning and
development. In 2005, we became the rst corporation
to guarantee our employees’ genetic privacy. The
way we develop leaders was ranked number one in the
world by Fortune. And we have received widespread
recognition for our diversity, work/life, environmental
and collaboration policies and programs.
In the end, it comes back to our values as IBMers. It was
no accident that the rst major work effort I launched
at that senior leadership meeting nine years ago was a
collective “jam” on who we are and why we exist. What
resulted
— the values IBMers themselves shaped — has
held up remarkably well as a distillation of what it means
to be “an IBMer.”
We still have a long way to go to fully realize these values
in our work, our management systems and our behavior.
But I think it’s safe to say, after nearly a decade, that we
laid the right foundation. I am also convinced that the
transformation we have carried out since then was only
possible because we rst undertook this deeper dive
of self-discovery.
The road ahead
None of these shifts was easy
— but that comes with the
territory, when you choose to live at the intersection
of all of your company’s key constituencies. You must
accept
— indeed, embrace — the inherent tensions.
And you must balance continual forward motion with
a clear understanding of what must never change.