|
About IBM
What
does it mean to lead at IBM?*
In
the information technology business, there's technical
leadership, thought leadership, financial leadership,
and marketplace leadership. But any company that aspires
to make a lasting contribution to the world must lead
in ways that spread far beyond the confines of the marketplace,
winning, and earning a profit.
It's
leadership by serving; leadership by caring; leadership
in the community. It's the kind of leadership IBM leaders
think about when they think about the world their work
will leave for our children. At IBM, it's how we apply
our financial strength, resources and minds-more than
300,000 of the most talented people in any industry,
and one of the most storied and aspirational of business
enterprises-to change things, to make our planet a better
place.
That's true now more than ever. The arrival of a networked
world brings with it the requirement for enterprises,
governments and entire societies to establish new frameworks
on virtually every vital public policy issue-not simply
to foster the development of an important new platform
for our economy, but to take responsibility for how
its consequences will affect people and the planet.
Of special urgency with the rise of the Net are protections
of the individual's right to privacy. In 2000, IBM appointed
its first chief privacy officer-a senior executive charged
with guiding all the company's policies and practices
in this area, and with working across the public and
private sectors to advance workable protections of consumer
and citizen privacy.
IBM's
largest ongoing corporate commitment remains the $70
million** grant program Reinventing Education-which
has the potential to touch one in five children in U.S.
public schools, as well as children in seven other countries.
Independent evaluations tell us that our Reinventing
Education efforts are doing what we set out to do-drive
higher student achievement. In West Virginia, high school
students using standards-based math lessons, created
via online technology developed through the grant partnership,
scored significantly higher on statewide exams. And
in Houston, first-graders using an innovative speech-recognition
technology called Watch-me!-Read scored significantly
higher on comprehension and word recognition.
Underlying
it all, IBM is perennially among the world's most generous
corporations. In 2000, IBM contributed more than $126
million to programs around the world that help people
in need. Individual employees added another $49 million
through matching grants and donations to nonprofit organizations
and educational institutions. And of incalculable value
was the more than four million hours of their time and
expertise IBMers volunteered to a broad range of local
causes.
IBM continued its longstanding commitment to environmental
leadership last year, ensuring that its operations and
products provide ever-greater value to society while
minimizing their potential impact on the environment.
IBM's participation in voluntary initiatives to address
global climate change and its latest offering to facilitate
the reuse and recycling of PCs are just two examples
of environmental efforts that contributed to the significant
recognition the company received in 2000 for environmental
excellence.
IBM
does all this because it knows that people have high
expectations of leaders. High, but appropriate. IBM
employees understand that if they aspire to lead in
the creation of the networked world, they have to demonstrate
the courage and wisdom to step up to the grand societal
challenges it raises- both those as new as today's headlines,
and those as timeless as human society. Because that's
what it really means to lead.
*From
IBM's Year 2000 Annual Report ** 2001 Adjusted Figure
|
