IBM turns 100

IBM today is marking the 100-year anniversary of its founding on June 16, 1911.  To celebrate the milestone, the company today released a book, “Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company,” debuted a new film “Wild Ducks” and marked the anniversary by ringing the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange.

“IBM Middle East has worked alongside many of the region’s largest organisations and academic institutions to bring its latest technologies to the region since 1947. We’ve formed a strong relationship with many countries in the Middle East thanks to our leadership across a huge range of technologies, including supercomputers, integrated solutions, software, services and technologies catering to small and medium businesses as well as large enterprises,” said Takreem El-Tohamy, General Manager, IBM Middle East and Africa. “As IBMers across the world celebrate 100 years of great achievements and take pride in having the best resources of scientific expertise that have transformed and touched just about every aspect of our daily lives; we are planning hard for an even more innovative 100 years to come.”

Chairman of the Board, President and CEO Samuel J. Palmisano identified the key lesson IBM has learned over 100 years: In order to succeed for the long term, you must manage for the long term.

“For IBMers, long-term thinking means continually moving to the future,” he said. “IBM has survived and thrived for 100 years by remaining true to our core values, while being ready to change everything else. This has allowed us to transform technology, business and society through our first century, and we believe it will enable us to achieve even more in our second.”

The company will partner with leading universities around the world to engage tomorrow’s leaders in discussions about what 100 years has taught it about driving progress in business, technology and society. The series includes lectures by senior IBM executives at universities such as Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, HEC Paris in France, Tsinghua and the University of Chicago in the U.S.

IBM will use its Centennial to engage with business leaders, academia, clients and local communities in the 170 countries the company does business through a year-long initiative and the Centennial celebration highlights will include a business book entitled, “Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company.”  Written by award-winning journalists Steve Hamm, Kevin Maney, and Jeffrey M. O’Brien, the book chronicles the ways the world has changed over the past century in technology, business and the way progress happens, and the role IBM has played in these changes.

IBM will also debut short films throughout the year to celebrate the company’s corporate culture and innovations. “Wild Ducks” is directed by Davis Guggenheim, an Oscar-winner for the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”  The new film follows other IBM Centennial films this year: “100 x 100” – a fast-paced, year-by-year chronicle of IBM’s history, and “They Were There,” which explores significant moments in IBM history told through first-person accounts by key innovators including the invention of the UPC code, helping to put a man on the moon, and developing the PC.