International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) of the old days is nearly gone, as the giant technology company begins work on new design thought, from scratch. The company demonstrated that it was committed to revamping ‘core design’ aspects as the number of new inductees continues to grow. By the year end there will be nearly 1,100 designers with the final goal of roughly 1,500 new designers.
Design Thoughts Change
For one of the pioneers of the technology revolution of the previous millennium, 2015 is turnaround time. The company has to rethink how it develops its products today.
Traditional IT software and product development services are now passe. The process that most technology development company engages in is customers-first approach.
No longer are market analysis-based products acceptable because there are niche needs that have to be catered to, for every customer.
Apple Inc. success was based on similar approach. It made products, Steve Jobs, had once said, by engineers who wanted a product for them to use. Thus came the revolutionary ‘walking telephone’ or the iPhone and soon a host of other product forms.
Apparently this is true of nearly every business now, share industry experts. Another business leadership which has led to the company revived profits is Nike’s CEO Mark Parker. His innate sense for designing sneakers has meant that there is no dearth for innovation and ‘design-thinking’ in the perspective of customers. The company’s current sales exceed $30 billion.
Design rethink
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) is now apparently make changes at the grass roots in terms of culture and practices. According to Stanford University Executive Director of Design, William Burnett, at IBM the ‘design thinking’ concept is being implemented at such a massive scale, that it is a ‘daunting task’ aimed at changing culture of the company.
The major problem for IBM currently is that its core business, nearly 60% of it, yet remains in the traditional sectors of software, hardware and services. As most of International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) clientele make major changes to receive Software as a Service (SaaS) format, the company’s profits are badly hit. In fact 2015 third quarter, IBM has once again lowered its profit-forecast.
Though the remaining 40% of its business is now entangled in new fields, IBM does not have time on its hands, as latest ventures are yet to achieve sweeping profits. Its data analytics, mobile technologies, cloud computing as well as security services, besides social media software for business segments are slow to track-off.
International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) most ambitious project thus far, is Watson Artificial Intelligence.