IBM: Typewriters to the Cloud

This week, IBM turned 100, and their website to commemorate the event has a number of interesting pieces of content.

From an innovation perspective, IBM has always been an interesting company. There are many things those of us who work in industries experiencing technology-based change can learn from IBM's history. One of those things is reinventing oneself. IBM has done an excellent job of reinventing itself as a company over the past 100 years as the times and technology have changed. Below is a video by the BBC which talks to this aspect of IBM's history in particular. My favorite quote from the video is:

To stay ahead in the technology race IBM has had to accept that it has to give up on much of its past.

Another interesting clip within the video that might interest some readers of this blog is a short piece on the "supermarket of the future."

A second video on IBM's history is also quite interesting. It is a bit longer (at 13 minutes) but provides a "100x100 view" of their history, by featuring one hundred people, who each present the IBM achievement recorded in the year they were born.




Happy 100th Birthday, IBM!