International Business Machines (IBM)- 1) Introduction IBM (International business machines) corporation is one of the biggest multinational computer technologies and IT consulting company spread over 170 countries with 330,000 employees. It has its headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM started its business on June 16, 1911. It is the manufacturer of computer parts for hardware and software and, consulting services and hosting services. And also offers services in infrastructure. A global technology services (GTS) part, a software part, a global business services (GBS) part, a global financing part and systems and technology part are the larger activities of the company. IBM competes with many IT companies like Infosys, Microsoft, …show more content…
Its clients are individual users, specialised businesses, and institutions such as government, science, defence, spatial and educational organisations. To meet and respond to its customers needs, IBM creates, develops and manufactures many of the world 's most advanced technologies, ranging from computer systems and software to networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. 3) Internal and External Analysis A) Porter’s Value Chain Analysis: This model describes the activities that take place in a business and relates them to an analysis of the competitive strength of the business. Value Chain Analysis is one way of identifying which activities are best undertaken by a business and which are best provided by others ("outsourced"). Michael Porter suggested that the activities of a business could be grouped as Primary Activities and Secondary Activities. 1. Primary Activities - these are directly concerned with creating and delivering a product (e.g. component assembly). They consist of: • Inbound logistics: These are all the processes related to receiving, storing, and distributing inputs internally. Your supplier relationships are a key factor in creating value here. • Operations: These are the transformation activities that change inputs into outputs that are sold to customers. Here, your operational systems create …show more content…
Technological factors: This entails recognizing the potential technologies that are available. Some of the common technological factors are new discoveries and innovations, rate of technological advances and innovations, and rate of technological obsolescence. Technology is the main factor for an innovative company like IBM. Market position of the organisation can be improved by launching a product with new technology and it can decrease the competition. Environmental factors: Both consumers and governments penalize firms for having adverse effect on the environment. Few common environmental factors are waste disposal laws, environmental protection laws and popular attitude towards the environment. In environmental dimension, IBM made some of the major technologies like to trace the weather throughout the world, IBM made computers for NASA for astrology that made them to set the satellite, which monitor the environmental changes over the globe. IBM also added some of the revolutionary environment friendly strategies that not just provides environment saving factors, but also cost saving factors like