Stephen Wilson FCMA: chief financial officer, UK, Ireland and South Africa, IBM.
| Position | ONE 2 ONE - Cover story |
What's new at Big Blue?
IBM has shifted towards higher-value-add areas of the IT market over the past few years. We have sold the PC business to Lenovo of China and the printer and hard-drive business to Japanese companies. Instead, we have rapidly grown and acquired businesses in consulting and software. We've also continued to develop our leading positions in server and storage technology. It's clear that the value for our customers lies in these areas. There's been a shift in the past few years: chief information officers used to focus mainly on cost, but now they are often more concerned with promoting growth, innovation and business transformation, along with issues such as security.
We're also determined to exploit the growth of developing economies such as China and India. We're involved in IT and business process outsourcing in India. We already have a significant presence there, which will continue to increase. South Africa is a strong growth opportunity in my own area of responsibility.
Green issues are becoming increasingly important for us, too, as companies realise that their IT equipment is a significant source of carbon emissions. There are tremendous opportunities to reduce these through the more efficient use of systems. We're now offering environmental consulting to help companies cut their IT carbon emissions, as well as taking the lead by reducing our own emissions.
Do you get to play with every new IT toy in the box?
I'm privileged to work at IBM because we really do have the best brains in IT here. They are thinking way beyond the horizon. We were criticised in the nineties for not getting into new areas fast enough, but we've got much better at spotting key trends. For example, we took an early bet on open-source software.
Sometimes we do feel that we're a bit like the cobbler's children with our internal systems. But, when I talk to people in other firms, I find that they're amazed at what we have. The trouble is that, when you know how good things could be, you become dissatisfied if you're only doing well instead of very well.
How do the UK, Ireland and South Africa fit into the company's global strategy?
We have the full range of capabilities--hardware, software, research and services--all operating as part of a globally integrated whole. My region accounts for about seven per cent of IBM's global revenue, but it's the company's third-largest geographical area after the US and Japan. The UK is a hugely competitive...
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