KEYNOTE SPEAKER // MICHAEL GIERSCH

Michael Giersch
Vice President, Strategic Planning, IBM CORPORATE STRATEGY

Organizing for Success in High-Growth Emerging Business Opportunities

Building new businesses within the firm is something all large organizations struggle with. The challenge is determining how to permit these embryonic opportunities to take hold and grow without being crushed by the larger organization’s policies and practices. IBM has examined this problem over the years and in 2000 began a radical shift in its approach toward creating new businesses. This was not a separate venture division, but a hybrid approach that created a corporate driven management system and support team to nurture and grow emerging business opportunities (EBOs) within and across its business units. Since then they have launched over 20 EBOs which have contributed billions to top line growth. Moreover, they have incorporated many of these principles into a “Business Leadership Model” used broadly across the company to drive alignment of strategy and execution and addressing elements ranging from processes to talent, organization, and culture.

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