IBM, like many large businesses, used to be very inward-looking, preferring to do everything by ourselves if at all possible. Embracing the Internet, its open standards and overall outside-in approach turned out to be much more than a technology change for us. I think it had a very big impact on the overall culture in IBM, as it did in many other companies. It truly made us much more open -- e.g., embracing new technology ideas from external communities, as we did with Apache, Linux and Grid. It paved the way for a much more collaborative approach to innovation, as exemplified by some of our recent announcements around the management of our intellectual property. It helped us better integrate our people and activities around the world, to become more productive and to better support our clients. In short, embracing the Internet turned IBM, as it did so many other businesses, into an open, globally integrated enterprise, far more ready for business in the 21st century than we ever were before.

# posted by Squach : 6:38 PM   |