Palmisano the Transformer
InformationWeek has a pretty good article on the ascension of Sam Palmisano to the helm of IBM, and his plan to extend on the work of Lou Gerstner by turning IBM into a company focused on "business-performance-transformation-services." So what is it? If you believe IBM's propaganda, it's business-process-outsourcing taken to the extreme -- and I was tempted to say 'xtreme' -- but I resisted.
So what's xtreme-business-process-outsourcing? (You know, the thing with temptation ...) From IBM's perspective, it's the ability to take over any and all functions of a client's business, and leverage IBM's technology, business and innovation abilities to transform the client's business into something more than it was -- either achieving cost savings, performance gains, both, or simply relieving the client of the everyday drudgery of running their business so they can concentrate on what differentiates them from their competitors. But is this really transformative? No. This is a mere extension of business-process-outsourcing. The real transformative part comes from IBM extending their service offerings into the client's core differentiating functions to help them achieve success and dominate their markets.
Sneaky bugger, that Palmisano. That amounts to pretty much having the ability of taking over a company, without taking on the risks of owning the company. It's nothing short of devious genius. For CEOs without the courage to deal with their own inefficiencies; without the courage to transform their organizations, this may seem like sweet relief. Just be wary of promises that seem too good to be true -- that Palmisano, I think he's bent on world domination.
So what's xtreme-business-process-outsourcing? (You know, the thing with temptation ...) From IBM's perspective, it's the ability to take over any and all functions of a client's business, and leverage IBM's technology, business and innovation abilities to transform the client's business into something more than it was -- either achieving cost savings, performance gains, both, or simply relieving the client of the everyday drudgery of running their business so they can concentrate on what differentiates them from their competitors. But is this really transformative? No. This is a mere extension of business-process-outsourcing. The real transformative part comes from IBM extending their service offerings into the client's core differentiating functions to help them achieve success and dominate their markets.
Sneaky bugger, that Palmisano. That amounts to pretty much having the ability of taking over a company, without taking on the risks of owning the company. It's nothing short of devious genius. For CEOs without the courage to deal with their own inefficiencies; without the courage to transform their organizations, this may seem like sweet relief. Just be wary of promises that seem too good to be true -- that Palmisano, I think he's bent on world domination.
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