IBM

Type:	Public
Industry:	Information Technology and Services
Founded:	1911
Headquarters:	New Orchard Road Armonk New York, NY 10504
Country:	USA
Employees:	399, 409 worldwide
Revenue:	$ 99.870 billion as of 2010
Website:	http://www.ibm.com
Key People
Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman, President and CEO

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International Business Machines(IBM) also referred to as the Big Blue is a multinational technology and consulting company. It is highly recognized as the leading computer and systems integrator worldwide. Samuel J Palmisano is the Chairman, President and CEO of the company which is based in Armonk, New York.

IBM offers a wide range of infrastructure, hosting services; a broad portfolio of middleware for collaboration, predictive analytics, provides the world's most advanced servers and develops computer hardware & software, systems management and consulting services in different technology such as the nanotechnology. IBM employs hundreds of thousands of employees in more than 170 countries and it operates under the principle of building a smarter planet.

Early Years of the Company (the merger of three companies to form CTR)

Charles Ranlett Flint engineered the merger the International Time Recording Company,the Computing Scale Company and the Tabulating Machine Company to form Computing Tabulating Recording (CTR) Company. CTR was incorporated as a holding company on June 16, 1911. George Fairchild became the Chairman of the Board of Directors. Flint remained member of the board of C-T-R until his retirement in 1930.C-T-R is the predecessor of IBM.

The newly formed CTR has over 1,300 employees and its plants are located in Endicott New York manufacturing time-recording equipment, Dayton, Ohio produces scales and Washington, D.C. makes keypunch cards. CTR started selling a wide range of products from meat slicers, clocks, commercial scales, punched-card tabulators and many other machineries. The punched-card tabulating machine paved the way to the development of computers. Herman Hollerith, founder the Tabulating Machines Company that merged with CTR invented the punched-card tabulator.

Because of the diversity of CTR's product line, it was difficult for Flint to manage the business. He hired Thomas J. Watson Sr. in 1914 as General Manager to help him revitalize the business. Watson aggressively introduced Hollerith's punched card tabulators to the United States government during World War I. During his management the use of accounting machines begin to spread and the company's product line include mechanical key punch,hand-operated gang punch,the vertical sorter and tabulator. Customers increases from rail road, chemical, utilities and insurance companies.

Renaming CTR to IBM

Watson was elected President and General Manager of CTR in 1915. After a decade, Watson changed the name of the company from CTR to International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation due to the companies global and functionality expansion. During that time IBM's gross income was already $11 million and it has already established three manufacturing companies in Europe. The Electric Accounting Machine and the Carrol Rotary Card Press were also introduced in the market. Note that prior to renaming CTR's name, the company operated its business in Canada as IBM since 1917.

IBM During the Great Depression

In 1930s, IBM was one of the few companies during the Great depression to maintain full employment. Instead of resorting to mass lay-offs Watson Sr. took care of his employees, he supported the call of President Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Action Plan.Many companies went bankrupt and shut down their operations but Watson kept his men working and decided to manufacture parts for inventory and stored them. In 1934, IBM was one of the first companies to provide group life insurance, survivor benefits in 1935 and paid vacations in 1937.

IBM Landmark Contract (Social Security Act of 1935)

In 1935 the United States government legislated the the Social Security of 1935 and mandating the issuance of social security numbers to 26 million workers and 3.5 million employer identification numbers and the development of centralized system of record keeping. The project was considered the largest book keeping operation in the world's history. A French consultant for the government said that "It can't be done.". IBM proved the statement wrong when it landed the contract and the project went very well. The company was prepared for the project since it has a large inventory of equipment, and IBM have already established its research and development center. The company developed the IBM O77 Collator specially for the SSA program in 1937 along with different mechanical card punch and tabulating devices.

After World War II, the company is already the largest supplier of office equipments in the United States.

Year after year IBM continue to introduce different product lines, expanded its operation in different countries worldwide and recorded a consistent increase in annual earnings.Watson served the company for more than two decades. He is responsible in transforming CTR from a small scale manufacturer of commercial scales, time clocks, punch card tabulators to a well positioned high technology multi-national company. IBM is now a front runner, a growing leader in technological innovations worldwide.