“Service Innovation as a Phenomenon”

Study of the IBM business turnaround from the 90’s to nowadays

In 1983, IBM revolutionized the micro computing with the Personal Computer. For the first time, IBM placed the computers in the hands of the users. With more than 350.000 employees in the world and $29B of revenue it was one of the largest computing companies. In 2006 more than the half of the revenue was realized thanks to service and consulting company. After the acquisition of PWC Consulting and the sale of the personal computer branch to Lenovo, IBM is now the symbol of the modern IT Company, delivering full integrated service systems. To understand how IBM is become the innovative company we all know today, we need to summarize briefly the main events which punctuated the evolution of this centenarian company. Actually, it’s the oldest company present today on the IT market. To avoid a long history of the company, I’ll just underline that before the 60’s IBM was already an innovative company. Selling calculators and other systems, IBM had already a technological advantage on its competitors. But with the advent of the computer era in the second part of the 20th Century it’s a new start for IBM. Indeed, IBM continues to cultivate its culture of innovation. We owe the design of the modern micro computing to IBM. Innovations like hard drive at the end of the 50’s, the floppy disks and the most famous and most important one in the micro computing history, the Personal Computers (PC) early in the 80’s, made IBM an undisputed leader on the market. IBM built its reputation providing powerful and reliable systems to mostly all the firms and administration. It’s important to underline that in the 80’s, even if IBM is already leader; the innovation is still a main focus. IBM's significant investment in research produced four Nobel Prize winners in the 80’s. However, IBM will know some troubles. In the early 90’s the company looses $16B in 3 years. A