Inside IBM

For decades, IBM was an integral partner in NASA’s quest to send humans into space and land them on the moon. It partnered with the Social Security Administration to design and execute the world’s first comprehensive social safety net and played a seminal role in developing the modern internet. IBM built countless tools and systems to enable the evolution of modern industry — including instantaneous global communications, digital transactions, natural language processing, nanotechnology and hyperlocal weather forecasting.

The breadth of these achievements makes it difficult not to wonder: How could one entity accomplish so much in so many seemingly unrelated fields?

Before attempting an answer, consider that in its efforts to be a model corporate citizen, IBM also became a champion of equality and worker rights, a leader in reimagining public education, and a generous benefactor of goods, expertise and aid to communities and entire nations, especially in times of crisis.

Now, back to the question. Any search for a formula for IBM’s broad impact must start with the company’s remarkable staying power. IBM has provided its people a near-unprecedented opportunity, over the course of more than a century, to contribute to the development of a broad set of tools, technologies and systems. Another factor is talent. The company has consistently managed to attract and engage a hyper-intelligent, curious and talented workforce dedicated to tackling the world’s thorniest problems. And finally, there is leadership: the people who have established the company’s mission and values in an effort to direct the workforce to “Think.”

In this section, you’ll learn more about IBM’s origins and begin to understand how the development of the company’s beliefs, values and culture have contributed to its longevity and success.

While IBM technologies have made an indelible impact on industry and society over the decades, the company’s culture has left an equally impressive imprint on the workplace. Born from a basic set of values first articulated by founding CEO Thomas Watson Sr. — the “way to be,” as his son Thomas Watson Jr. would later call it — has infused IBMers with a sense of purpose since the company’s inception and provided an enduring model for the modern corporation ever since.

The simple belief in respect for the individual binds IBM’s value system. Its threads are woven into every aspect of strategy and operations, from investments in education to empowering local talent in markets around the globe. The company’s ethos is anchored in a mutual responsibility to better oneself, each other and society. IBM, Watson Sr. posited, exists to do good while doing well.

Over the years, IBM has helped many thousands — perhaps millions — of employees to learn new skills, adapt to fast-changing trends and advance in their careers. It has promoted talent over convention, hiring locals into leadership positions internationally not only to increase the chances of success but also as a means to greater ends. Watson Sr. believed the strategy of creating a strong international presence with local ties could help bring about world peace.

His son Arthur, president of IBM World Trade Corporation, prioritized offering career tracks “that will take them anywhere and as far and as fast as their talents permit.” Watson Jr., in keeping with his father’s people-first philosophy, championed the “wild ducks,” or free thinkers whose offbeat ideas could explore hidden paths and unlock innovations.

In return for its profound focus on and respect for the individual, the institution has long exhorted IBMers to “Think!” — a mantra that evolved into a singular philosophy of management, creativity and productivity. It’s a five-letter distillation of the compact the company makes with employees: IBM will do its best for you while you do your best for IBM.

The following stories describe the building blocks of IBM’s consistent and remarkably resilient culture, along with the efforts of Watson and his successors to nurture and renew the company’s long-standing principles. Through success and crisis, the company has consistently returned to its basic values to reaffirm its purpose, to inspire IBMers to great achievement, and contribute to the good of society.

It might not seem unusual today for a company renowned for its technological accomplishments to also be resolutely devoted to the importance of great design. From smartphones and laptops to gadgets and cars, we commonly associate high technology with sleek design. But this wasn’t always the case.

IBM was a pioneer in elevating design principles across all facets of its business. From the tiniest semiconductors to the most powerful supercomputers, its technologies have always deftly orchestrated complex processes into the most spartan of spaces to maximize power, utility and efficiency. But from early on, its appreciation for good design also extended to outward presentation — from the look and architecture of products and corporate offices alike — as well as to IBM’s overall brand expression and even the formulation of business processes.

This emphasis on design began in the late 1940s, when Thomas J. Watson Jr. hired an old war friend named Eliot Noyes to redesign IBM’s typewriters. The job — and every subsequent project that Noyes would take on — went far beyond a quest to make something attractive. It was to reflect the essence of a subject and its relationship to the space around it. “Eliot knows how to put things together so that the whole thing works,” Watson Jr. said.

This was precisely the ambition Watson had for the company. He yearned for a corporate approach to design that would stand for IBM’s voice and values while reflecting the intelligence, curiosity and quality of its people. So he hired Noyes to run a first-of-its-kind corporate design program. Noyes’s efforts would soon extend into architecture, problem-solving techniques, and the makeup of the company’s workforce. IBM now employs more than 3,000 designers and operates more than 50 design studios around the world. “Design is an all-encompassing term,” Watson Jr. said. “It always includes a mixture of the practical and the aesthetic.”

The stories in this section reflect one of Watson’s most famous assertions: “We think good design is good business.” They reveal how carefully the company considers the construction of its products, image and outward presentation, including one of the world’s most recognizable logos, countless iconic advertising campaigns, award-winning exhibitions, timeless architecture, and iconic products and solutions. Read on to learn more about the motivation, inspiration, creativity and people behind IBM Design.

A champion of diversity and inclusion from his earliest days as IBM’s first CEO, Thomas J. Watson Sr. built one of the world’s most enduring corporations around a simple conceit: “respect for the individual.” Watson and the successors to his leadership have consistently made good on that pledge, proactively fostering a culture that welcomes people of all genders, races, beliefs, sexual identities and physical and mental capabilities — all while simultaneously advocating for their right to privacy.

With firm policies to direct actions, the organization has courted diversity in its ranks of employees, partners and customers — not out of a sense of altruism, but rather, as a source of vitality, strength, perspective and creativity.

IBM began hiring women into professional roles in 1935 with an explicit policy of equal work for equal pay. Around the same time, the company moved aggressively to recruit and train people with diverse abilities and opened training centers and workshops to accommodate varying needs.

The following decade, Thomas Watson Jr. redoubled his father’s efforts, expanding factories in the southern United States with a racially integrated workforce and proclaiming, “It is the policy of this organization to hire people who have the personality, talent and background necessary to fill a given job, regardless of race, color or creed.”

Time and again, IBM has made such stances well in advance of legislation or regulation. It has been on the front lines of adopting protections for, and extending various benefits to, the LGBTQ+ community and promoting inclusivity in business.

In 2002, the company incorporated gender identity and expression into its non-discrimination policy. Moreover, “respect for the individual” has led IBM to consistently reassess the balance between technology and humanity, and course-correct when necessary. IBM was early in its calls that everyone should maintain ownership of, and have the power to change, their data.

In 2020, the company shelved its facial recognition and analysis software, addressing past use by law enforcement in mass surveillance and racial profiling and calling for “a national dialogue on whether and how facial recognition technology should be employed by domestic law enforcement agencies.”

Read on to learn more about how IBM’s underlying ethos has shaped and advanced its culture, corporate citizenship and technological offerings for more than a century.