the greaterIBM connection

One of the many innovations Sam Palmisano has spearheaded at  IBM is the idea of reaching out to "alumni". The first initiative was a few years ago when he hosted a reception for a group of former executives of the company. A few were retired but most were in senior positions in other companies. That was just the beginning and now the idea of reaching out has been expanded — big time. The number of past and present IBMers is probably close to a million people. Establishing communications with such a huge base can be nothing but a good thing for the company.

 

When I left engineering school and joined IBM in 1967, it was common to look for a job at a company and expect to stay there your entire career. Nobody thinks that way anymore. If you tell someone you were with a company for decades, they might ask "what’s the matter, couldn’t you find any other jobs?". Another change is that in the old days if someone left the company they were considered a traitor and barred from coming back. Today, there are many executives that left the company at some point, got some experience at one or more other companies, and then brought that experience back into IBM. Some have come and gone multiple times. The turnover has strengthened the company.

 

And now we have social networks. In the early stages there was a perception that social networking meant eleven year-old girls on MySpace. Now businesses are realizing that it is more likely forty or fifty year-old business people on Facebook and Xing and LinkedIn and Plaxo Pulse. The Internet has enabled everyone  to be connected to everyone. Whether it is reading blogs, posting to wikis, updating status on Facebook, or making new connections through viral invitations, it is clear that a big company like IBM has a lot to gain by "connecting" past, present, and  future  IBMers to each other and with the company. IBM calls it "the greaterIBM connection". On Monday evening the company hosted a greaterIBM reception at the Metrazur at Grand Central Station in New York. More than four hundred attended. It was good to reconnect with some colleagues I had not seen for quite a few years.

 

Will social networking payoff in business terms? Nobody knows for sure but in my opinion it is certain — as soon as we see the New York Times run a front page story that social networking is a fad,  in trouble or peaking out we will have confirmation  that success is a sure thing. A short term inhibitor is that there are so many different social networks. As web standards evolve I am confident that we will have a world where people will create one profile and then be able to decide which part of their profile is accessible in which networks.

 

IBM sees the potential and is investing the time and resources to build a large and active network. The possibilities are endless — collaboration on projects,   networking to hire or get hired, crafting deals, referrals to and from IBM and its business partners. As a bonus,  social  networking is fun and  good for morale. I look forward to continuing to be a  part of the greaterIBM connection as  it evolves. Upon e-tirement in 2001 after nearly four decades at IBM, I  don’t really feel like I left anyway! The stories that I have been writing since 1998 over at the patrickWeb blog fall into a  number of categories. One section is devoted to "IBM Happenings". I am sure I will also be writing  and linking at the greaterIBM connection along with  others. Cross linking will increase the overall  "connectedness". That’s what the web is all about. I am really proud  that IBM is taking networking and the blogosphere so seriously.

 

        the greaterIBM connection
Greater IBM Wiki

Insights From Core Connectors Events: Vienna, UK

We recently spent some time in Europe talking to current and former IBMers about the Greater IBM network.  I wanted to share some of what we heard and learned from the several dozen people who took the time to meet with us in Vienna, Frankfurt and IBM’s Hursley Park lab.  (Many thanks to Sandor Barany, our social network’s ultra-connector, for organizing the Vienna event, and reaching out to so many current and former IBMers, especially in the important emerging market of Eastern Europe.)

 

Wonderful Wien

The good news: in listening to hundreds of IBMers, past and present, from all parts of Europe, there seemed to be genuine appetite to be connected to the human network of people who share an IBM heritage. In some sense, the culture of being an IBMer does transcend the business organization.

There was also broad consensus, among both current and former IBMers, that new Web technologies, and the interactions they enable, could provide benefits to all participants. The majority of people seemed to perceive that there was an essential benefit to enabling current and former IBMers to connect with each other.

Many good ideas and insights on how to improve greaterIBM surfaced in our discussions in Vienna. Three examples:

1) Develop some kind of automated match-making based on profile comparisons to introduce people to one another
2) Make Premium Accounts Opt In: offer them to all who say they are willing, on their honor, to build the network by inviting in others, and enriching it by active participation: contributing to dialogue in the forums, creating events, introducing members to each other, etc.
3) Give members a set of clear, simple value prop talking points to use in persuading others to join

Food for Thought in Frankfurt

The challenges:  For former IBMers, trust in an alumni social networking program is a real issue. They want to be part of a network that offers them very concrete, and crystal clear, value proposition, and are, at least initially, wary of such a program being more for IBM’s benefit than their own.

As strongly as many alumni IBMers may identify with Big Blue, in some cases from careers spanning decades, there is understandable skepticism….”if in the past, once someone left the company they effectively fell off IBM’s radar, so what’s different now?”

The short answer is that many social and business trends have made many organizations realize that their former employees are an important constituency in today’s incredibly networked economy.

if IBM can show that it is serious about creating a new kind of relationship between alumni and current IBMers, and offer substantial services and features that will benefit participants,  many of the people we talked to seemed to hunger for such a redefinition of the IBM ecosystem, and the opportunity to leverage the global fraternity of IBMers.

In fact, one of the surprising things I heard was that alumni wanted to have a real inside perspective on IBM…”give me access to BluePages (IBM’s intranet directory) and w3″ was a common refrain.

As my colleagues have noted from a range of sources, alumni IBMers have high expectations for IBM. If the company wants to really create a meaningful community with its large pool of “graduate” IBMers, it will have to dig down deep and really deliver on every front with rich features, services, content and commitment.

I think we can deliver on all kinds of reports, events, promotions, research projects, collaborative projects and the like, to make this case, and to show that being part of Greater IBM will be an enormously beneficial experience and asset for all.

(Of course, members of the network have to be part of that productive equation, and are equally encouraged to start initiatives that will feed the interests and needs of other Greater IBMers.)

When we succeed, the Greater IBM Connection will be a step toward turning IBM “inside out” for those such as corporate alumni who want to have a productive, interactive relationship.

This mixture of interest and uncertainty was echoed in questions about how serious IBM was about reaching out to alumni, and whether the company’s culture really could be open enough to involve them in activities, projects and innovation efforts.

On a more optimistic note, most we talked to recognized that IBM can drive great societal level innovation when it sets its mind it.  They only hoped that the ideal for greaterIBM was backed up by a plan to match it.

Sandor Barany, superconnector

Of course, some of those who have been involved in the network during its pilot phase these last few months pointed out that most people are time starved, and will only participate to the degree that they feel that their time is wisely invested, which puts further onus on the network having immediate and personal value.

We are conducting as much serious research as we can, but all members can help Greater IBM become what they need by sharing their thoughts…in Greater IBM’s forums, in email, and in disucssion with other members.

Finally, our listening tour reinforced the notion that greaterIBM has the opportunity to be a global program, but it must also have a local focus to make the service most relevant to clusters of member, and that the program needs to create regular in-person events to feed the creation of the trust and social capital that only face-to-face, real human interactions can engender.

To that end, in Vienna we discussed how the growing group based ther could be the spark for a kind of regional initiative to drive innovation and business throughout the emerging market of Eastern Europe. Fortunately, there has been strong growth of members joining Greater IBM throughout the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and the rest of this exciting region.

Making Virtual Connections in Hursley Park

All this, and similar, effort needs is a spark, and a few enterprising people to step up and get such a open source  type of innovation community rolling.

2007 is fast approaching, and our network is growing toward the tipping point that will help it become a proactive organization fueled as much by the energy of its members as it is by the support and commitment of IBM.

So let’s create something Great, together, as we roll into that new year.

Welcome to the Frontier!

Fellow greaterIBMers, let me introduce you to the frontier. We are witnessing the start of
two initiatives that will be very big: greaterIBM, and the birth of the 3D internet with IBMs $10M play in virtual worlds, announced by IBM’s CEO Sam Palmisano on Tuesday in Beijing. Both initiatives share two key similarities… they are both moving very fast and the models are not “more of the same” from IBM. Let me share the recent story of a couple of greaterIBMers

They decided to run a greaterIBM virtual bloc party in Second Life. One of them learns how to build things in Second Life, builds a greaterIBM Headquarters in 2 weeks in his spare time for $20. They reach out to the community around them to get involved as they really need their help to run the event smoothly and to draw on their expertise. They run the event, which becomes the top story on IBMs intranet, gets mentioned in the New York Times, BusinessWeek and CNet. The builder is immediately requested to write a best practices document and consult with 2 major multinational companies on how to run successful events in Second Life and receives requests from around the world to collaborate with other initiatives.

As part of his preparation for the event, the builder investigates how to use a more sophisticated way of videoing the event, and finds a tool in SL, which costs the huge sum of $0.70! He enlists the help of a colleague who figures it out, makes a short
film of the Bloc Party which they edit and post on YouTube. It gets hundreds of viewings and is used by IBMs Media Relations group

Four weeks later, Sam Palmisano is due to make an appearance in the virtual Forbidden City IBM have built. The bloc party cameraman is called on to run the virtual camerawork and films Sam, switching between 10 virtual cameras for a live video feed watched
by 7000 IBM employees across China!

Elapsed time from nowhere to subject matter experts: 6 WEEKS!

greaterIBM is at the same stage of development. This is gold rush time and you can hitch up your wagon and join in right now. We have a big mandate to make this happen from IBM but we’re only currently at 850 people. If you formed a community in greaterIBM, for example around Healthcare, by searching for a few like-minded people, ran a couple of conference calls using the events function (ask us and you can use our number), you will be the de-facto topic healthcare leader in The Greater IBM Connection. When the
membership has risen to 5, 10 or 50 thousand people next year, you could be
providing insights and business opportunities for your company from a community
of hundreds of people across the world. People could be emailing you to join in and collaborate with your team and opportunities you never envisaged could open up for you.

Take a 5 minute coffee break, grab a pen and blank sheet of paper and open your mind to the possibilities. Also, watch this space and next week we’ll will show you one way you can get involved with BOTH greaterIBM and IBMs virtual worlds initiative, make incredible new connections, and have a lot of fun!

The energy and buzz around these two initiatives is huge at the moment. How much opportunity would you like? All you have to do is a little work and you can be a 21^st century pioneer!

IBMers and IBM alumni join greaterIBM here.

The Information On Demand Conference and Blended Networking via Greater IBM

IBMer, Jack Mason, IBM Strategic Communications & The Greater IBM Connection Executive Producer

 

Next week’s IOD Conference in Anaheim is a prime example of how The Greater IBM Connection will add value to the in-person networking at such business events.

The network we’re building will give IBMers, past and present, who may meet each other at such large gatherings (more than 5,000  people are expected at the IOD Conference, one of IBM’s largest events)  to stay connected with each other through the online network we’re building.

Of course, people are bound to continue making connections through traditional mechanisms like business cards. What’s different about Greater IBM as a new kind of business social network is that once two people meet and say “let’s connect through Greater IBM” they will not only have each other’s contact information, but more insight into to each other through the richer profiles all members control.

What’s more, they can also see each others contacts, and perhaps find ways that they are already connected to each other through a common friend or colleague.

From the start, we’ve envisioned that Greater IBM should be an example of “blended networking”…a community that enabled in-person events to become more valuable by enabling current and former IBMers who meet in a variety of realworld circumstances to be able to follow through and interact with other through a robust online directory.

Of course, sometimes this will be contacts between current and former IBMers, with the prospects of leading to new business opportunities for each.

But sometimes Greater IBM will enable former IBMers to connect with each other (or even current IBMers who might not otherwise get to know each other, which has already happened to me in the process of helping launch Greater IBM.)  In either case, the value of people being able to extend their contacts and relationships is clearly strategic in today’s highly networked world of global business.

So, if you are one of the thousands of current or former IBMers attending next week’s IOD Conference, you might consider joining the network today, and encouraging  the Greater IBMers you meet at the event to keep the connection going via this promising new platform.

Join Greater IBM Today 

To invite a current colleague or former IBMer into Greater IBM, share this invitation link with them:

http://www.greateribm.com

Once you are both in the community you can create a Connection with each other that will become part of your social networking profile.

Greater IBM alumni Second Life
Social Networking

An account team’s “Alumni Philosophy”

IBMer, Nils-Carsten Huber, Global Business Services, Senior Consultant Strategy & Change

Nils started his career at Hamburg Savings Bank as a Credit Analyst and was promoted in 1998 to Branch Manager.  Before coming to IBM in 2003 he was a Strategic Performance Improvement Consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers.  Nils is now a Senior Consultant at IBM and a member of the GBS key account team for Deutsche Post World Net/DHL/Exel.

The first of our three IBM genes is the IBMer’s dedication to every client’s success. Unfortunately, there are several ‘opportunities’ where you can directly observe how important it is to recognize a departing colleague being our customer in the next moment. Frequently, this former colleague is a decision-maker and his/her decision to take on a new position might be influenced by the perception of being valued, informed and treated with dignity during her/his exit at IBM. In my opinion, “just letting them go” is not appropriate.

In our account team for the worldwide logistics leader, DPWN, we have shared this insight for several years. In any case, we aim to know who is a former IBMer (or one of IBM’s affiliates, acquisitions, etc.) and also our client. We keep an overview in our CRM database.  We aim to establish a personal contact between a member of our account team and the alumnus to keep the relationship alive.

For example, once or twice a year we socialise with our alumni clients at a dinner, thus, establishing an “alumni community”. At the dinner, alumni can meet people who share their common history. Moreover, we regularly inform our alumni of developments at IBM and we share insights like the IBM CEO Global Study or the IBM Global Innovation Outlooks.

And it pays to live this philosophy: DPWN has been a GBS client for about 15 years. Over 50 percent of our VIP contacts are alumni. Alumni hold a remarkable portion of our signings; alumni frequently act as advocates in bringing ideas and IBM business to our client, and last but not least, alumni give honest feedback and help us to optimize ourselves in caring for our customer.

Thus, I want to congratulate IBM for the “GreaterIBM” communication programme. It is one more component in the relationship to our alumni and a great opportunity to rebind them to IBM and to show them that we care. I am looking forward to be a part of “GreaterIBM”.

Global Business Services Alumni Network

This post continues the series “What can Greater IBM Do for Me?”

IBMer, Lois Dwyer, IBM US Global Business Services, Program Manager IBM Global Business Services Alumni Network

Lois Dwyer is the Program Manager for IBM Global Business Services Alumni Network.  In her twenty-two years with IBM, Lois has worked in hardware, software and services.  Her career focus has been in Marketing.

To poorly plagiarize the words of President John Kennedy, I would not ask what the alumni can do for me, but, what you can do for your alumni!   Simply put, if we provide services and add value for our alumni, they will want to be part of the Greater IBM Connection.

As Program Manager for the IBM Global Business Services Alumni Network, I periodically poll our alumni to ask what they feel is the most valuable aspect of our alumni network.  The latest results show that our Webcasts (currently held approximately every sixty days throughout 2006) are the most valuable, followed by the ability to apply for jobs, followed closely by — the social networking spoke of the alumni “wheel”—learning the latest alumni news (e.g., “where are they now”) and reconnecting with former IBM colleagues.

The Greater IBM Connection provides a short cut to a much needed culture change in IBM… How IBM interacts with its former colleagues.  If we can host the types of activities, or provide a portal for our alumni to participate in activities as were described by our alumni in the paragraph above, we can be guaranteed of garnering successful relationships, both for IBM and for our alumni.

The “reconnection” aspect includes alumni and active employees in IBM Global Business Services Americas.  If you are an IBM Global Business Services Americas employee, or an alumnus of IBM Global Business Services Americas, please visit http://www.greateribm.com to join