In this volitile evironment, a lot of the enterprises, especially the large ones, might prefer to be more conservative and adopted a wait-and-see attitude for next step. We cannot say IBM is totally immune from this external evironment, but what IBM has strived for years prepares itself well for future growth and remain sound and competitive in current economic volatility. Let's see the new theme of IBM's development this year -- "Smarter Planet". You can find numerous concrete examples under this concept it can impact almost every aspect of our daily life: food quality and safety, traffic reduction, energy saving, healthcare efficiency, workforce productivity, enterprise efficiency, new generation of IT infrastructure. To put it simple, IBM is help improving a lot of things in the world that we take for granted in a revolutionary way. It's amazing when you watch the videos about "smarter planet" case stories and have the pictures in your mind about the cool life in the near future.
IBM's business direction turns out to be highly in line with the priorities of the new president of the US. From the speech of IBM CEO Sam Palmisano when invited to the White House, we can see the connection between building a smarter infrastructure and smarter planet with the opportunity to help the nation out of the current economic crisis.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Always Be Prepared
A very nice HR partner in our site initiated a weekly lunch for a group of HR new hires/interns to talk with experienced HR professionals to learn more about the company and their career experience. This informal luncheon has become a well received networking/learning event for new IBMers in HR. The group is developed by word of mouth and our topics are no longer limited to career building but cover re-organization of HR function, adjustments of business/HR strategy in this turbulent environment and tricky problems everybody encountered in work. As we new hires become more familiar with our work environment, everyone starts contributing to the event by engaging our manager or second-line managers to join our lunch to build the network further. This way, we are able to broaden our horizon of this large company and get inspiration about personal development plan such as our next desired role/rotation within the company.
The current economic crisis has been a hot topic during recent lunches. As employees, how can we increase our job security and market value in such a daunting and uncertain environment? Learning ability and open mindset can be a “rule of thumb” in for surviving the current hard time and preparing for tomorrow’s competition and challenge in career. Learning here is not limited to formal courses or events. All kinds of project experience, even beyond your work scope can be good learning resources as well. One major secret of this young HR director’s success is “always asking for more work to do”. “I am a not a workaholic” is my first response. But on second thought, this may not be necessarily in conflict with a good work-life balance. When you try to tap new areas, you’ve started broaden your skill-set and network which might help you work more efficiently, while demonstrating your initiative and time management skills. Therefore, managers will see that you always have the desire, ability and readiness to progress in a career ladder. When you build up the reputation that you are always willing and able to help, more opportunities and people will come to you naturally. By making your skill-set broad, unique and transferable, you can always get new opportunities while leave legacy in your current role.
While encourage its employees to enhance and update skills, IBM HR has formed a new workforce management strategy to manage its workforce in a more effective and efficient way. Many companies have mastered the concepts and tools to conduct competitive analysis in their product/service market. Now, how can we win the war for talent without knowing our inventories/assets of human resources? With a stronger workforce research capabilities, that is, the information of skills and experience of current employees as well as future needs can be collected, managed, updated and analyzed more scientifically, the company will definitely be more confident in exceeding in talent acquisition and deployment. As an IBMer, we can have a better idea of potential career opportunities and always be prepared to plan in advance to develop the key skills.
The current economic crisis has been a hot topic during recent lunches. As employees, how can we increase our job security and market value in such a daunting and uncertain environment? Learning ability and open mindset can be a “rule of thumb” in for surviving the current hard time and preparing for tomorrow’s competition and challenge in career. Learning here is not limited to formal courses or events. All kinds of project experience, even beyond your work scope can be good learning resources as well. One major secret of this young HR director’s success is “always asking for more work to do”. “I am a not a workaholic” is my first response. But on second thought, this may not be necessarily in conflict with a good work-life balance. When you try to tap new areas, you’ve started broaden your skill-set and network which might help you work more efficiently, while demonstrating your initiative and time management skills. Therefore, managers will see that you always have the desire, ability and readiness to progress in a career ladder. When you build up the reputation that you are always willing and able to help, more opportunities and people will come to you naturally. By making your skill-set broad, unique and transferable, you can always get new opportunities while leave legacy in your current role.
While encourage its employees to enhance and update skills, IBM HR has formed a new workforce management strategy to manage its workforce in a more effective and efficient way. Many companies have mastered the concepts and tools to conduct competitive analysis in their product/service market. Now, how can we win the war for talent without knowing our inventories/assets of human resources? With a stronger workforce research capabilities, that is, the information of skills and experience of current employees as well as future needs can be collected, managed, updated and analyzed more scientifically, the company will definitely be more confident in exceeding in talent acquisition and deployment. As an IBMer, we can have a better idea of potential career opportunities and always be prepared to plan in advance to develop the key skills.
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