The Social Business Journey at IBM
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Case Code: BSTR418 Case Length: 19 Pages Period: 1997 - 2012 Pub Date: 2012 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.500 Organization: IBM Corporation Industry: Information Industry Countries: Global Themes: Social Media, Marketing Communications, Sales Management, Services Marketing, Marketing Management, Human Resources Management |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Abstract
This case is about IBM's social media initiatives and its transformation from social media to social business. By launching several social media initiatives, IBM aimed to nurture a culture of collaboration for fostering innovation. Since the early 1970s, IBM encouraged its mainframe programmers to collaborate online using the System 370 consoles. This was followed by the launch of the w3 corporate Intranet. IBM was also one of the first companies to encourage employees to use the Internet.
Taking its collaboration efforts forward, IBM explored the blogosphere in 2005 empowering employees to blog. IBM felt most of its social efforts, which had begun internally as a way for IBMers to learn and collaborate, could become products that could be offered to the marketplace. This marked the launch of Lotus Connections in January 2007. IBM wrapped all its social networking technologies into a single package – Lotus Connections, a social software suite integrated with capabilities to work in a corporate setting.
Issues
The case is structured to achieve the following teaching objectives:
- Analyze IBM's social media initiatives and understand the reasons behind its success
- Understand IBM's decentralized social media approach
- Discuss and debate IBM's social business transformation
- Understand how IBM integrated B2B marketing into social selling
- Discuss the challenges faced by IBM in becoming a fully realized social business
Contents
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Introduction
Early History Of IBM
Social Media Evolution At IBM
A Decentralized Social Media Approach
Social Business Transformation -The Blueiq Program
B2B Marketing-Leading IBM's Social Selling Arena
The Results
Can IBM Maintain Its Momentum?
Exhibits
Keywords
IBM, market leader, enterprise social software, culture, collaboration, innovation, social networking, social media marketing, B2B, decentralized social media, microblogging, crowdsourcing, Innovation Jams, Lotus Connections, BlogCentral, wikis, Beehive, BlueIQ, IBM Connections, social business transformation
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