This is International Business Machines Corporation mission statement overview in 2013. For more information on how to write a mission statement, please refer to our article.
Company Background
| Name | International Business Machines Corporation |
| Logo |  |
| Industries served | Computer hardware, Computer software, IT services, IT consulting |
| Geographic areas served | Worldwide |
| Headquarters | U.S. |
| Current CEO | Ginni Rometty |
| Revenue | $ 104.5 billion (2012) |
| Profit | $ 16.6 billion (2012) |
| Employees | 434,246 (2012) |
| Main Competitors | Apple Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation, VMware, Inc. and many other companies. |
Mission
IBM mission statement 2013 |
IBM doesn’t have an official mission statement and translates company purpose through following values: “IBMers value:
|
| Evaluation | ||
| Does it include…? | ||
| Customers | Products/ Services | Markets |
| No | No | No |
| Technology | Concern for survival | Philosophy |
| No | No | Yes |
| Self-concept | Concern for public image | Employees |
| Yes | No | No |
| Does it mention values like…? | Customer or product-oriented? | |
| Citizenship | Teamwork | Customer-oriented |
| No | No | Score |
| Excellence | Integrity | |
| No | No | 1.3/4.5 |
(This evaluation framework is composed of the guidelines listed in our article: Mission Statement for Success)
Overview
Until 2003, IBM’s official mission was:
“At IBM, we strive to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry’s most advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions, services and consulting businesses worldwide.”
This statement was changed by IBMers values and is no longer an official mission of IBM but it is a much stronger statement than what IBM currently has. It’s current values-mission has been evaluated 1.3 points out of 4.5 and is one of the lowest scores in our evaluations. The statement lacks almost all 9 components and doesn’t mention any of the values used by the world’s best performing companies. Mission, is a statement that is used to communicate the essential company’s information and its ‘reason for being’ in the business to all its stakeholders. Yet, IBM’s mission doesn’t do any of that and cannot be used as an effective communication tool. Our suggestion for IBM would be to reintroduce their previous mission statement with slight changes to better communicate IBM’s core purpose and values to the world.
Sources
- IBM US (2013). About IBM. Available at: http://www.ibm.com/ibm/us/en/
- IBM Annual Report (2013). Our mission. Available at: ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/annualreport/2002/2002_ibm_ar.pdf