IBM at 100 – Where The Wild Ducks Go

Today is *the* day, indeed! Today marks the end of the first 100 years of the company that has employed me for the last 14 and still going strong. Today is IBM‘s 100th anniversary (Check #ibm100 on Twitter to see how folks are celebrating such massive achievement). So, to keep the celebrations going, I thought I would follow up a recent blog entry I wrote on this Centennial celebration by putting together this rather short one pointing folks to a couple of interesting resources worth while having a look at, just to check out how fellow IBMers are celebrating online, as well as offline, such remarkable milestone. I mean, how many folks do you know that have worked for an (IT) business that’s lasted for so long and still growing healthier, more and more, by the day? … 100 years later… I don’t know many of them, to be honest, which is why today, specially, I have got a stronger sense of pride and privilege for sticking around throughout all of this time. Yes, I know, lots of kool-aid coming along, folks, so I will try to keep it short and straight to the point. Let’s get started, of course, with the IBM100 Web site, a dedicated space for everyone to dive into some of the major inflection points in IBM’s history, and probably that of the world’s, too! Happy 100th Year, My Dear IBM!

I am sure you may have seen, or noticed, how a whole bunch of articles are coming along detailing what some of the main achievements have been for IBM in those past 100 years. My good friends, and fellow colleagues, Ed Brill and Andy Piper, amongst several others, have put together rather insightful blog posts as well that detail, a little bit, the richness of the interactions and experiences they, too, have lived over an extensive period of time. Worth while reading, for sure. I know as well how plenty of folks all over the place were commenting on why the “main” IBM Twitter account was dormant for a little while; well, as you may have seen already, the wild duck is out and about, once again, and that account is now active big time celebrating as well such a special date as today’s. Go ahead and start following it, if you would want to be in the know of what’s happening out there in the IBM world.

Now, I can imagine you may be wondering about the intriguing “wild ducks” mention I just did on the above paragraph, right? Well, not to worry; it’s the title on another one of those brilliantly inspiring video clips that has been released, just recently, to celebrate IBM’s Centennial, along with the 100×100 or the “They Were There” ones. At the same time there is a new book out there, that I just can’t wait to get my hands on the Kindle version, that describes pretty much that lifetime of success and innovation around IBM, including as well the tough times that always allow one to redefine and grow further on your own core beliefs, under the title “Making the World Work Better” with this lovely and inspirational legend: “The Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company“. Perhaps I couldn’t even have put it in better words than @ibm‘s bio has just done:

“By becoming a very different company from what we were just a few years ago, we have become much more like the company IBM has been for most of its history“

Ok, I know that this blog entry may just be bordering on the über-kool-aid effect, but I *do* hope you can understand where I am coming from; today’s IBM 100th anniversary is quite a remarkable event that cannot just go by un-noticed. Either way, I will probably talk a little bit later on in time about the Memorabilia that I just got myself a couple of weeks back and that I’m enjoying quite a bit so far and that you could also go ahead and enjoy! For now, though, you may want to go ahead and download the .PDF IBM Centennial Essay and embark yourself on what promises to be quite an interesting read. Or you may want to go ahead and dive into the Celebration of Service Day and pledge some hours to help your local communities and favourite NGOs. Thousands of IBMers have already pledged over 2.5 million hours, and counting! Yes, I know, there will be always something out there for everyone to go ahead and enjoy further while celebrating IBM’s Centennial.

And as I am reaching now the end of this blog post, I thought what a better way of doing that than making the connection with that, recently released, IBM Centennial Film under the heading “Wild Ducks – Celebrating 100 years of Visionary Clients“, which is just so remarkably inspirational and beautiful that would make for a wonderful mid-afternoon coffee break of 15 minutes of pure gold, seeing how some IBM customers prove what Smarter Planet has been aiming at for the last few years: a better, smarter world, where sustainable growth, and good health, of both our businesses and societies will help shape the next 100 years!

Happy 100th Anniversary, my dear IBM!

(“You can make wild ducks tame, but you can never make tame ducks wild again” – Thomas Watson Jr.)