In a typical bureaucratic company, managers measure their success by the number of people who report to them and the size of their budgets(or better yet,their earnings).By those measures,Rod Adkins was at IBM when he mandged its Unix computing division,which boasted35000 employees and sales of 4 dillion a year.And by those same measures, Adkins.s next assignment was an embarrassment:heading the new pervasive-computing division,with zero employees.In fact,IBM was depending on Adkins to help transform the company.IBM's name once symbolized modern technology,but the giant company had become too stodgy for the Internet age. Its research labs were still making discoveries and earning patents,but other companies more often developed the ideas into successful business enterprise.Managers were reluctant to take risks,preferring to preserve their exinting businesses.IBN's executives decided the solution to be winners a few years in the future.They wanted the best managers to be in charge of IBM's newgreat ideas, not just to preserve the old ones.
 
Adkins's new assignment,pervasive computing,was to extend the business of computers beyond machines on home and office desks.Pervasive computing uses vireless technology to bring computer power practically everywhere-for example,in the voice-computing business grew from an idea to a division with sales of 2.4billion in just three years.
 
That performance helped IBM surpass its goal for transformation.The pervasive-computing division is part of a larger effort to develop emerging-business opportunities(EBOs) under the leadership of IBM's senior vice president for strategy,J.Bruce Harold's objective was for the EBOs to generate about 2 billion in new revenue each year.In the program's first four years,IBM launched 25 EBOs.Three failed,and the remaining EBOs bring in 15 billinon a year and rising.
 
The money is only part of the story.Successsful new ventures at IBM are changing the way employees think of their company.According to Caroline Kovac, whose EBO involves cmputing for clients in the lisfe sciences(for example, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology), 'We've become more willing to experiment,more willing to accept failure, learn from it and move on' kovac adds that leading an EBO is now a coveted position at IBM.
 
To develop an EBO, its leader starts with as one employee and begins planning how to transform an idea into a business.Harold meets regularly with the leader,guiding him or her away form the cautious thinking that is rewarded in an established bureaucracy.Harold encourages the EBO leaders to take risks and continue learning and adjusting.Harold ensures the group has the money it needs but forbids empire building.He also encourages the EBO leaders to draw upon the expertise of other IBM emplyees.The EBO leaders develop pilot projects with major customers:if they meet their objectives,IBM generously funds and staffs the project.If the initiative is not vearing fruit in the pilot phase,Harold explains that it is important not to punish the leaders for failing when they take a risk,because even the failures are learing opportunities. One of the successes,the pervasive-computing project,now operates the Pervasive Computing Advanced Technology Lab in Austin,Texas.There,researchers and engineers are investigating a wealth of high-tech ideas.Early on,Bill Bodin,who manages research at the lab, 留学生论文代写网代写留学生论文,英国硕士论文,澳洲论文留学生论文代写网代写留学生论文,英国硕士论文,澳洲论文