IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Samuel J. Palmisano Speaks at Tsinghua Forum

 By Li Han, Tsinghua News Center

 IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer Samuel J. Palmisano visited Tsinghua University on May 10 and delivered a speech entitled "A Business and Its Ideas: Shaping a Company and a Century".

Tsinghua University President Gu Binglin had a discussion with Mr. Palmisano in which they exchanged ideas for promoting further cooperation between Tsinghua and IBM. Tsinghua University Vice President Kang Kejun attended the discussion and hosted the speech. The year 2011 is the 100th anniversary of IBM and also the centenary of Tsinghua. IBM will host a series of speeches and dialogue activities with renowned universities to discuss what has happened in the past 100 years and what may happen in the coming decades. Mr. Palmisano's visit was also held in honor of the centenaries of both IBM and Tsinghua University.

In his speech, held in the Main Building, Mr. Palmisano shared the experience of IBM in the past 100 years and underscored the great importance of innovation and company culture.

Quoting a speech delivered in 1962 by Tom Watson Jr., IBM's former chairman and the son of its founder, Mr. Palmisano said that "any organization, in order to survive and achieve success, must have a sound set of beliefs on which it premises all its policies and actions." Furthermore, "the most important single factor in corporate success is faithful adherence to those beliefs." He added that "if an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except those beliefs as it moves through corporate life." Mr. Palmisano noted that one of the first things he did as CEO was to initiate an effort to re-examine the company's core values. "I truly believe that none of our work since - remaking IBM's portfolio of products and services and globally integrating our company would have been as effective or sustainable if we had not first gone back to basics, back to our roots, back to the foundation of our culture." Reviewing the 100-year history of IBM, he remarked that "if you want long-term success, you have to manage for the long term."

Mr. Palmisano answered questions from the students after his speech.

(Photo by Cui Kai)