IBM Research Topic Essay

Mission Statement-Suitability for IBM The mission statement of IBM is suitable for the organization, and that not only because it sufficiently refers to the features a mission statement must have, but also because it expresses a spirit of success, teamwork and customer consideration, a spirit that only big companies can generate. Mission Statement-Strengths and weaknesses Though much important a mission stetement is, it can develop some strengths and weaknesses regarding mostly the customers of a company, the workforce and its shareholders. These three groups of people constitute a larger framework of groups, which has a legitimate interest in the fortunes of a company, the stakeholders of a company. Customers-Strengths In the market of information technology, customers will expect the most advance information technology from a company in order to fulfill their needs. Customers will also demand a flexible range of products and services (after sales service) to suit their needs. By reading the mission statement of IBM it is more than visible that the company fulfills these demands and provides strengths to its customers (â€Å"we strive to lead in the creation and manufacture of the industry’s most advance information technologies†, â€Å"we translate these advance technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions and services worldwide†). Generally the mission statement of IBM expresses a spirit of marketing orientation, and customer devotiation. Customers-Weaknesses It is extremeny difficult to pinpoint any weaknesses regarding customers generated from the mission statement of IBM, since the company’s mission statement expresses a spirit of marketing orientation and customer service (â€Å"we translate these advanced technologies into value for our customers through our professional solutions and services worldwide†). However one could say that extremely high technology and development might create such a specialisation that may lead to non-user friendly products, which would not sufficiently serve the needs of the customers. This could be encountered as a weakness. Workforce-Strengths The workforce of a company will expect to operate in a friendly and teamwork enviroement, in which opportunities for training and career development will be given. The mission statement of IBM complies with these expectations, and so provides strengths to the workforce. Since the product line of IBM is highly technologically advanced (â€Å"development and manufacture of the industry’s most advance information technologies) the workforce of IBM will have the opportunity of being trained and having developed their career in the future. Apart from this, the mission statement itself expresses the team spirit that exist in IBM and is being expected from the workforce (â€Å"At IBM, we strive to lead in creation†¦.†. Workforce-Weaknesses Apart from the strengths that are generated from the mission statement of IBM a few weaknesses can also arise. By reading the mission statement of IBM you can easily observe the tense the company has to invest in the development of the company (technology, services) in order to lead in creation, development and manufacture of the industry’s most advance information technologies and so to serve by a more fruitfull way the needs of its customers. This however can have a negative impact on some expectations of the workforce. Employees might expect some profits of the company to be given for the use of raising wages rather than investing for the development of the company. Employees might expect shorter working hours and more standardised products and services. The non-confrontation of these expectations can be considered as weaknesses.