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The world’s biggest technology company. No, it’s not Microsoft. It’s still IBM.
And my first IBM interview starts with Drew Clark, co-founder of IBM Venture Capital and one of IBM’s top strategists.
We spend an hour together talking about a range of things. Not just IBM stuff either. It’s Drew Clark unedited.
I have the best job in the world. I get to have conversations with interesting people like Drew and I get paid for it.
Thank you to Seagate for sponsoring my show, which enables me to do stuff like this (congrats on reporting good financial results, too).
I’ll bet a lot of people at Microsoft watch this video…
Oh, this guy is damn smart. We talk about everything from Eclipse to Nuclear Power and a bunch of things in between.
Robert, I really liked your idea of walmart execs being able to monitor the aisles using mashups. I can see silicon valley thriving for a long time to come. Technology is alive and well
Robert, I really liked your idea of walmart execs being able to monitor the aisles using mashups. I can see silicon valley thriving for a long time to come. Technology is alive and well
Out of curiousity, how are you defining “World’s Largest Software Company”?
Is IBM the world’s largest software company or just the largest company that has a division that produces commercial software?
By what measure?
Number of total employees?
Total sales of software they develop in house?
By unit? By commercial value? Retail only? Counting “funny money” transactions used to close hardware and consulting sales? Are you counting the value of consulting contracts as software sales?
I’m really curious how you’re measuring it since Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and many other conglomerates sell software they develop. How does IBM compare to them?
Some facts would be really nice rather than just hyperbole.
Out of curiousity, how are you defining “World’s Largest Software Company”?
Is IBM the world’s largest software company or just the largest company that has a division that produces commercial software?
By what measure?
Number of total employees?
Total sales of software they develop in house?
By unit? By commercial value? Retail only? Counting “funny money” transactions used to close hardware and consulting sales? Are you counting the value of consulting contracts as software sales?
I’m really curious how you’re measuring it since Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and many other conglomerates sell software they develop. How does IBM compare to them?
Some facts would be really nice rather than just hyperbole.
IBM did $4.8b in software *revenues* while MSFT did $3b in *profits* (on $13.4b in revenues).
IBM did $4.8b in software *revenues* while MSFT did $3b in *profits* (on $13.4b in revenues).
Nice discussion. Always interesting to hear the Enterprise view on Web 2.0 – when i spoke with some enterprise companies about some of this stuff a while back they had a *totally* different view from most of us in the Web 2.0 world.
AlphaWorks is very cool – haven’t checked that for a while but after Drew’s mention of it i checked it out again. Will need to go back more often!
The emerging markets, culture etc stuff is interesting – like to hear more on that…
Nice discussion. Always interesting to hear the Enterprise view on Web 2.0 – when i spoke with some enterprise companies about some of this stuff a while back they had a *totally* different view from most of us in the Web 2.0 world.
AlphaWorks is very cool – haven’t checked that for a while but after Drew’s mention of it i checked it out again. Will need to go back more often!
The emerging markets, culture etc stuff is interesting – like to hear more on that…
Biggest as in “ego” ? Or biggest as in “willingness to burn bridges to ensure OpenXML doesn’t get a yes vote at ISO” ? Maybe it’s “biggest mistakes made in software history” or “biggest workforce”. Biggest brand ? Hint: some detail would be good :^)
Personally I think somebody in your position needs to be a little more careful than others when it comes to throwing around the hyperbole. Once you get to the top of the stack you’re held to a higher standard and you should deliver it or step down.
Biggest as in “ego” ? Or biggest as in “willingness to burn bridges to ensure OpenXML doesn’t get a yes vote at ISO” ? Maybe it’s “biggest mistakes made in software history” or “biggest workforce”. Biggest brand ? Hint: some detail would be good :^)
Personally I think somebody in your position needs to be a little more careful than others when it comes to throwing around the hyperbole. Once you get to the top of the stack you’re held to a higher standard and you should deliver it or step down.
Mike, it’s just Scoble saying the first thing that comes to mind. You get used to it after a while
Mike, it’s just Scoble saying the first thing that comes to mind. You get used to it after a while
I can’t watch this video from work, but you bet I will watch it when I get back from Montreal.
Did you talk to him about Metronome?
http://www.research.ibm.com/
Open up IBM with a tour of the research lab like you did with Singularity at Microsoft. Singularity may have been a pointless project, but at least we got to see what they were working on.
Ask him if he can use his access pass to get you backstage over there at the Research facility with your camcorder.
I can’t watch this video from work, but you bet I will watch it when I get back from Montreal.
Did you talk to him about Metronome?
http://www.research.ibm.com/
Open up IBM with a tour of the research lab like you did with Singularity at Microsoft. Singularity may have been a pointless project, but at least we got to see what they were working on.
Ask him if he can use his access pass to get you backstage over there at the Research facility with your camcorder.
“By what measure?
Number of total employees?”
All you have to do is compare public fiscal reports to see that IBM is much larger than Microsoft.
We do the exact same thing as IBM and work with some of their customers. Though we charge a LOT less money than IBM does and provide roughly the same quality in North America.
I look up to IBM because they are much better at making money the right way, unlike Microsoft.
“By what measure?
Number of total employees?”
All you have to do is compare public fiscal reports to see that IBM is much larger than Microsoft.
We do the exact same thing as IBM and work with some of their customers. Though we charge a LOT less money than IBM does and provide roughly the same quality in North America.
I look up to IBM because they are much better at making money the right way, unlike Microsoft.
We do the exact same thing as IBM and work with some of their customers. Though we charge a LOT less money than IBM does and provide roughly the same quality in North America.
I look up to IBM because they are much better at making money the right way, unlike Microsoft.
Comment by Chris — July 21, 2007 @ 4:19 am
Interesting, defending the IBM white coats?,and they know how to make money the right way? what company do you work for so at least I have an idea what moral high ground you think big buisness works from.
We do the exact same thing as IBM and work with some of their customers. Though we charge a LOT less money than IBM does and provide roughly the same quality in North America.
I look up to IBM because they are much better at making money the right way, unlike Microsoft.
Comment by Chris — July 21, 2007 @ 4:19 am
Interesting, defending the IBM white coats?,and they know how to make money the right way? what company do you work for so at least I have an idea what moral high ground you think big buisness works from.
“Interesting, defending the IBM white coats?”
Those IBM white coats gave us more free AS IN FREEDOM stuff, than Microsoft, borland, Adobe, and most other software companies combined.
http://www.fsf.org/free-software-award-2006
IBM’s Ted Ts’o won this year’s FSF grand award for Free software for kernel devlopment.
http://ws.apache.org/
See all these apache web services, including Tomcat?
Guess where they came from?
IBM.
Tomcat is basically a community edition of websphere.
But they also have a free version of websphere branded as well.
Eclipse is a fully featured GUI development environment for Linux, all contributed by IBM, all for free.
http://www.research.ibm.com/WearableComputing/linuxwatch/linuxwatch.html
IBM has done some of the most ground breaking work in the last 8 years as far as free software. Here their research labs put Linux into a wrist watch with bluetooth. And this was back in 2000.
IBM sells software accounts, like us, where they use Free Software to provide business solutions to problems. To me that’s selling software legitimately. Selling millions of copies of buggy software at a sick price when it took you pennies on the dollar to create it based on market bullying is not my idea of legitimate.
IBM makes a lot of money, but they work honestly for it.
“Interesting, defending the IBM white coats?”
Those IBM white coats gave us more free AS IN FREEDOM stuff, than Microsoft, borland, Adobe, and most other software companies combined.
http://www.fsf.org/free-software-award-2006
IBM’s Ted Ts’o won this year’s FSF grand award for Free software for kernel devlopment.
http://ws.apache.org/
See all these apache web services, including Tomcat?
Guess where they came from?
IBM.
Tomcat is basically a community edition of websphere.
But they also have a free version of websphere branded as well.
Eclipse is a fully featured GUI development environment for Linux, all contributed by IBM, all for free.
http://www.research.ibm.com/WearableComputing/linuxwatch/linuxwatch.html
IBM has done some of the most ground breaking work in the last 8 years as far as free software. Here their research labs put Linux into a wrist watch with bluetooth. And this was back in 2000.
IBM sells software accounts, like us, where they use Free Software to provide business solutions to problems. To me that’s selling software legitimately. Selling millions of copies of buggy software at a sick price when it took you pennies on the dollar to create it based on market bullying is not my idea of legitimate.
IBM makes a lot of money, but they work honestly for it.
Color me impressed that anyone that high up at IBM spoke with you.
I can understand a lot of Valley companies desperate for publicity, but, a main-stream, old-world company like IBM; that’s cool stuff.
Color me impressed that anyone that high up at IBM spoke with you.
I can understand a lot of Valley companies desperate for publicity, but, a main-stream, old-world company like IBM; that’s cool stuff.
nice post
seems ibm is growing daybyday.
all people thinks that microsoft is the biggest but u revealed the proof,, its ibm.
http://www.techrythm.com
nice post
seems ibm is growing daybyday.
all people thinks that microsoft is the biggest but u revealed the proof,, its ibm.
http://www.techrythm.com
There is absolutely no way that IBM is a bigger software company than Microsoft. IBM, by revenue, by employees, by almost every metric is a larger company, but not a larger *software* company. IBM is not a software company; IBM is no longer a hardware company either with their sale to Lenovo.
IBM is a services company. IBM Global Services (or IGS in the industry) is huge. It’s a big beast. It makes Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) look like a chihuahua to their saint bernard.
IBM made this switch in focus in the late 90′s and has since never looked back. They don’t want to compete with Dell, Gateway, etc to build PCs anymore, and they certainly don’t care too much about their enterprise software, except as a channel to get more consulting services.
Full disclosure: I work for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
There is absolutely no way that IBM is a bigger software company than Microsoft. IBM, by revenue, by employees, by almost every metric is a larger company, but not a larger *software* company. IBM is not a software company; IBM is no longer a hardware company either with their sale to Lenovo.
IBM is a services company. IBM Global Services (or IGS in the industry) is huge. It’s a big beast. It makes Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS) look like a chihuahua to their saint bernard.
IBM made this switch in focus in the late 90′s and has since never looked back. They don’t want to compete with Dell, Gateway, etc to build PCs anymore, and they certainly don’t care too much about their enterprise software, except as a channel to get more consulting services.
Full disclosure: I work for a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
“Color me impressed that anyone that high up at IBM spoke with you.”
If he keeps going like this, his blog would be *MUCH* better, and way more credible. He needs to stop posting BS and start interviewing more people at IBM, Sun, Cannonical and even the FSF.
These people have real value.
“Color me impressed that anyone that high up at IBM spoke with you.”
If he keeps going like this, his blog would be *MUCH* better, and way more credible. He needs to stop posting BS and start interviewing more people at IBM, Sun, Cannonical and even the FSF.
These people have real value.
-All you have to do is compare public fiscal reports to see that IBM is much larger than Microsoft.
http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2006/cfs_earnings.shtml
18billion isnt even close to Microsoft , so sure they got a 5time larger headcount but software revenue isnt even close
-All you have to do is compare public fiscal reports to see that IBM is much larger than Microsoft.
http://www.ibm.com/annualreport/2006/cfs_earnings.shtml
18billion isnt even close to Microsoft , so sure they got a 5time larger headcount but software revenue isnt even close
“You just gave me a great idea, I’m going to go introduce Twitter to the retail guys”
This is a good example of someone being swept up in Twitter-hype IMO. What does Twitter add here that didn’t already exist? Why not just have the retail system update an RSS feed, or send out IM’s or text messages? Why would a company want to send their data through Twitter?
“You just gave me a great idea, I’m going to go introduce Twitter to the retail guys”
This is a good example of someone being swept up in Twitter-hype IMO. What does Twitter add here that didn’t already exist? Why not just have the retail system update an RSS feed, or send out IM’s or text messages? Why would a company want to send their data through Twitter?
Robert, it would be interesting if you could let us give you potential questions to the people you interview before you actually interview them. Andy, from Marketing Pilgrim, does that before doing is Podcast. It would be another level of interaction adding the value of answering what people want to hear.
Robert, it would be interesting if you could let us give you potential questions to the people you interview before you actually interview them. Andy, from Marketing Pilgrim, does that before doing is Podcast. It would be another level of interaction adding the value of answering what people want to hear.
IBMs _software business_ is way smaller than microsoft, in terms of revenue and profit.
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201200275
IBMs _software business_ is way smaller than microsoft, in terms of revenue and profit.
http://www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201200275
And as far as the market is concerned IBM has a 1/3 the market cap, even apple has a bigger market cap than IBM
And as far as the market is concerned IBM has a 1/3 the market cap, even apple has a bigger market cap than IBM
[...] Talking to one of IBM’s top strategists | Robert Scoble The world’s biggest software company. No, it’s not Microsoft. It’s still IBM. [...]
Mauricio: I’ll try to do that more in the future. You can always ask questions here, I’ll have Drew answer them.
Mauricio: I’ll try to do that more in the future. You can always ask questions here, I’ll have Drew answer them.
I should have said “world’s biggest technology company.” IBM has 400,000 employees. Microsoft has 65,000 or so.
I should have said “world’s biggest technology company.” IBM has 400,000 employees. Microsoft has 65,000 or so.
Brian: >What does Twitter add here that didn’t already exist?
A combined Web/RSS/SMS stream that’s already built for you. Plus one that has a robust identity system and a good API and an ecosystem of apps and search engines built on top of it.
You sound like a Microsoft engineer: “I could build me one of those in a week.” Sigh.
Brian: >What does Twitter add here that didn’t already exist?
A combined Web/RSS/SMS stream that’s already built for you. Plus one that has a robust identity system and a good API and an ecosystem of apps and search engines built on top of it.
You sound like a Microsoft engineer: “I could build me one of those in a week.” Sigh.
[...] really liked Scoble’s interview of Drew Clark who heads IBM’s venture intitiatives. Interesting to hear the enterprise opinion on take on [...]
“I have the best job in the world. I get to have conversations with interesting people like Drew and I get paid for it.”
It’s just too bad you haven’t found a methodology to connect all of those readers to the interviewers. Imagine the collaboration value that could be created.
“I have the best job in the world. I get to have conversations with interesting people like Drew and I get paid for it.”
It’s just too bad you haven’t found a methodology to connect all of those readers to the interviewers. Imagine the collaboration value that could be created.
While I can always do more it is disingenuous to say there is no connection made here. The methodology is you ask a question here and I will get it answered.
While I can always do more it is disingenuous to say there is no connection made here. The methodology is you ask a question here and I will get it answered.