IBM senior vice president and chief strategist Bruce Herrald spoke at the Fuqua School of Business Tuesday as part of the distinguished speakers program designed for MBA students. His main focus was on how the information technology industry has evolved over time and how these changes affect the way enterprises function today.
“I think we are at a very important time in [Information Technology] history,” Herrald said, arguing that information technology should be used to create an open atmosphere among corporations. He mentioned that IBM and many other companies are attempting to “liberate” organizations and trying to let information flow freely.
“Forget what it’s called,” he said, highlighting the different phrases various companies use to identify spontaneous access to information. He then defined what IBM means by this “on demand” process: “making an organization that is adaptive as it needs to be, internally and externally.”
Herrald claimed that the target of corporations in the IT industry should include the linkage of business performance and IT and a “more, better, tighter, faster, cheaper integration.” He then argued that standards for IT have not yet been created and that there needs to be criteria for the information flow to be more productive in industries like retail, health care, automotive or banking and insurance.
“We have to make sure that [organizations] are open to free access of all participants,” he said, also emphasizing the importance of outsourcing.
Herrald tracked the development that led to the age of information technology, dividing recent history into five stages: the industrial revolution, the age of steam and railways, the age of steel, electricity and heavy engineering, the era of oil, automobiles and mass production and the current phase of information and technology.
Drawing the attention of most of the MBA students watching his presentation, Herrald told the audience the qualities tomorrow’s leaders have to acquire for success. He encouraged the aspiring business minds in the auditorium to work hard and have “dirty hands”—to love learning, to be adaptive to different working environments and be able to translate strategy into action.
Herrald also expressed his views on what types of companies will prevail in the future. “They have to be industry-specific,” he said, pointing out that they need to fuse business with IT and that they should be open and flexible in order for information to flow freely.
Students were glad they had a chance to hear from such an eminent leader in the business world. “It was a great presentation. It had a very clear historical perspective and explained clearly what impacts the IT industry would have on business,” said Peiman Milani, a first-year student at Fuqua. “But my favorite part was when he listed the traits that a future business leader has to have.”
Patricia Chou, another first-year at Fuqua, had a similar appreciation.
“I thought it was informative,” she said. “I found it interesting to hear about the future of IT from IBM’s perspective—especially as an MBA student. The skills they believe will help us excel as future leaders help me understand which traits I should develop to be a leader in this industry.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.