Amparo Moraleda: Application of New Technologies in Business and Talent Management

President of IBM Spain and Portugal.

Madrid (Thursday, February 26, 2004) – Amparo Moraleda attended the Forum Generación del 78 as a special guest to delve into and discuss the current situation of technology companies and the organizational changes they have to face to compete in the current global context.

Amparo Moraleda began her presentation by discussing how the evolution of technology has fulfilled Moore’s Law. Over a quarter of a century ago, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on a given piece of silicon doubled every 18 months. This observation, known as “Moore’s Law,” describes exponential growth in transistor density, resulting in higher performance and lower cost. This makes the technology market very fast, competitive, and ever-changing.

IBM has undergone multiple transformations to adapt to market changes. Amparo Moraleda explained that IBM had to adapt to these changes as quickly as possible to maintain its position as a global leader. She cited the example of the decision made a few years ago to move a significant portion of the assembly factories for some of its products to Asian countries. This was necessary to reduce costs and focus more intensively on the research and development of those products. Nowadays, countries compete in a global market to attract international investment, aiming to offer better conditions to establish companies on their territory.

IBM was the first company to coin the term (now widely used) “e-business” to define the profound influence that the development of the Internet and new information technologies would have on companies. This strategic vision has evolved into a new concept, also introduced pioneeringly by IBM, called “on demand.” This concept reflects the need for companies today to transform and acquire a high level of versatility and flexibility, allowing them to adapt and react to changing market demands.

Within this context, the growth of outsourcing services in the market and at IBM is noteworthy. This allows companies to outsource non-core tasks to strategic partners, meaning tasks that are not essential to their activity and differentiation. For example, processes that do not belong to their core business. This is what IBM itself has done with the outsourcing of assembly of the components of the personal computers it sells.

In IBM’s continuous evolution, the company has ventured into new business areas because it realized that it couldn’t only produce technological devices; it needed to enter areas with higher added value. Therefore, the main source of income for IBM now comes from services.

Amparo Moraleda stated that today, for companies to remain leaders, they must redefine themselves and focus on activities that provide exclusive added value. In the field of information technology, obtaining this differentiation solely in hardware manufacturing is no longer feasible.

Hence, in view of the new competitive environment and the development of the knowledge society, IBM acquired the consulting division of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2002. With this acquisition, which formed the unit IBM Business Consulting Services (the world’s largest business consultancy), the company reinforced its ability to operate in the services market. This expansion broadened the company’s knowledge of clients’ business needs, resulting in significant changes and new business opportunities.

Previously, the debate about applying technology to organizations was about how technology could help do the same things more efficiently. Today, the key lies in using technology to deeply innovate in processes and business models, essentially creating “new ways of doing things.”

During the question and debate session, various topics were discussed:

• The actions of the Government to promote the information society were debated.
• Moraleda’s and IBM’s vision regarding new technologies that enable mobility were discussed.
• Amparo Moraleda spoke about her own professional career. She shared her experience in France, where she worked in the Human Resources Directorate of IBM Global Services in EMEA, and her experience as Deputy Executive to Louis Gerstner, Worldwide President of IBM Corporation between 1993 and 2002. She encouraged the young people present to seize opportunities and strive to achieve their own goals and objectives.