CORPORATE AFFAIRS

 Diversity and workforce issues

IBM's efforts to promote workforce diversity and equal opportunity date back at least to World War I, when the company hired disabled veterans. IBM was the only technology company ranked in Working Mother magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005 (the other company being Hewlett-Packard).[31][32]

On September 21, 1953, Thomas J. Watson, the CEO at the time, sent out a controversial letter to all IBM employees stating that IBM needed to hire the best people, regardless of their race, ethnic origin, or gender. In 1984, IBM added sexual preference. He stated that this would give IBM a competitive advantage because IBM would then be able to hire talented people its competitors would turn down.[33]

The company has traditionally resisted labor union organizing, although unions represent some IBM workers outside the United States.

In the 1990s, two major pension program changes, including a conversion to a cash balance plan, resulted in an employee class action lawsuit alleging age discrimination. IBM employees won the lawsuit and arrived at a partial settlement, although appeals are still underway. IBM also settled a major overtime class-action lawsuit in 2006.[34]

Historically IBM has had a good reputation of long-term staff retention with few large scale layoffs. In more recent years there have been a number of broad sweeping cuts to the workforce as IBM attempts to adapt to changing market conditions and a declining profit base. After posting weaker than expected revenues in the first quarter of 2005, IBM eliminated 14,500 positions from its workforce, predominantly in Europe. In May 2005, IBM Ireland said to staff that the MD(Micro-electronics Division) facility was closing down by the end of 2005 and offered a settlement to staff. However, all staff that wished to stay with the Company were redeployed within IBM Ireland. The production moved to a company called Amkor in Singapore who purchased IBM's Microelectronics business in Singapore and is widely agreed that IBM promised this Company a full load capacity in return for the purchase of the facility. On June 8, 2005, IBM Canada Ltd. eliminated approximately 700 positions. IBM projects these as part of a strategy to "rebalance" its portfolio of professional skills & businesses. IBM India and other IBM offices in China, the Philippines and Costa Rica have been witnessing a recruitment boom and steady growth in number of employees due to lower wages.

On October 10, 2005, IBM became the first major company in the world to formally commit to not using genetic information in its employment decisions. This came just a few months after IBM announced its support of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project.

 Gay rights

IBM provides same-sex partners of its employees with health benefits and provides an anti-discrimination clause. The Human Rights Campaign has consistently rated IBM 100% on its index of gay-friendliness since 2003 (in 2002, the year it began compiling its report on major companies, IBM scored 86%).[35]

In 2007, IBM UK was ranked #1 in the Stonewall UK annual workplace equality index.[36]

IBM has won over forty gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender awards globally.[37]

As part of IBM's diversity program, there is a GLBT Diversity Network Group, as well as a GLBT employee group (called EAGLE - Employee Alliance for Gay and Lesbian Empowerment) with over 1000 registered members worldwide

 Logos

The logo that was used from 1924 to 1946. The logo is in a form intended to suggest a globe, girdled by the word "International".[38]

The logo that was used from 1947 to 1956. The familiar "globe" was replaced with the simple letters "IBM" in a typeface called "Beton Bold."[39]

The logo that was used from 1956 to 1972. The letters "IBM" took on a more solid, grounded and balanced appearance.[40]

The logo that has been used since 1972. The horizontal stripes now replaced the solid letters to suggest "speed and dynamism."

This logo (in two versions, 8-bar and 13-bar), as well as the previous one, was designed by graphic designer Paul Rand.[41][42]

Logos designed in the 1970s tended to be sensitive to the technical limitations of photocopiers, which were then being widely deployed. A logo with large solid areas tended to be poorly copied by copiers in the 1970s, so companies preferred logos that avoided large solid areas. The 1972 IBM logos are an example of this tendency. With the advent of digital copiers in the mid-1980s this technical restriction had largely disappeared; at roughly the same time, the 13-bar logo was abandoned for almost the opposite reason – it was difficult to render accurately on the low-resolution digital printers (240 dots per inch) of the time.

 Board of directors

Current members of the board of directors of IBM are:

Cathleen Black - President, Hearst Magazines

William Brody - President, Johns Hopkins University

Ken Chenault - Chairman and CEO, American Express Company

Juergen Dormann - Chairman of the Board, ABB Ltd

Ayan Barua - CEO, PIC

Simon Shum Siu-hung - CEO, Lenovo Computer Ltd.

Michael Eskew - Chairman and CEO, United Parcel Service, Inc.

Shirley Ann Jackson - President, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Minoru Makihara - Senior Corporate Advisor and former Chairman, Mitsubishi Corporation

Lucio Noto - Managing Partner, Midstream Partners LLC

James W. Owens - Chairman and CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

Samuel J. Palmisano - Chairman, President and CEO, IBM

Joan Spero - President, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Sidney Taurel - Chairman, Eli Lilly and Company

Lorenzo Zambrano - Chairman and CEO, Cemex SAB de CV

 See also