Describes the background and progress of IBM's Corporate Innovation program and ThinkPlace platform, for which I led Technical Strategy and product roadmap. Deck contains Information and background shared with customers and analysts circa 4Q 2008. (so obviously very out of date now - but a good representation of our thoughts etc at that point in time)

1. Innovation That Matters
IBM’s ThinkPlace Program
Fall 2008
© 2008 IBM Corporation

2. Innovation That Matters
IBM is an Innovation Company
Open, collaborative, global, multi-disciplinary
Combine products, technology, know-how to create
systemic value for clients and for the world
“Innovation occurs at the intersection of
invention and insight. It’s about the application
of invention – the fusion of new developments
and new approaches to solve problems.”
– Sam Palmisano
Innovation is what is going to differentiate businesses and national economies
2 © 2008 IBM Corporation

3. Innovation That Matters
CEOs: Top sources of new ideas and innovation
Collaboration drives innovation
Employees
Business partners
Customers directly
Consultants
Competitors
Associations
Internal Sales & Service Units
Internal R&D
Academia
Think-tanks
Labs and/or other institutions
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%
IBM Institute for Business Value, CEO Study 2006
3 © 2008 IBM Corporation

4. Innovation That Matters
IBM Innovation Management
Moving ideas to reality
Incubate,
Mobilize Interest, Implement,
Ideation Prototype and
Collaborate Take to Market
Validate
Pipeline of ideas
Innovation is not always linear
4 © 2008 IBM Corporation

5. Innovation That Matters
IBM Innovation Programs
Incubate,
Mobilize Interest, Implement,
Ideation Prototype and
Collaborate Take to Market
Validate
Software Group
Global
Technology Systems Group
Outlook First-Of-A-Kind
Global Services
Communities of practice
Industry Sales
Business Transformation
Technology Adoption Program Management System
(BTMS)
Integrated Supply
Chain (ISC)
5 © 2008 IBM Corporation

6. Innovation That Matters
Innovation “lifecycle” has many steps
6 © 2008 IBM Corporation

7. Innovation That Matters
ThinkPlace: 24x7 Idea Marketplace
Open, collaborative system: ideas submitted,
discussed, then refined by community
Every employee can see ideas from others, comment
on ideas, rate them, or tag them
Facilitates social networking by using tags to
enable discovery of similar ideas or people with
similar interests
APIs allow developers to create tools that provide
entitled access to different views of information in
ThinkPlace.
Executive Challenges request ideas to
address specific issues
Hundreds of Catalysts worldwide
facilitate collaboration and implementation in their
areas of expertise
Innovator’s Awards for implemented ideas
7 © 2008 IBM Corporation

8. Innovation That Matters
ThinkPlace Momentum
Over 18,000 ideas an 500 “wins”
Participation
– Half of the IBM population
– 18,000+ ideas
Collaboration
– Community-focused activities drive adoption of ideas
– More than 1000 IBMers are “Innovation Catalysts” who help idea
submitters make the connections across the IBM company to get their
ideas implemented
– “Leader board” feature on ThinkPlace homepage allows users to quickly
see which ideas need collaboration from IBM colleagues
– “Tagging” capability to find ideas of interest
Wins
– More than 500 “wins” since program inception in 2005; leading to the
recognition of hundreds of IBM employees as “innovators” and millions in
cost and productivity impact
8 © 2008 IBM Corporation

9. Innovation That Matters
Innovation Catalysts shepherd ideas to implementation
Mission:
Identify opportunities for innovation on behalf of defined communities and groups
Review idea submissions and advance applicable ideas for management review
Evangelize IBM’s strategic approach to innovation
Provide feedback to project teams
How does it work?
Any regular IBM employee can become an Innovation Catalyst
Sign up via the Catalyst wiki (using internal wiki platform)
Participate in weekly calls to find resources and discuss techniques for being an
effective catalyst; receiving mentoring from an experienced Catalyst
Participate in new Catalyst Reputation System – earn “points” for taking specific
actions such as bringing ideas to closure or helping other catalysts.
“Cash in” points at a review meeting with ThinkPlace project team. Note: actions and
point totals awarded were set by the Catalyst community as a whole.
9 © 2008 IBM Corporation

10. Innovation That Matters
Innovation Catalyst success stories
Master Catalysts
Master Catalysts
• Actively search ThinkPlace
• Actively search ThinkPlace
for new ideas
for new ideas
• Promote a ThinkPlace idea
• Promote a ThinkPlace idea
through to implementation
through to implementation
• Complete a successful “Win”
• Complete a successful “Win”
review process with the
review process with the
ThinkPlace Program Office
ThinkPlace Program Office
which in turn makes
which in turn makes
recommendations to
recommendations to
management for awards
management for awards
Distinguished Catalysts
Distinguished Catalysts
• Be a Master Catalyst
• Be a Master Catalyst
• Drive implementation of
• Drive implementation of
ideas that exceeded $1M in
ideas that exceeded $1M in
business impact
business impact
• Can receive awards up to
• Can receive awards up to
$10,000
$10,000
• About 6 Distinguished
• About 6 Distinguished
Catalysts in IBM
Catalysts in IBM
10 © 2008 IBM Corporation

11. Innovation That Matters
Executive Challenges
Purpose and results:
Used as a means for “seeding” idea generation by
focusing attention on the key issues of interest to an
Executive.
20 challenges generated nearly 1000 new ideas in 2007
Best Practices:
Challenge topic is specific and focused; target audience
is clearly defined.
Executive either assigns individual(s) within organization
or works with an Innovation Catalyst to follow up on ideas
generated by the challenge.
Challenges can be posted on ThinkPlace with linkage
from corresponding business unit / organization Web site.
– Strong communications support = a successful
challenge
Executive’s team “closes out” ideas after challenge event
is complete and implements high impact “wins”; could
fund a BizTech project or FOAK project or take some
other specific action that implements top idea(s).
11 © 2008 IBM Corporation

12. Innovation That Matters
ThinkPlace Ideas #71108:
Sales Prospecting w/Connections Tool (July 2008)
Description: Increase both revenue opportunities and productivity by using a
"cookbook" method describing how Lotus Connections social software can
dramatically improve the sales follow-up process.
Impact: Executive Challenge
Revenue impact from better lead follow up
Productivity savings from more efficient process
Submitter:
Jeannette Browning (S&D, Dallas)
Collaborators:
David Leip (ibm.com, Somers)
Luis Suarez (GTS, Netherlands)
Martha Mealy (SWG, Beaverton)
Lisa McMath (S&D, Atlanta)
Jay Crawford (S&D, RTP)
Gerard Clancy (S&D, Ireland)
Pam Coyne (S&D, Atlanta)
12 © 2008 IBM Corporation

13. Innovation That Matters
ThinkPlace Idea #49458:
Reduction/elimination of administrative-related bottlenecks
Opportunity: On-boarding of new employees, interns, and co-ops
requires managers to fill out multiple overlapping forms and can take
up to 6 weeks (half the time of a summer co-op). Idea submitted
Solution: Wrangle all stakeholders to merge all on-boarding in response to
an executive
processes, use 1 form for managers, and complete all on-boarding
challenge
within 1 week.
Impact: Big productivity savings for managers from pilot on first 25
new employees on-boarded. Will be rolled out as official on-boarding
process for all of IDS. IDS team also working to encourage larger
spread across other parts of IBM.
Note: idea was submitted in response to Jerry Keesee’s “time buster”
radical simplification Executive Challenge in February 2007
Submitter: Carla Wilcox/Las Vegas/IBM (SWG)
Catalyst: Nicholas Geib/Lenexa/IBM (SWG/IDS)
Implementer: Mukta Singh/Lenexa/IBM (SWG/IDS)
13 © 2008 IBM Corporation

14. Innovation That Matters
We “package” our “best” sites to create a “brand”
around best practices that we can replicate
Ireland: 109 wins
Fishkill: 43 wins
Key sites have an end-to-end
culture of innovation
complements the ThinkPlace
tool
Result is “serial innovation”
Mexico: 17 wins
Compile best practices from
Ireland site and officially
designate Ireland as first
ThinkPlace “Innovation Hub”
Communicate “Innovation
Hub” program widely, to
encourage adoption
14 © 2008 IBM Corporation

15. Innovation That Matters
Transforming ThinkPlace into the next generation
collaborative experience
Highlighting
meaningful content
(better visibility for
popular ideas and
executive
challenges)
Leveraging social
network data to
highlight actions of
people we know
Celebrating
employees and
their ideas
15 © 2008 IBM Corporation

16. Innovation That Matters
Putting employees’ networks to work
Using social network data, employees
discover “interesting ideas” in ThinkPlace --
ideas being worked on by people they know.
16 © 2008 IBM Corporation

17. Innovation That Matters
17 © 2008 IBM Corporation