In general, I will stay away from stories like this feature on IBM's new R&D strategy by veteran technology journalist Steve Hamm in today's BusinessWeek because if you're IBM you'll get stories like this and if you're not, you won't. Starting a media strategy session with "First, you need to develop a global 60+ year history as a technology innovator, and once you've done that, then we can..." won't get you very far.
However, Hamm's article is such a great example of how to use a story on a specific company to provide wider lessons about a range of issues, I'm including it anyway.
The strategy is a series of global alliances to develop R&D jointly with universities and labs abroad - a stunning turn from IBM's go-it-alone history.
The lessons:
1) Technology R&D is going global. Sun Microsystems had major programming centers in Russia and India. IBM is going with joint ventures. The lesson: knowledge and talent are no longer concentrated in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.
2) The oil-rich Arab nations are investing heavily in education as they get nervous about a future where the oil doesn't count for as much.
3) You can work with the Chinese without ending up looking like Robert Shaw at the end of The Sting and what's more, you have to if you want to compete either for their talent or for their markets.
4) The devil in the details will be intellectual property.
This article is a must-read for anyone pitching thought leadership on offshoring, global trade, R&D, technology, immigration and a host of other issues.
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