IBM World Development Initiative

The increasingly global, networked economy of the 21st century is unleashing new economic opportunities, spawning new kinds of institutions and offering hope to many more of the world’s people. But achieving this potential and extending it broadly will take more than technology, or enhanced productivity, or higher profit margins.

It calls for innovation that runs much deeper: new workforce models, new management systems and new curricula, along with progressive policy regimes and political cultures. It demands new kinds of engagement with a wide diversity of stakeholders. Most challenging of all, we will need to begin the difficult journey toward shared values. Taken together, this amounts to a new model of global citizenship among individuals, organizations and society at large.

In a globally integrated enterprise, all firms, large or small, have much easier access to global markets, global resources, and global partners. Today the globally integrated model creates enormous opportunities for IBM and others to do more with business and to create a tremendous impact by changing things for the better: to tackle some of society’s toughest challenges… and redefine corporate citizenship.

IBM’s World Development Initiative (WDI) is a leadership initiative with a mission to:

"Leverage IBM's leadership to develop innovative and commercially viable technology solutions that can improve the lives of the world's poor."

The focus is on generating profitable revenue with self-sustaining operations and a return to shareholders, as well as developing IBM’s next-generation leaders, to ensure IBM’s relevance and access to traditional, emerging, and nascent markets amidst shifting global dynamics.

WDI projects include:

• Mobile cellular - Developing various systems and technologies that leverage voice technology and mobile phones to increase the coverage of various services to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) population. Application areas are extensive and include mobile accessed financial services, mobile accessed trading portals, mobile phone created and accessed hosted voice sites for entrepreneurs or village information kiosks or linked together into a voice version of the Internet.
• Energy - Assisting BoP governments and private energy firms in using and merging together grid effective solar, wind, hydro, and thermal technologies to create low cost energy into rural areas.
• Identity - Creating low cost systems for creating and managing the identities of individuals so that the BoP population can join the formal economy; gaining access to financial services, health programs, land/property, insurance, and aid.
• Micro-Financing - Build consulting expertise around helping large companies downscale some aspect of their business into a very small self-contained bundled business (hardware, software, services, business & operational processes, training) that could be sold or leased to a BoP entrepreneur to run much like a franchise. This could be done for a very small bank branch, medical clinic, very small manufacturing plant, insurance agency, retail store, etc.
• Government - Create systems for government agencies and independent oversight organizations that assist with the verification of valid businesses and the enforcement of regulations.
• Meso-Financing - Complement the work being done by thousands of micro-lending institutions who are handing out very small loans to individuals by assisting larger financial institutions in creating small bank systems to meet the demand for the next tier of slightly larger lending opportunities that arise as these individuals become successful and wish to grow the business.
• Accessibility - Leverage IBM's leadership in accessibility technology and training to assist the population within the BOP with disabilities and possibly leverage some of the symbols, voice, and touch technologies for other general applications.
• Micro-Financing - Build consulting expertise around helping large companies downscale some aspect of their business into a very small self-contained bundled business (hardware, software, services, business & operational processes, training) that could be sold or leased to a BoP entrepreneur to run much like a franchise.

It is exciting times for Asia Pacific as a geography of growth markets – right at the heart of IBM's strategic decision to be a globally integrated enterprise – working with clients locally and globally using the best combinations of talent, business insight and technology. Growth markets have economies and IT markets growing at breakneck speed, with clients who are building out infrastructures and creating unique business models that address scarce resources and rapid business expansion.

To focus and invest aggressively in high growth markets, IBM has announced, operational by 1st July 2008, a Growth Markets unit, headquartered in Shanghai, China and made up of Asia Pacific, Latin America and a new unit to be created that will be called REMA, consisting of Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

For more information, or if you would prefer to discuss WDI, please contact:
Barry Pipella
IBM Global Technology Services
VP Sector & Sales
e: barrypip@au1.ibm.com
t: +61 (0)3 9626 6970

*As a business, IBM delivers innovation that matters for our clients. As a global enterprise, we value innovation that matters for our company and for the world. IBM's corporate citizenship reflects both our brand and our values by addressing some of society's most complex problems with game-changing business and technology innovation. http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/