IBM will mark its centennial with the release of a new business book, “Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company”

The book is written by three award-winning journalists -- Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm and Jeffrey M. O’Brien.

As IBM celebrates its centennial on June 16, 2011, the book chronicles the ways the world has changed over a century in technology, business and the way progress happens, and the role IBM has played in these changes, said a statement.

The lessons of the book for all businesses are powerful: To survive and succeed for a decade – even more for a century – requires the ability to anticipate change and the capacity to continually transform. Over the course of a century, IBM — grounded in a distinctive culture and set of core values — came into being, grew, thrived, nearly died, transformed itself, and is now charting a new path for its second century of innovation, it said.

“The authors uncovered not only a wealth of facts and stories, but a set of powerful ideas. Though never written down, they have informed the company’s history from its birth to the present day.” said Mike Wing, vice president of IBM strategic communications and editor of the book.

IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer Sam Palmisano contributed the book’s foreword. He notes that the decision to go beyond a traditional commemorative publication – to research and produce a book of ideas – was based on the belief that the company’s history contains lessons about business, technology and progress that go far beyond IBM.

Founded in 1911, IBM was shaped by Thomas Watson Sr., whose slogan “Think” still guides the company today. Since Watson’s day, IBM’s breakthroughs and inventions have formed the DNA of the information technology industry. At the same time, IBM also pioneered many dimensions of 20th century business, and enabled many essential systems of the modern world, the statement said.

The book is both a look at IBM’s past and an instructive narrative on how one of the world’s largest companies will operate in the 21st century.

The book will be printed in eight languages and available in an electronic format as an eBook. - TradeArabia News Service