Who remembers John Akers? Who remembers Lou Gerstner? Who remembers when IBM nearly failed?

Larry Hirst, chairman of IBM Europe certainly does. He was an assistant to Akers in the early 1990s when IBM, bloated, bureaucratic and ossified came close to collapse (http://www.truthinmedia.org/Bulletins/ibm-corporate/93-07.htm ). Hirst survived into the reign of Gerstner (http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-828095.html ) who arrived to head the company in April 1993. Before he arrived the belief was that IBM’s core mainframe business was headed for obsolescence and the company should be split. Wall Street rubbed its hands in anticipation.

Gerstner saw the problem was not the lack of vision but the lack of cash flow. From experience – as a customer rather than technologist – he saw the need for large IT integrators. By his focus on IT services business, and later, open systems and the Internet, IBM regained its status and culture.

Now, under the regime of Sam Palmisano (http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/biography/10055.wss), Hirst is a keen ambassador for the Global Delivery Centers (GDCs) that IBM has created around the world.

“Sam is the man”, said Hirst at the 2008 Analyst Insights event in Bucharest. An understandable statement as Palmisano was a key figure in creating IBM Global Services.

GDCs are now operating in China, Philippines, Vietnam, India, Egypt, Brazil, Argentina and Romania. IBM describes them as available “to provide clients worldwide with business consulting and application services”. They are, of course, located in areas where IBM foresees potential but, more importantly, they are a way of leveraging the lower cost base in each of these developing countries.

Some see the GDCs as IBM’s answer to outsourcing. In other words, the only way to beat them is to join them. IBM sees it differently. The announcement about the opening of the GDC in Pune, India said, “Due to the vast presence of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and automotive industry expertise in Pune, the new center serves as a strategic location for IBM’s global and local automotive clients. …IBM offers clients a wide range of services that cover key areas such as product lifecycle management, manufacturing productivity, business consulting, human capital management, financial services, technology services, and solutions for small and midsize automotive manufacturers”.

Those who see in the present financial crisis and recession the decline of capitalism and globalisation are mistaken. Capitalism has survived worst downturns and globalisation has scarcely begun. Interconnected finance, ease of transportation, global threats requiring global solutions and the blossoming Web ensure globalisation for a generation at least. Whether the West will be the driving force behind it is less certain.

From its very earliest days IBM has carried the ‘I’ of its name with significance. The international dimension has always been important so that the GDCs can be seen as the very latest development of a characteristic deep in the corporate DNA.

How will the GDCs develop? Hmm. Suffice to say that when this observer heard that Shanghai was to be worldwide base for IBM outside the US and Europe, analogy with the Roman Empire immediately sprang to mind. After Rome fell in the 5th century, the Empire survived for almost a thousand years with its capital in Constantinople.