Transformations  in
Business & Economics

Business Strategy of Innovative Enterprises - the Case of IBM
Ewa Okon-Horodynska, Rafal Wisla, Tomasz Sierotowicz

ABSTRACT. Unprecedented dynamics of changes in today’s global economy increases the need to anticipate and strategic thinking. Innovations, are seen as an opportunity to sustain the business development and its market success in the long term. Adopting a development based on innovations, however, requires special skills of people in both the creation of innovations (supply), and their absorption (demand) in a continuous manner, which is not quite possible without taking account of innovation in the strategy of managing (and therefore the action) a company. The subject of the article is to demonstrate that considering innovation as a determining pillar of the management strategy in one of the world’s leading corporations as IBM, brings the company the technological and market success from many years. One of its manifestations is the development of R, D & E facilities, enhancement of research and patent activity – considered continuously, which ensures reaching by IBM , the largest number of patents in the USPTO since 1993. To what extent IBM’s activity in the areas of patent and research is interdependent within the IBM Corporation and what does this interdependence consist in? Answering these questions by taking the necessary research, is the main thematic area in this article.

KEYWORDS: innovations, inventions, managing innovation and R&D, patents applications, IBM.

JEL classification: O31, O32, O34, O39.