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IBM Relocates Regional Headquarters to Dubai

DUBAI - Global technology giant IBM has relocated to Dubai the regional headquarters for its business in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

IBM had previously based these operations in Zurich, Switzerland, but said that having its new hub in the UAE would enable it to shift skills and decision-making closer to the heart of an emerging marketplace of 100 countries.

The strategy behind the move was to focus on the developing and under-developed markets “that are very different from established markets in terms of growth and skills,” said Steve Cowley, general manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, known also as the Ceemea region.

“Customers in this territory are very ambitious and look for leading-edge skills. They really want to leap-frog in terms of technology. IBM decided it could no longer do work on a global scale from its US corporate headquarters and cater to their needs and realised it needed a dynamic and flexible organisation to cope with the dynamism of the growth markets. So we set up the Ceemea Growth Market Team in June 2008,” Cowley said.

Aside from the emirate’s advantageous location near the center of all these emerging markets, he said that IBM chose Dubai “because of the city’s ability to attract talented people. It’s a vibrant place to live and work.”

Cowley oversees 15,000 employees across the region, plus another 12,000 employees based in global delivery centres that serve customers around the world. In the overall Ceemea region, IBM plans to invest heavily in building data centres and software development centres. Within GCC countries, it plans further expansion in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

Cowley told Khaleej Times that 18 per cent of IBM’s $100 billion revenue in 2008 came from growth markets that included Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region as well as Ceemea. Together they posted a 10 per cent revenue growth year on year and contributed 60 per cent of IBM’s world’s business growth today. IBM’s growth markets represented 17 per cent of its revenue in the first quarter 2009, he said.

IBM is on track to deliver against its 2010 roadmap of $10 per share, 
Cowley added.

“We have repositioned from a predominantly hardware business to software. While, we continue to divest from hardware, we are keen to bring the most advanced skills by working closely with regional universities.

IBM announced projects in January to advance research through cloud computing – the use of virtual servers — at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University and Texas A&M University at Qatar.


issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com