IBM's research arm plans to set up local centre

MUMBAI: The research and consultancy division of IBM Global Services — Institute for Business Value (IBV) — may set up a centre in India. Speaking to ET, IBV global research director Daniel Latimore said “We are internally in discussions for setting up a centre, as India along with China are two major emerging centres for banking and financial services globally.

The institute already has a presence in nine countries including the US, Europe and China. IBV essentially provides strategic insights and recommendations that address business challenges across industries including financial services. IBM is one of the largest multinational employers in the country with over 33,000 employees on its rolls.

Mr Latimore referred to the findings of a global CEO survey involving 765 CEOs across the globe including 84 bank CEOs, on how critical innovation is for business growth, which studied parameters like costs, regulatory environment, people skills, and technology.

The sample also involved Indian entities, he said adding that emerging market CEOs including India, were more involved in their firm’s process of innovation and added that those who adopted business model innovation did better than the others.

Speaking on the opportunities for Indian banks, Mr Latimore said one of the greatest advantage for India is that they can leapfrog in technology development and develop a state-of-the-art technology by learning from the mistakes of developing markets.

Mr Latimore said, it studied aspects like development of an innovation agenda, innovation management, collaboration and experimentation with other business partners and customers, and business and technology integration.