IBM Consulting

The best way to open and close a party!

The Challenge

In May 2024, IBM Consulting – a business that accounts for half of IBM’s revenues – hosted one of its biggest ever events for partners.

Nearly 3,000 senior partners came together to talk about the future, in a world soon to be transformed by the cloud and generative AI.

IBM Consulting turned to The Team and asked us to develop a theme for their Growth Conference, and find a way to open and close the event with a powerful message.

With massive transformation on the horizon, we developed the theme ‘It’s time’. The multiple ways of using the message to underline time for growth; for change; for one IBM; for artificial intelligence was perfect for the client.

The Solution

But how to open the conference? Who might do it?

IBM has been at the forefront of transformational change in the past. In the 1950s through to the early 1980s, Tom Watson Jr – their formidable CEO – was revered for the ways in which he galvanised the team with big messages and a foresight that was prophetic. Even today, you’ll find footage of him talking about how computers would eventually “reduce the requirement for drudgerous, repetitive, non-creative thinking.” He could have been talking about generative AI today.

So, with the help of the amazing IBM archivists, we went through a catalogue of audio and film footage of Tom Watson Jr speeches to pull together a voiceover from the past that could easily be about the change we face here and now.

Great! “So, how do we close it,” IBM asked.

The Close

The close to the conference presented another challenge.

Often the idea is staring agencies and clients in the face.

In 1997, IBM’s early experimentation with machine learning saw Deep Blue beat Kasparov at chess. Today, that machine learning lives on in WatsonX.

And so our solution was simple. If Thomas Watson Jr’s voice from the past was going to open the event, then WatsonX must be the voice of the future.

So we asked IBM’s Consulting Advantage (powered by Watson X) to write us a film script: a call to action for what IBM Consultants should do in the future. The output, with a little human help (after all, ai is a tool!) was brilliant.

And to deliver this piece we turned to the voices of the future, and the voices of now. We brought children, graduates and seasoned IBMers into the studio and asked them to deliver the script. The result was a perfect counter-balance to Thomas Watson Jr.’s voice from the past.

The Response

Your films have been sent to the complete Executive Leadership Team at IBM, the Chairman and all his direct reports, including the CMO. Your team rock!

Stephen Kelly, CHRO, IBM Consulting

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