Executive SummaryTabulating Machine Company began in 1896 and changed its named to International BusinessMachine Corporation (commonly known as IBM), in 1924. The firm is a multinationaltechnology and consulting firm that specialized in technological services, developing computers,punch-card data-processing equipment, and contract relationships with government bodies,bomb-sights, rifles, and engine parts.IBM will be positioned as a web-based form of cloud computing and information technology thatrepresent convenient, on-demand network access that share networks, servers, storage,applications, and services with minimal management.IBM will be focused on cloud-computing package developments along with executing in atimely manner with establishing means of obtaining a dominant position in the cloud-computingterritory. It will be packaged as a combination of software and hardware components that providecustomized, cloud based services for each client organization. It will be sold in markets thatwould be the most profitable market segments in the cloud-computing business. The service willbe sold via targeted mailing campaigns, contractual agreements and leading enterprises.The potential market for cloud-computing is very promising. IBM has cloud centers in Wuxi,China, Vietnam, Japan, Brazil, India, Korea, Ireland, Poland, and South Africa. For creating astandard of security and the ability of the component parts of a system to operate successfullytogether IBM offers a certification program as an indication of expertise.The return on stockholder equity increased from 42.60% in 2007 to 80.40% in 2009. In 2009,IBM shares were $10.01 per share and $18.1 billion of pre-taxed earnings. In 2009, IBM had an$800 million dollar increase in free cash flow to $15.1 billion and a net income of $13.4 billion,up 9 percent.Management has strong qualifications and background in global services, operations, IT services,sales, leadership and enterprise and personal groups. The CEO (Sam Palmisano) is a life-longIBMer; having joined the company as a salesman. He is experienced in and held leadershippositions such as a Strategist, Senior Vice President, and Senior Managing Director ofOperations.IBM is going to have different options to offer from the company next door. However, cloudcomputing can help with the IT needs. It is anticipated that there will be a huge upswing in cloudcomputing and IBM can help manage the growth by offering reliable service, plenty of capacity,and you get name brand familiarity. Being aligned with our clients and the emerging cloudcomputing industrys needs will generate better financial outcomes; it drives the happycustomers, companies can see what and how users are doing and make changes, there is nosoftware to install, and there is no need to ship any parts or packages. IBM offers services to helpclients install, configure, and deliver cloud.Mission/Obj. StrategiesIBMs mission is to leverage and venture into new uncharted cloud territory(Rothaermel, 2013), to promote sustainable competitive advantage and establish a dominantposition in the cloud-computing industry. The firm will provide a new platform that will deliverbusiness value by offering transformation of internal operations, customer relationships; enhancevalue propositions while improving productivity. Value proposition consist of products andservices with added features and attributes that will cater to a customer segment. Innovatorssignificantly improve customer value through cloud adoption, resulting in new revenue streamsor even changing their role within an existing industry ecosystem. Disruptors rely on cloud tocreate radically different value propositions, as well as generate new customer needs andsegments and even new industry value chains (Urso, 2012).IBM has several strategies to consider besides venturing into the cloud-computingindustry and gaining a dominant place in the industry, one is to execute in an intelligent andappropriate timeframe. Another strategy to consider is to focus on specific value chain activitiesthat are needed to operate successfully and supply cloud service providers with requiredhardware or become a cloud service provider to organizations that do not want to implementcloud services themselves. Another strategy is to go it alone or forge key partnerships; keypartnerships are created to optimize business models, reduce risk and acquire resources.Partnerships would free IBM from worries, problems, and restrictions, especially those affectingthe firms financial status. In addition, in this manner the firm could from alliance withcompanies like Amazon or Google. Although this would cause IBM to share created value, itcould obtain necessary experienced talent.Fortunately, going it alone would allow IBM to keep the created value, but because ofresources and timeframe issues it is not easy keeping everything in house. Another issue is thetargeted marketplace; in the past IBM had been very successful at the enterprise level, whichwould cause the firm to remain private regarding cloud.IBM had made several previous carelessness mistakes, for example choosing not to buildthe operating system and microprocessor internally, IBM obtained vital components fromMicrosoft and Intel. However, this decision gave Microsoft and Intel exclusive control and fir thefirst time IBM reported one of the firms largest losses. As a result, the operation of IBM did notproduce the desired success in regards to the fast changing external market (Urso, 2012).Urso, D. N. (2012). Enterprise transformation: The IBM journey to Value Services. IBM JournalOf Research & Development, 56(6), 1-11.