According to reports, in the background of economic uncertainty, technology giants set off a massive wave of layoffs. But a few days ago, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna made an optimistic statement about the industry.
Arvind Krishna attended an event hosted by the “Economic Club of New York”. He said in his speech that although there is a “catastrophic recession” in the United States, but corporate spending on technology should continue to grow.
Arvind Krishna said he spoke with corporate CEOs and CIOs around the world and found that no company is discussing cutting spending on technology purchases.
But Arvind Krishna also raised a key factor worth noting, that is, whether the Western European region can survive the massive energy crisis this year.
In the U.S. capital markets this year, technology stocks have plunged massively, but IBM stock has been a “safe haven” in the storm. IBM closed Wednesday up 8.1 percent compared to New Year’s Day, while the tech-dominated Nasdaq 100 plunged 28 percent over the same period.
IBM recently released its third-quarter earnings report, which beat Wall Street analysts estimates for operating income, and the company also reaffirmed its outlook for free cash flow metrics this year.
Recently, the U.S. technology giants have been making massive layoffs, including e-commerce giant Amazon and social media giant Meta, among others.
Arvind Krishna said IBM has not frozen hiring like other technology peers and is continuing to recruit new employees, but the pace of workforce growth has slowed slightly compared to last year. Talent recruitment is mainly focused on the ability to bring IBM breakthrough growth in emerging areas.
It is reported that after Arvind Krishna became CEO of IBM, the company began to restructure the business, began to bet on cloud computing business and artificial intelligence, hoping that these emerging areas bring new business growth opportunities. According to statistics, since April 2020, the company has made a total of 25 acquisitions and mergers.
In addition, IBM, headquartered in Armonk, New York, employs 280,000 people worldwide by the end of last year, according to statistics.
On the other hand, as the epidemic eases, many U.S. technology companies are starting to send employees back to work. But Arvind Krishna said that although the number of IBM employees returning to the office is gradually increasing, the company will not issue a mandatory return-to-work order.
Arvind Krishna said that in the United States, IBM employees currently work in the company’s office for about half of all working hours, and he hopes to increase to 60% of level in the future. Also in Europe, IBM employees spend a little more time offline, while in Japan and China, IBM employees spend the vast majority of their time in the office and have returned to normal.
Overall, he said, remote work from home has not affected productivity, but this model can affect the long-term culture of the company.
Arvind Krishna also talked about some of the recent turmoil in the global cryptocurrency market. He said that the sharp drop in cryptocurrency prices and the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency companies, including FTX (a well-known U.S. cryptocurrency exchange), have not affected IBM’s actual business.
Arvind Krishna said that the IBM company, itself is not interested in entering the blockchain or cryptocurrency market, but IBM is also investing in developing other uses related to blockchain technology, such as using blockchain to track and locate products.
