Accra, June 19, GNA - IBM Ghana employees will visit the SOS Orphanage in Tema to carry out community services as part of activities to mark the 100 years celebration of the company. Additionally, the company will expand its community service grants by

140 per cent over the previous year for not for profit organisations globally that partner with IBM in their service activities. "IBM's inventions are the underpinnings of today's technology indu= stry.

They illustrate how IBM has consistently adapted to remain relevant to the changing needs of the modern world while touching the lives of people in Ghana, said Joe Mensah, IBM Country Manager.

IBM, an Information Technology (IT) solutions firm marked its 100-yea= r anniversary on Thursday June 16, with the release of a book, 93Making the World Work Better: The Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company." The company also debuted a new film 93Wild Ducks." Over the cours= e of its first century, IBM has played a leading role in transforming business, science and society.

The company's history can be seen as a succession of key milestones= =96 from investing in a research lab in the depths of the Great Depression, to developing the first hard disk drive that created the data storage industry= , to working with the US government to develop the Social Security System. It continued with such 93big bets" as a radical new computing mod= el, the System / 360 mainframe, the invention of the UPC code, the invention of the IBM Personal Computer that launched the PC revolution, and the recent development of Watson, the computer that triumphed on the TV game show, Jeopardy.

The Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, Samuel J. Palmisano, identified the key lesson IBM has learnt for more than 100 years. "In order to succeed for the long term, you must manage for the long term.

"For IBMers, long-term thinking means continually moving to the future," he said.

"IBM has survived and thrived for 100 years by remaining true to our core values, while being ready to change everything else.

" This has allowed us to transform technology, business and society through our first century, and we believe it will enable us to achieve even more in our second."

One of the oldest living IBM alumni, Luis A. Lamassonne is 105 years old resides in Miami, Florida.

He joined IBM in 1933 and worked at the company for 38 years, rising to become an executive in Latin America. Reflecting on IBM's Centennial today, Lamassonne said, 'IBM has always been one of the best companies. The company is special because I have faith that IBM will survive for many more?of the people, years, for another century."