In the virtual realm of global business consulting, it increasingly takes a community to produce compelling thought leadership. At IBM, it takes a "master of social glue" to provide the virtual leadership necessary for Big Blue to produce its Global CEO Survey, one of the business world's most impressive pieces of thought leadership. Appointed as the global leader of IBM's business think tank, the Institute for Business Value (IBV), Peter Korsten directed the third iteration of the Global CEO Survey, a thick and thorough report that the firm produces every other year. This year's document contains insights culled from interviews with more than 1,000 global CEOs conducted by IBM partners and executives.
"In the consulting industry, live interviews are not often pulled together to form a shared opinion," Korsten says. "We are the only company conducting face-to-face interviews in the office of the CEO… It really helps us understand what's going on in the mind of the CEO."
That understanding helps shape IBM's thinking on which services and products to develop to help its clients solve their business problems. The research also is presented to the participating CEOs so that they can learn what's on the minds of their peers around the world.
In addition to the CEO survey, the IBV publishes studies that provide clients with insights and barometers on key strategic issues across 17 industries and five functional areas. Korsten is also a senior sponsor of IBM's Global Innovation Outlook studies, on which the firm collaborates with leaders from other businesses, academia and politics.
Executing the IBV's mission in a company with some 390,000 employees around the world represents a major logistical challenge. This is where Korsten's bonding skills come into play. "The people who work in my organization are based in Colorado, India, Germany, China, Japan—everywhere," says Korsten, who has been dubbed the "master of social glue" by colleagues. "We are greatly virtualized. The most important component of success, I would say, is 'social glue'—getting people together in a virtual way while cultivating the feeling that we are all part of the same family."
Achieving this objective requires discipline and technology, elements that are easily accessible throughout IBM. Korsten's entire team meets weekly in online research sessions. Monthly sessions also are used by Korsten to recognize individual and group achievements. Groups working on specific research projects meet via conference call and same-time messaging (a phrase Korsten prefers to "online chatting") as often as three times each week. IBM's online employee directory, Blue Pages, contains photos of employees, and Korsten emphasizes to his team the importance of "seeing each other" when communicating virtually. Additionally, all IBVers meet once or twice per year in person.
"In today's virtual organization, it's so easy to feel disconnected from your colleagues," he says. "So, we are constantly looking to invent new ways to craft that social glue and to find ways to provide value to each other as human beings."
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