基本情況
1995年，在很多人還不知道電子商務為何物時，IBM就預先提出“e-business”戰略理念，此後網路時代的興起，企業開始興建網站，購買IT基礎設備。這推動了IT基礎設施走入普及階段。
2002年，網際網路泡沫破滅後，IT走下神壇，引發了業界對“IT不再重要”的爭論。此時，IBM又適時地推出了“e-business on demand”——重點在“on demand”。當客戶開始捂著錢包說：環境不好，我不買IT設施了！而IBM則巧妙地說：沒關係，我可以根據您的需求提供服務，你可以像用水用電一樣需要多少買多少。
有意思的是，前兩個理念，還包括幾十年前的大型機戰略，被IBM稱為三次“登月計畫”，而這次IBM的新理念成為“智慧星球”——不是“月”就是“星”，咋一聽起來，很大很空，甚至，剛開始時，IBM內部人也不一定很懂。但是，事實上，IBM每次理念的提出和隨之“傳教”式的推廣，都成為了產業的風向標，引領了整個IT業跟隨IBM的腳步而調整和前行。
如果說，前兩個戰略理念——“電子商務”和“電子商務隨需應變”，IBM的著眼點是企業，而現在“智慧星球”的著眼點更廣——也許IBM發現，企業信息化、電子商務的實現，光靠自己企業自身無法實現，這需要不僅包括企業自身，還包括政府、社區等整個社會、整個生態鏈共同來實現。就像網上購物，美國很容易實現，是因為用配套的環境支持。而我國因為支付問題、信用等問題，難以普及——這已經不是技術問題。所以，就像錢大群在演講中所談到的要實現“智慧型星球”的挑戰比以前實施“電子商務”和“電子商務隨需應變”都要大很多，“不是一個企業可以做到的，要彼此合作，比如，你要解決一個水污染問題的時候，水污染的上遊說我做了，下遊說我不管，或者下游做了上游不管都沒有辦法，只有在一起共同協作才能解決這個問題。”
IBM最精明和老到之處，每次戰略理念的推出，都很高屋建瓴，出發點都是別人，而落腳點卻是自己——IBM不僅可以提供諮詢（點子），還可以提供整套的解決方案。這實際上是作為產業引領者的IBM做生意的方式。在把金融行業的錢賺得差不多以後，IBM近幾年開始把觸角伸到電信、醫療、交通、製造等各行各業，而要打動像醫療、交通等國家基礎設施部門的“錢袋”，情況更為複雜，需要的是系統工程。IBM適時提出了這個新理念——智慧型星球，正是基於這樣的背景。
如果說，IBM以前的理念主要是“忽悠”企業，現在“智慧星球”的提出則更重要的是與政府部門合作。此時，國家4萬億投資基礎設施的計畫推出之時，IBM推出的“智慧型星球”戰略，強調“實體基礎設施和信息基礎設施不應該分開建設，而應該是統一的智慧型基礎設施”也正是IBM此理念的精髓之處。在現在經濟危機背景下，IBM新戰略的賣點則是降低監管風險、提升效益，更加節能、更加綠色等，這幾點，錢大群演講中闡述的“智慧型星球”的例子都有提及——這正是急政府之所急、想政府之所想。
相關闡述
It is a pleasure and an honor to be here today in this distinguished assembly, and at this extraordinary moment: a major political transition in the United States, the global economy in flux, our financial markets restructuring themselves—and an acutely felt need for leadership.
Our political leaders aren't the only ones who've been handed a mandate for change. Leaders of businesses and institutions everywhere confront a unique opportunity to transform the way the world works.
We have this chance for reasons no one wished. The crisis in our financial markets has jolted us awake to the realities and dangers of highly complex global systems. But in truth, the first decade of the 21st century has been a series of wake-up calls with a single subject: the reality of global integration.
Two years ago, I published an essay in Foreign Affairs that described the changing structure of the corporation, which I felt had been largely left out of the discussion on globalization. I described the emergence of a new kind of corporation—the globally integrated enterprise, which was replacing the multinational.
Today there is growing consensus that global integration is changing the corporate model and the nature of work itself. But we now see that the movement of information, work and capital across developed and developing nations—as profound as those are—constitute just one aspect of global integration.
In the last few years, our eyes have been opened to global climate change, and to the environmental and geopolitical issues surrounding energy. We have been made aware of global supply chains for food and medicine. And, of course, we entered the new century with the shock to our sense of security delivered by the attacks on 9/11.
These collective realisations have reminded us that we are all now connected—economically, technically and socially. But we're also learning that being connected is not sufficient. Yes, the world continues to get "flatter." And yes, it continues to get smaller and more interconnected. But something is happening that holds even greater potential. In a word, our planet is becoming smarter.
This isn't just a metaphor. I mean infusing intelligence into the way the world literally works—the systems and processes that enable physical goods to be developed, manufactured, bought and sold... services to be delivered... everything from people and money to oil, water and electrons to move... and billions of people to work and live.
What's making this possible?
First, our world is becoming instrumented: The transistor, invented 60 years ago, is the basic building block of the digital age. Now, consider a world in which there are a billion transistors per human, each one costing one ten-millionth of a cent. We'll have that by 2010. There will likely be 4 billion mobile phone subscribers by the end of this year... and 30 billion Radio Frequency Identification tags produced globally within two years. Sensors are being embedded across entire ecosystems—supply-chains, healthcare networks, cities... even natural systems like rivers. Second, our world is becoming interconnected: Very soon there will be 2 billion people on the Internet. But in an instrumented world, systems and objects can now "speak" to one another, too. Think about the prospect of a trillion connected and intelligent things—cars, appliances, cameras, roadways, pipelines... even pharmaceuticals and livestock. The amount of information produced by the interaction of all those things will be unprecedented. Third, all things are becoming intelligent: New computing models can handle the proliferation of end-user devices, sensors and actuators and connect them with back-end systems. Combined with advanced analytics, those supercomputers can turn mountains of data into intelligence that can be translated into action, making our systems, processes and infrastructures more efficient, more productive and responsive—in a word, smarter. What this means is that the digital and physical infrastructures of the world are converging. Computational power is being put into things we wouldn't recognize as computers. Indeed, almost anything—any person, any object, any process or any service, for any organization, large or small—can become digitally aware and networked.
With so much technology and networking abundantly available at such low cost, what wouldn't you enhance? What service wouldn't you provide a customer, citizen, student or patient? What wouldn't you connect? What information wouldn't you mine for insight?
The answer is, you or your competitor—another company, or another city or nation—will do all of that. You will do it because you can—the technology is available and affordable.
But there is another reason we will make our companies, institutions and industries smarter. Because we must. Not just at moments of widespread shock, but integrated into our day-to-day operations. These mundane processes of business, government and life—which are ultimately the source of those "surprising" crises—are not smart enough to be sustainable.
Consider:
How much energy we waste: According to published reports, the losses of electrical energy because grid systems are not "smart" range as high as 40 to 70 percent around the world. How gridlocked our cities are: Congested roadways in the U.S. cost $78 billion annually, in the form of 4.2 billion lost hours and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted gas—and that's not even counting the impact on our air quality. How inefficient our supply chains are: Consumer product and retail industries lose about $40 billion annually, or 3.5 percent of their sales, due to supply chain inefficiencies. How antiquated our healthcare system is: In truth, it isn't a "system" at all. It doesn't link from diagnosis, to drug discovery, to healthcare deliverers, to insurers, to employers. Meanwhile, personal expenditures on health now push more than 100 million people worldwide below the poverty line each year. How our planet's water supply is drying up: Global water usage has increased six-fold since the 1900s, twice the rate of human population growth. According to the Asian Development Bank, one in five people living today lacks access to safe drinking water, and half the world's population does not have adequate sanitation. And, of course, the crisis in our financial markets: This will be analyzed for decades, but one thing is already clear. Financial institutions spread risk but weren't able to track risk—and that uncertainty, that lack of knowing with precision, undermined confidence. It's obvious, when you consider the trajectories of development driving the planet today, that we're going to have to run a lot smarter and more efficiently—especially as we seek the next areas of investment to drive economic growth and to move large parts of the global economy out of recession.
Fortunately, we now can. We see this in how companies and institutions are rethinking their systems and applying technology in new ways.
Stockholm's smart traffic system has resulted in 20 percent less traffic, a 12 percent drop in emissions and a reported 40,000 additional daily users of public transport. Smart traffic systems are strengthening the competitive positions of cities from London to Brisbane to Singapore—with many more being planned. Intelligent oil field technologies can increase both pump performance and well productivity—in a business where only 20-30 percent of available reserves are currently extracted. Smart food systems—such as one now running in the Nordics—can use RFID technology to trace meat and poultry from the farm through the supply chain to supermarket shelves. Smart healthcare can lower the cost of therapy by as much as 90 percent—as ActiveCare Network is doing for more than 2 million patients in 38 states, whom it monitors for the proper delivery of their injections and vaccines. There are many other examples I could cite. Smart systems are transforming energy grids, supply chains and water management. They are ensuring the authenticity of pharmaceuticals and the security of currency exchanges. And they are changing everything from organisations' business models to how they enable their employees to collaborate and innovate.
And remember, the opportunity to become smarter applies not just to large enterprises, but to smaller and mid-sized companies—the engines of economic growth everywhere. When we think about systems like supply chains, healthcare delivery and food systems, we're really talking about the interactions of hundreds, even thousands of companies, most of them small.
