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The Digital Servitization Exchange Podcast
Connecting research and practice in the transformation from products to digital services.
The Digital Servitization Exchange Podast explores how manufacturers create and capture value through services and software. Designed for both researchers and practitioners, the podcast brings together academic insight and industry experience to unpack the concepts, challenges, and opportunities driving digital servitization.
Each episode delves into themes such as service innovations, subscription models, industrial IoT, digital platform ecosystems, and organizational transformation. Rather than focusing on individual voices, the podcast emphasizes relevant topics that matter across domains — offering evidence-based perspectives for academics and actionable ideas for business professionals.
By bridging theory and practice, The Digital Servitization Exchange Podcast provides a space where learning flows both ways: from research to real-world implementation, and from practice back to research.
Ideal for: academics, doctoral researchers, industrial leaders, digital transformation managers, service strategists, and anyone shaping the future of digitally enabled services.
The Digital Servitization Exchange Podcast
#26 Reinventing IBM: From Hardware Giant to Services and Software Leader
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Description
For much of the 20th century, IBM defined the computer industry through hardware—from mainframes to personal computers. But beginning in the mid-2000s, IBM made a series of deliberate, often painful strategic choices to reinvent itself for a very different future.
In this episode, we trace IBM’s transformation from 2005 to 2025 as it exited commoditized hardware businesses and rebuilt itself around consulting, software, hybrid cloud, and artificial intelligence. We examine pivotal moments such as the sale of the PC business, the rise of IBM Global Services, the “Smarter Planet” vision, the bet on Watson and AI, the landmark acquisition of Red Hat, and the 2021 spin-off of Kyndryl.
The episode explores what IBM got right—and what it got wrong—highlighting how portfolio discipline, open-source strategy, and long-term client relationships helped IBM remain relevant despite revenue decline and intense competition from cloud hyperscalers. Ultimately, IBM’s story shows how transformation is not a single pivot, but a continuous process of shedding the past while building new sources of value.
Key words
IBM, Strategic Transformation, Services and Software, Consulting-Led Strategy, Hybrid Cloud, Artificial Intelligence, Red Hat, Watson, Corporate Reinvention, Enterprise Technology