Armonk, NY, U.S.
Revenue1: $91.4 billion
No. of employees: 330,000
CEO: Samuel Palmisano
Top alumni: John Chambers, CEO of Cisco; John Thompson, CEO of Symantec Systems
Learn Through Integration. Last year Palmisano created a task force of 300 senior executives to tackle the challenges of integrating Big Blue's myriad services. For IBM, which has acquired 69 companies in the past seven years, strengthening - and unifying - its leadership base and business practices is critical. This initiative, which attempts to do both, assembles teams of 25 to 40 executives to tackle real-life assignments. Says Mike Markovits, who oversees the program: "We're learning from some of our acquired companies what we might want to migrate through the rest of IBM."
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12006 revenue in U.S. dollars.
Sources: Hewitt Associates and The RBL Group
Sources: Hewitt Associates and The RBL Group