Re‐engineering HR delivery at IBM

Faced with declining revenues and significant business losses in the early 1990s, IBM reviewed its products, services, infrastructure, operations and functions. As part of this process, HR processes, policies and practices were either reformed or eliminated. Bob Gonzales, vice‐president of HR operations and formerly founding director of IBM’s national human‐resources service center (NHRSC), which emerged as a far‐reaching development in re‐engineering HR, recalls: “We had this bold vision of an ongoing journey which, by transforming HR, could also revitalize the business. It was strategic change of the highest order.”