IBM Relocates Procurement Exec to China

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061012/ibm_china.html?.v=1

IBM Relocates Procurement Exec to China
Thursday October 12, 12:03 pm ET  
IBM Relocates Global Procurement Headquarters to China, Moves CPO John Paterson From New York

NEW YORK (AP) -- IBM Corp. said Thursday that Chief Procurement Officer John Paterson will relocate to China to lead the company's new global procurement headquarters, marking the first time an IBM corporate-wide division has been located outside the U.S.
 
Paterson is moving offices to Shenzhen, China from Somers, N.Y. IBM said this move illustrates a shift underway at the company from a multinational corporation to a globally integrated business.

"In a multinational model, many functions of a corporation were replicated around the world -- but each addressing only its local market," said Paterson. "In a globally integrated enterprise, for the first time, a company's worldwide capability can be located wherever in the world it makes the most sense, based on the imperatives of economics, expertise and open environments."

Paterson also is charged with reshaping the company's supply base in the region. Although IBM has been sourcing in Asia for more than 50 years, most of it has been to support its hardware businesses, and the company has growing needs for software and services skills in the region.

IBM already has more than 1,850 procurement and logistics professionals in Asia, many of them at its China Procurement Center in Shenzhen, China, which has been in operation for more than a decade. The company has relationships with nearly 3,000 suppliers across Asia, accounting for about 30 percent of the $40 billion IBM spends annually on procurement.

"IBM is a global company," Paterson added. "And today that is as much about making efficient and effective use of skills everywhere in the world and integrating them globally to serve clients, as it is about developing deep local relationships in markets around the world. We are becoming a globally integrated company that allows us to do both."

Shares of International Business Machines Corp. rose 47 cents to $84.66 in midday trading on the NYSE.