Author Archives: gbolling@uoregon.edu

According to the company website IBM prides itself on having a diverse group of employees who want to make an impact, use their expertise, and work with some of the top business and technology executives in the world. President and CEO Virginia Rometty is quoted saying, “We pursue a model of high-value innovation, rather than commodity technology, products and services. Our commitment to this model compels us to reinvent businesses continually; grow new ones organically and through acquisitions; and occasionally divest businesses that do not fit our profile.”

The job available for this company is the Project Executive. The duties for this job are to develop partnerships between clients, IBM, vendors, and subcontractor organizations. The Project Executive is in charge of customer satisfaction and will translate the customers wants into formal solutions.

Job Requirements
-High school diploma
-Availability to travel 10% annually (Or 1 day a week)
-Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology
-At least 3 years experience in client relationship
-At least 5 years experience in portfolio processing
-At least 3 years experience in business development and drive growth
-Certified in ITIL

Job reviews
All of the reviews for the Project Executive were pretty positive. All employees felt that they were working with remarkable and intelligent people where they could learn and develop. The two cons were the amount of travel and the lack of salary bonuses given. Another recurring con was the notion that there was a bureaucracy within the company.

Product/ Service Reviews
Generally most products made by IBM are well received by their publics. They seem to be at the peak of their brand category. Some of their products are not very user-friendly.

Analysis
Most employees are generally happy with their work environment. But there is a disconnect between the IBM value of collaboration and the reality of the closeness of employees. A couple employee reviews even said that they have to learn things from rumors rather than news sources. So the overall community of IBM employees seems divided between the upper part of the bureaucracy and the rest of the employees. The company definitely achieves high-value innovation according to almost every single product and employee review.The quality of the company’s products and services are always top-notch, therefore the CEO’s quote is validated.

Road Map

To get to this job the first thing we need to do is graduate from high school and attend top tier universities (USC, Virginia Tech, Boston U, Johns Hopkins to name a few) with a degree in information technology. Next we need to have a job in a client relationship job such as sales, service representatives etc. and work there for three years at least. After (or before) that we would need to have a job in portfolio management. An example we found would be working for Visa in business planning. Working there for five years would fulfill our requirements for that part of this job. Finally, getting a job in development, fund raising, growth etc would be a great first step to getting into all these jobs. Working at a nonprofit of account management position would be a good step in the right direction. Finally, we need a simple certification in ITIL. After fulfilling at least all of these, we’re ready to apply for this job!

The area we looked into was the surrounding Sacramento area.  We wanted an upscale area that was an easy drive from Sacramento.  The city we landed on was El Dorado Hills, CA. It is a quick 30 minute drive down the major highway, highway 50, and located near the lovely Folsom Lake State Park.  Recently sold homes were listed at $800,000+.  The hub of this city appears to be super close to the freeway and high income neighborhoods which would be a perfect fit for the “Executive Health” Spa.

(zoomed out)         (zoomed in with prices)

After looking up the housing information for El Dorado Hills, we looked into the ratings of nearby schools.  All schools were rated 10 out of 10 which will make it a continually appealing area.

The average household income was listed at $145,315 which is way above the average for the Sacramento County area of $73,748. It is almost double. Most of the income of the population in the El Dorado Hills area is within the range from $100,000-$200,000+ meaning it is an affluential area.

We researched our consumer base through Experian and found that in the El Dorado Hills zip code there were 6,856 potential users of the spa which is an impressive amount.

When we searched 4+ Star rated restaurants, we found that there were plenty near the downtown area where we would place the “Exectuive Health” Spa.

Rent in this area varies greatly, but prices at the pavilion in mind ranges from about $2,600 to upwards of $4,300, but given the wealth in the area it would be fine to turn a profit. The area is also luxurious enough to attract the kind of customers to our spa.