IBM has a lot of Work to do in Saudi Arabia

Riyadh – :

By: Samar Yahya

“IBM is a B2B company, in IBM it is just we are sort of moving at a bit of a slower pace, as we come out of consecutive years and quarters of negative growth or revenue decline.

“We are really focused on to make sure that we are driving towards hybrid cloud and AI, thus we look on how we align our people and our offerings. And that ties back to the Kingdom. We’ve got this great technology offerings, hybrid cloud AI, security, sustainability and automation. IBM has got a large consulting practice around the world.” said Jonathan Adashek, Chief Communications Officer & Senior VP, Marketing and Communications during his visit to Riyadh.

IBM got work to do to make sure people recognize what IBM does. “I will really admit that we have work to do in the kingdom. We have work to do everywhere.”

IBM has launched “Let’s Create”, with three important chapters;

The first one being sort of capabilities, the second is around client driven stories and client driven examples that allow IBM to bring its technology to life in a more unique way.

And lastly to celebrate “The new creators”, the creators of today are those people who are working with technology.

“So we’re trying to come at what is IBM on a sort of three pronged approach right now, we have a lot of work to do in the Kingdom because we’re just getting started on it. In Saudi Arabia we have a couple of announcements around skills and more about investing in local talent.” Adashek said.

During the same visit IBM and King Saudi University announced collaboration to advance skills development through AI across the Kingdom and signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at advancing fundamental AI research and working with KSU to launch upskilling initiatives to promote AI education and awareness and leverage collaborations with academia, public, and private sectors.

In line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, IBM will work closely with KSU to leverage AI-driven technologies in the areas of skills, curriculum development and research to provide the Kingdom’s youth with the necessary skills needed to succeed in the jobs of tomorrow.

“It is not just how we grow our presence in the economy, but it is how we grow our presence in the community here as well. Globally, IBM is going to train 30 million people by 2030 and we know that we need to do a significant part of the training here in Saudi Arabia. And we’ve got to make sure we’ve got a great Saudi representation in our team as well.”

“We are also talking to major global companies in diverse sectors and we say that technology is going to be what gets them through any difficult times that are coming. We want global companies in different sectors to know about what we do.” Adashek said.

Though IBM did not play a major role in e-services in Saudi Arabia during the Covid-19 pandemic, however Adashek confirms that a lot more is coming and that there are numerous conversations IBM is participating in, facilitating, making it more efficient and providing more effective services to make them even easier for people.

Adashek said that IBM will have a great role in contributing in services to Saudi government, in the near future, “that’s what we’re looking at”.

Jonathan Adashek has aligned the Communication and Citizenship function to IBM’s overall strategic and business objectives. He also led the team through the separation of Kyndryl, the response to COVID-19, and various social issues. His background in managing global teams has helped in driving a more nimble and agile approach.