Asia Pacific Findings of IBM 2008 Global CEO Study: Asian CEOs Investing in CSR Faster Than Global Peers

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the Asia Pacific findings of the 2008 Global CEO Study as well as some preliminary Greater China insights, to reveal the unique business perspective of the Asia Pacific CEO. Titled "The Enterprise of the Future," one of the Study's key findings is that Asia Pacific CEOs are investing in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) faster than any of their global peers.

The IBM 2008 Global CEO Study is the largest face-to-face global research of chief executives ever conducted with 1,130 CEOs -- from 40 countries across 32 industries -- including 400 CEOs from across the Asia Pacific region and 100 CEOs from Greater China.

Designed to capture insights on how the challenges CEOs face today will impact the future of business, the Study's analysis shows that "The Enterprise of the Future" is one that is: hungry for change; innovative beyond customer imagination; globally integrated; disruptive by nature; and genuine not just generous.

In the Study's Asia Pacific analysis, local CEOs confirm they are embarking on bold changes in their business designs and models to seize the opportunity of the new and changing 'information omnivore' customer. This includes increasing their CSR investment faster than their counterparts in any other regions -- a 42 percent investment compared to a global average of 25 percent. By comparison, preliminary Study findings in Greater China show Foreign owned Enterprises (FoEs) are increasing their investments in CSR even further to 52 percent.

According to Steven Davidson, Vice President and Partner, Strategy & Change Consulting, Asia Pacific & Greater China Group, IBM Global Business Services, "The Asia Pacific CEO has embraced the characteristic of being genuine not just generous in their application of CSR. They see CSR as a key and differentiating component of their business strategy. This is especially evident in the Study, where 81 percent of Asia Pacific CEOs and 84 percent in Greater China confirm they have high expectations of CSR compared to 69 percent of CEOs globally."

Key highlights from the Study's Asia Pacific analysis and preliminary Greater China findings include:

--  Compared to their global peers, the Asia Pacific and Greater China CEO
    is even more positive about the impact of rising prosperity in emerging
    economies -- this positive outlook was expressed by 82 percent of CEOs
    across Asia, and 93 per cent in Greater China, compared to 67 percent
    globally.

--  Asia Pacific CEOs are investing significantly in responding to newly
    prosperous customers, especially in China where over 30 percent of total
    investments are allocated to this area. Also the Asia Pacific CEO is
    rapidly increasing investments to engage the informed and collaborative
    customer -- an increase of 25 percent across Asia, compared to 28 percent
    in Greater China and 22 percent globally.

--  Like their global peers, Asia Pacific CEOs are: deeply changing their
    mix of capabilities; partnering extensively; globalising their products and
    services; and optimising their operations globally. But they are much more
    likely to be entering new markets and growing through mergers and
    acquisitions than their global peers. Additionally, Greater China CEOs opt
    for global models and are particularly focused on changing their mix of
    capabilities, knowledge and assets, and using Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A).
    This is especially evident with China domestic companies.

--  Recognising business model innovation is a key sustainable basis for
    differentiation, 71 percent of Asia Pacific CEOs are leveraging global
    integration and technology to place a heavy focus on business model
    innovation.

--  Most Asia Pacific CEOs focus on more collaborative business models and
    partnering.  However, outperforming CEOs also put significant focus on
    seeking to innovate their whole industry model.  Interestingly, Greater
    China CEOs are much more likely to focus on industry model innovation -- 33
    percent as compared to 18 percent globally.

--  Asia Pacific CEOs see substantial change ahead for their
    organisations -- 84 percent across Asia Pacific and 89 percent in
    Greater China. Also, they are more confident about their ability to
    manage change than their global peers, yet the change gap (the gap
    between expected change and success in managing change) in Asia Pacific
    has tripled from 6 percent in 2006 to 18 percent in 2008.

"The preliminary Greater China findings of the 2008 Global CEO Study have highlighted that when compared to their global -- and in some cases Asia Pacific -- peers the Greater China CEOs are more positive about implementing radical business designs in achieving global integration. This is particularly evident in their embrace of industry model innovation and use of mergers and acquisitions in their growth strategy," said Mr. Davidson.

About the Global CEO Study

The findings of this report are based upon a series of interviews conducted by IBM in late 2007 and early 2008. A total of 1,130 CEOs, business and public sector leaders from 40 countries participated in structured interviews. IBM Global Business consultants conducted more than 1,000 face to face interviews, with the remainder conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).