Samenvatting

I am glad to share the major findings of my bachelor thesis with you. Let me first give you an insight in the current situation within IBM and the Madrid International Services Centre.The global economy is suffering from a crisis hitting several big corporate players. Nevertheless,IBM and the Centre have been delivering record results in 2008. Investors have not lost confidence in IBM and the corporation expects to continue delivering good results in the next few years. Confidence and optimism inspires the employees of the Madrid International Services Centre in their mission: delivering excellent Customer Fulfilment to the customers. Nowadays, 68% of the clients leave the Madrid International Services Centre because of poor
customer service. The weak brand identity of the Madrid International Services Centre could be the reason of it. The centre faces negative consequences from a weak brand identity which restrains them from delivering excellent Customer Fulfilment and realization of the existing business opportunities. The investigation of the problem stated above formed my angle of research. The central question was: by means of which improvements can the IBM International Services Centre S.A. Madrid turn its weak brand identity into a strong brand identity and take full advantage of the numerous existing business opportunities within 5 years? A questionnaire administered amongst 50 employees of the Madrid International Services Centre showed that the perceived Centre brand identity by the employees is weak. The results from this research and desk research lead to the following major recommendations for the company to realize its business opportunities on the EMEA market. The Madrid International Services Centre should increase its brand identity from the inside with the creation of a professional looking Career Path and Intranet. Employees need to be informed better about the mission, vision, goals and statement of the Centre. The senior management has to organize more informative meetings and definitely publish more business results on Intranet.
From an external point of view, the EMEA market and Spain offer a lot of possibilities in terms of growth. The ideal situation is uniting the two different locations into one building in Las Tablas,the most important business district of Madrid. The building change leads to better internal communication and will improve the brand identity and competitiveness towards the other big players: Intel, Microsoft and HP. IBM could expand its power on the EMEA market by this change.
Maximizing the knowledge of the employees about the centre should improve Customer Fulfilment and decrease the rate of customers leaving. Customer Fulfilment should reach a level of excellence
and the 68% of the customers switching to competitors of the Madrid International Services Centre should be decreased by approximately 30% within the next five years. Excellence and diversity are
the most important values guiding the Madrid International Services Centre through their process of image building and growth on the EMEA market.