Gaule: Give a brief descrip-tion of the purpose of your venture, when it was formed and how the process occurs in your organisation.
Lung: IBM views innovation as a wide spectrum of activities and relationships. Innovation can come from across the business and from many other different sources.
IBM Venture Capital Group was formed 10 years ago to leverage external innovation in support of IBM growth. We work with the venture community to provide "headlights" to business, as well as work with their portfolio companies to fill gaps in the solutions we bring to market to our clients.
We also work with our corporate development team in identifying potential acquisitions. So while our model does not focus on investments in cash, the investments we do make are in trying to help companies grow and to findthe right partnership model to promote joint business.
Gaule: Give us a brief overview of the people in the team and the partners you work with.
Lung: Given the strategic nature of our venture group, it is vital we work closely with the leaders of IBM’s business units to understand their goals and objectives in working with the venture and entrepreneurial communities, as well as their roadmaps for partnering and for acquisition.
Thus, the partners on our team are either strategy lead-ers in those business units or have domain expertise and work closely with the leaders in those business areas. When the business you support as a venture team is as broad as IBM is, this helps ensure there is alignment in our strategic initiatives.
Gaule: While we were both in California recently I saw the publicity about the Watson IBM supercomputer winning the US Jeopardy! TV quiz show. Can you give an insight to the application and partnering opportunities?
Lung: Yes, this was certainly a bit of fun but it has some very real business applications that will require IBM to work further with partners. The Watson supercomputer is named after Thomas Watson, founder of IBM, and it has great capability in interpreting natural language.
The IBM work in this area and in cloud computing can be applied in very many areas. An example could be in the healthcare sector, where applications can used to support clinicians, clarify the data and help remove bias in the way diagnoses are made.
There are, of course, many applications in retail, finance, manufacture and so on. To deliver these solutions, IBM needs to work with the venture community to develop new applications and business models.
[Editor: You can hear an audio discussion to accompany this interview on the website under video.]
Gaule: What is your view on starting a new venture in the current market conditions?
Lung: Timing could not be better. The resources available, from government, corpo-rations, universities and organisations, could not be greater than they are now to help entrepreneurs. And this is not just a Silicon Valley or US statement – the amount of excitement and fervour in support of entrepreneurialism around the world, including emerging markets, is unprecedented.
In our view, the market opportunity could not be better. As a company, IBM is focused on all the new "smarter planet" opportunities [an initiative aimed at integrating computing with other everyday processes] that are forming around the intersection of the physical and digital worlds.
Many of these solutions are complex and do not even exist today, so what better scenario to leverage the ingenuity of entrepreneurs?
Gaule: What do you do to relax when you are not supporting the building of ventures?
Lung: So many places, so little time! Nothing invigorates me more than travelling. I truly enjoy absorbing new places and new cultures, makes me feel more connected in many ways.