Nicholas Donofrio

Making Value for America: Embracing the Future of Manufacturing, Technology and Work
Nicholas Donofrio
Former EVP of Innovation and Technology, IBM

Abstract:
Technological developments, reengineered operations, and eco­nomic forces are changing the way products and services are conceived, designed, made, distributed, and supported. Manufac­turing or “making things” can no longer be considered separate from the value chain, the system of research and development, product design, software development and integration, and lifecycle service activities performed to deliver a valuable product or service to market. Businesses are focusing on this entire system to ensure that they are “making value” for their customers and are less likely to be disrupted by competitors or new technologies.
Furthermore, the convergence of these factors is causing major transformations that require the United States—and the companies that operate here—to carefully examine their abilities to innovate and capture the benefits. Businesses are experiencing increased competition from emerging economies around the world; while US-based businesses remain world lead­ers in many measures of innovation along the value chain, competitors from other countries are catching up quickly. The nature of work has also changed, causing jobs that consist of repetitive tasks to be disrupted by automation or offshoring to lower cost providers. At the same time, developments in software and data collection are enabling businesses to better understand customers’ needs, optimize design and production processes, and discover new market opportunities, which can generate increased demand and new enterprises that will create jobs.
It is important for businesses and communities across the United States to understand and respond to the changes affecting value chains for manufacturing and high-tech services not only because these activities account for a significant portion of the country’s economic growth and middle-class jobs but also because the economy as a whole mirrors these changes. The same technologies that are transforming manufacturing and high-tech services are poised to transform enterprises in energy, health care, and education. And, by some estimates, 50 percent of jobs are ripe for disruption.

“Far too much of our nation is waiting for new ways of working to arrive. We hear lots of rhetoric about how the nature of work will change, as if it relates to some unknown distant future. The fact is that it is happening now, and we need a broader recognition of this fact and policies and education that reflect it.”

—Charles M. Vest

Bio:

Nicholas M. Donofrio is a 44-year IBM veteran who led IBM’s technology and innovation strategies from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. He also was vice chairman of the IBM International Foundation and chairman of the Board of Governors for the IBM Academy of Technology. Mr. Donofrio’s most recent responsibilities included IBM Research, Governmental Programs, Technical Support & Quality, Corporate Community Relations, as well as Environmental Health & Product Safety. Also reporting to Mr. Donofrio were the senior executives responsible for IBM’s enterprise on demand transformation. In addition to that strategic business mission, Mr. Donofrio led the development and retention of IBM’s technical population and enriched that community with a diversity of culture and thought. In 2008 IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano elected Nick IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor.

Mr. Donofrio joined IBM as a college co-op student in 1964 and worked on the memory technology for the legendary IBM System/360 mainframe computing system. After being hired full time at IBM in 1967, he spent the early part of his career in integrated circuit and chip development as a designer of logic and memory chips. He held numerous technical management positions and, later, executive positions in several of IBM’s product divisions. He has led many of IBM’s major development and manufacturing teams – from semiconductor and storage technologies, to microprocessors and personal computers, to IBM’s entire family of servers.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a Master of Science in the same discipline from Syracuse University in 1971. In 1999 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering from Polytechnic University, in 2002 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Warwick in England, in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in Technology from Marist College and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate in Sciences from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Pace University awarded him an honorary doctorate in Sciences in 2009.

Mr. Donofrio is focused sharply on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women. He served for many years on the Board of Directors for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and was NACME’s Board chair from 1997 through 2002. He also served for several years on the Board of Directors for INROADS, a non-profit organization focused on the training and development of talented minority youth for professional careers in business and industry. He presently is co-chair of the New York Hall of Science.

In 2005, Mr. Donofrio was appointed by the U.S. Department of Education to serve on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a 20-member delegation of business and university leaders charged with developing a new national strategy for post-secondary education that will meet the needs of Americas diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country’s future.

He is the holder of seven technology patents and is a member of numerous technical and science honor societies. He is a Fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a Fellow of the U.K-based Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the US-based National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Board of Directors for the Bank of New York/Mellon, a member of the Republic of China’s Advisory Board of Science and Technology, a member of the Board of Trustees at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a member of the Board of Directors of Liberty Mutual, a member of the Board of Directors of AMD and a Senior Fellow of the Kauffman Foundation.