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franchises, which represent an innovative way of doing business. The
company has developed a network of its specialised shops in Russia and
abroad. They are all located in the most prestigious trade centres or
central shopping streets. The first Tom Klaim shop to open in a foreign
country is in Amsterdam's trade centre. A shop in Paris' Fauburg Saint-
Honoré opened in September 1998. A family of eight Moscow shops,
which daily attract over 2,000 people, will grow yet larger in March
1999, when its second section is due to open in the GUM department
store. The company's immediate plans include the opening of shops in
Helsinki, two shops in Germany and another one at the Cote d'Azur in
Nice (France).The American continent will not be neglected either:
Negotiations are currently under way to open a Tom Klaim salon in
Madison Avenue and two shops in Canada.
Tom Klaim signed its first franchising contract in November
1998; four months later over 20 firms were already-selling Tom Klaim
products under franchising contracts. Not only does the company offer its
products - women's clothes and accessories - and the right to use its
trademark and logo, but it also designs the interior of the sellers premises
to keep them in line with its distinctive style. In the new economic
conditions that have come about after the August crisis franchising as a
form of relations between the company and the dealers has proved to be
efficient and effective for both sides. It is all the more effective because
Tom Klaim sets reasonable prices for the use of its well-known
trademark - only-$ 10,000 - and offers discounts to those who buy its
collections. The company's management say that the franchising work
has shown a sustainable trend towards expansion, and that not only in
Russia and the CIS. Tom Klaim supplies Russian figure skaters with fine
uniforms for official events during various tournaments. Furthermore,
Tom Klaim clothes have made a successful appearance on stage as well:
several theatres that requested costumes for their performances received
them for free. For one of the latest first-night performances - Hamlet -
directed by Peter Stein, Tom Klaim costumes were chosen by the
celebrated director himself.
Tom Klaim's prospects are as follows: to further expand
Klimin, its exclusive trademark, and the pret-a-porter brand of Tom
Klaim, to design and bring to the market T.K., the company's most
democratic trademark; to improve production technology; to finally put
in place the company's holding structure; to expand its franchising
network; to bring the Klimin TV company to a level where it will begin
recouping its costs; and to finalise the "House" project.
tabulating solutions for businesses, leaving the market for small office
products to others. During Watson's first four years, revenues doubled to
$2 million. He also expanded the company's operations to Europe, South
America, Asia and Australia. In 1924, to reflect C-T-R's growing world
wide presence, its name was changed to International Business Machines
Corp., or IBM.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, IBM managed to grow
while the rest of the U.S. economy floundered. Watson took care of his
employees. IBM was among the first corporations to provide group life
insurance (1934), survivor benefits (1935) and paid vacations (1936).
While most businesses had shut down, Watson kept his workers busy
producing new machines even while demand was slack.
1939-1963; Era of innovation
When World War II began, all IBM facilities were placed at the
disposal of the U.S. government. IBM's product line expanded to include
bombsights, rifles and engine parts — in all, more than three dozen major
ordnance items. Watson set a nominal one-percent profit on those
products and used the money to establish a fund for widows and orphans
of IBM war casualties.
The war years also marked IBM's first steps toward computing.
The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also called the Mark I,
was completed in 1944 after six years of development with Harvard
University. It was the first machine that could execute long computations
automatically. Over 50 feet long, 8 feet high, and weighing almost 5 tons,
the Mark I took less than a second to solve an addition problem, but
about six seconds for multiplication and twice as long for division — far
slower than any pocket calculator today.
In 1952, the company introduced the IBM 701; its first large
computer based on the vacuum tube. The tubes were quicker, smaller,
and more easily replaceable than the electromechanical switches in the
Mark I. The 701 executed 17, 000 instructions per second and was used
primarily for government and research work. But vacuum tubes rapidly
moved computers into business applications such as billing, payroll and
inventory control.
By 1959, transistors were replacing vacuum tubes. The IBM
7090, one of the first fully transistorised mainframes, could perform 229,
000 calculations per second. The Air Force used the 7090 to run its
Ballistic Missile Early Warning System. In 1964, American Airlines*
SABRE reservations system used two 7090 mainframes to link sales
desks in 65 cities.
IBM led data processing in a new direction with the 1957
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