Don't let others define you. You define yourself.
Ginni Rometty
I strongly believe that through dedication and perseverance, one can overcome adversity to achieve success. It is a privilege to accept membership in the Horatio Alger Association, an organization which promotes this principle.
Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we'll augment our intelligence.
The only way you survive is you continuously transform into something else. It's this idea of continuous transformation that makes you an innovation company.
Be first and be lonely.
Never love something so much that you can't let go of it.
Growth and comfort do not coexist.
Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it's a really good thing to remember.
Today when I think about diversity, I actually think about the word 'inclusion.' And I think this is a time of great inclusion. It's not men, it's not women alone. Whether it's geographic, it's approach, it's your style, it's your way of learning, the way you want to contribute, it's your age - it is really broad.
You build your own strategy. You don't define it by what another competitor is doing.
I learned to always take on things I'd never done before.
If I have learned nothing else in all my years here, my biggest lesson is you have to constantly reinvent this company. That's how you get to be 103 years old.
With this emergence of big data and social mobility, you will, in fact, see the death of 'average,' Instead, you will see the era of you.
As I say to our own team: 'Never protect your past, never define yourself by a single product, and always continue to steward for the long-term. Keep moving towards the future.'
I ask everyone's opinion when they don't speak up. And then when they have an opinion, I'll ask others to talk about it.
I've always looked for challenges, and I have found plenty.
IBM's long-standing mantra is 'Think.' What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place for me, is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues.
When I think of revenue growth, I think of the words 'mix' and 'shift.'
So what it means is when you don't believe in the inevitable, it means you don't expect that that's how things have to turn out. You can change them.
The ultimate competitive advantage is being cognitive.
When you remove layers, simplicity and speed happen.
Clients say, 'What's your strategy,' and I say, 'Ask me what I believe first.' That's a far more enduring answer.
Artificial intelligence is one of 50 things that Watson does. There is also machine learning, text-to-speech, speech-to-text, and different analytical engines - they're like little Lego bricks. You can put intelligence in any product or any process you have.
You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you.
You define yourself by either what your clients want or what you believe they'll need for the future. So: Define yourself by your client, not your competitor.
I've been head of strategy at IBM and together with my colleagues built our five-year plan. My priorities are going to be to continue to execute on that.
I often sit back and say, 'Be sure about what I believe.'
Digital, it is not the destination.
I make time to exercise. It's not being indulgent. I think it's got a lot to do with your ability to manage properly and stay focused. There's no doubt about that.
One day we're going to look back, and whatever this era will get called, it's going to put a premium on math and science.
Everyone talks about how much data's in the world. Except, actually, 80% of it is pretty blind to computers. I mean, it can store it. But if it's a movie, a poem, a song, it doesn't know what it's actually saying or doing.
My mom had not worked a day in her life, and then she woke up when I was 15 and found herself with four children, no job, no money. But she set out and made it all OK for us, and from that, I saw that there's no problem that can't be solved.
Every day I get to 'Think' and work on everything from digitizing electric grids so they can accommodate renewable energy and enable mass adoption of electric cars, helping major cities reduce congestion and pollution, to developing new micro-finance programs that help tiny businesses get started in markets such as Brazil, India, Africa.
There will be times you make decisions that actually detract from growth.
Ask yourself when you learn the most. I guarantee it's when you felt at risk.
I think 'Actions speak louder than words' is one thing, I think, I always took from my mom. And to this day, I think about that in everything I do.
I've got a distribution system that goes to 170 countries. If I acquire properly, you know, you may be successful in one or two countries, or one place; I can scale, and that's part of the value that IBM brings.
I've made lots of mistakes. Probably the worst one - I would say they tie. It's either when I didn't move fast enough on something, or I didn't take a big enough risk.
We share no data with the government anywhere in the world.
It will not be a world of man versus machine. It will be a world of man plus machines.
Steward for the long term. It's not always easy, but you do it.
What has always made IBM a fascinating and compelling place for me is the passion of the company, and its people, to apply technology and scientific thinking to major societal issues.
This idea of 'New Collar' says for the jobs of the future here, there are many in technology that can be done without a four-year college degree and, therefore, 'New Collar' not 'Blue Collar,' 'White Collar.' It's 'New Collar.'
I think, given who the IBM target company is, I feel our purpose is to be essential to our clients.
I never look at an acquisition really by size.
Watson augments human decision-making because it isn't governed by human boundaries. It draws together all this information and forms hypotheses, millions of them, and then tests them with all the data it can find. It learns over time what data is reliable, and that's part of its learning process.
I have a great job at a great company.
I'm the kid that tried to take Latin in school because I felt if I could understand the root of everything, then I could understand why it worked. That was what took me into engineering. And the reason I stayed is, engineering teaches you to solve problems. It teaches you to think.
No matter what it is, you put too much, your heart and soul in it, you have to be passionate about it. You make too many sacrifices.
The recommendation when I'm mentoring folks, I always tell them - and we talked about this last year - take a risk.
