Ginni Rometty
Ginni Rometty
Virginia Marie "Ginni" Rometty is an American business executive. She is the current Chairwoman, President and CEO of IBM, and the first woman to head the company. Prior to becoming president and CEO in January 2012, she held the positions of Senior Vice President and Group Executive for Sales, Marketing, and Strategy at IBM. She joined IBM as a systems engineer in its Detroit office in 1981...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBusiness Executive
Date of Birth29 July 1957
CountryUnited States of America
Embracing new ways of managing key business processes, such as procurement and accounts payable, allows leading companies like Colgate to uncover significant new sources of value within their operations. We're pleased to help Colgate move its business forward using our organization's expertise in procurement innovation coupled with IBM's well established group of supply chain and accounting professionals.
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'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.
I think, particularly in our tech industry, this is an industry that has violent innovation and then commoditization, and it's a cycle of innovation/commoditization.
I learned to always take on things I'd never done before.
Be first and be lonely.
And so when I moved to IBM, I moved because I thought I could apply technology. I didn't actually have to do my engineer - I was an electrical engineer, but I could apply it. And that was when I changed. And when I got there, though, I have to say, at the time, I really never felt there was a constraint about being a woman. I really did not.
Every part of your business will change based on what I consider predictive analytics of the future.
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.
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.
I think, given who the IBM target company is, I feel our purpose is to be essential to our clients.
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.
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.'
Whatever business you're in - it doesn't matter - it's going to commoditize over time. It's going to devalue. You've got to keep moving it to a higher value.