I think, given who the IBM target company is, I feel our purpose is to be essential to our clients.
The ability to please your shareholders comes because of what you do for clients.
Above and beyond, not only are we an innovation company, we are in service of our clients.
As I tell all our folks, the only reason we exist - make no mistake - is our clients.
When you manage your company for long-term shareholders, and you manage the company for clients, two of the biggest stakeholders, you will make the right decisions.
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.
If it's digital, it will be cognitive. If you think that, you're going to change the way you run a business.
The ultimate competitive advantage is being cognitive.
Think about when a digital business marries up with what I'll call 'digital intelligence.' It is the dawn of a new era about being a 'cognitive' business. When every product, every service, how you run your company can actually have a piece that learns and thinks as part of it, you will be a cognitive business.
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'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.
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.
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.
You build your own strategy. You don't define it by what another competitor is doing.
You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you.
You will have many more goals in the years ahead. But do not confuse a goal with a purpose.
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.
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.
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.
