Ginni Rometty Quotations

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.

Don't let others define you. You define yourself.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You make the right decision for the long run. You manage for the long run, and you continue to move to higher value. That's what I think my job is.

Clients say, 'What's your strategy,' and I say, 'Ask me what I believe first.' That's a far more enduring answer.

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.

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.

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.

Never love something so much that you can't let go of it.

Someone once told me growth and comfort do not coexist. And I think it's a really good thing to remember.

You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you.

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.

You have to stick up for what you believe in. And that, to me, is the biggest thing you can do about driving inclusion.

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.'

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.

I learned to always take on things I'd never done before.

I think, given who the IBM target company is, I feel our purpose is to be essential to our clients.

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 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 always say, you know, if I sit here and close my eyes and say, 'When did I learn the most in my life, in my career?' It'll always be when I close them and everything I think of is when I took a risk. It's when I think I learned the most.

If you're clear on what you believe, you have a great foundation to go make a market.

Every part of your business will change based on what I consider predictive analytics of the future.

We're about to scale something now that couldn't have been scaled before.

For most companies, isolated business process reengineering is no longer enough. They now realize the importance of tying together data across disparate business processes--because this provides a holistic view of enterprise operations and enables the company to innovate at a business model level, whether it's linking price to demand and supply variables in real-time or understanding risk as it is being incurred to drive customized insurance policies.

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.

When you remove layers, simplicity and speed happen.

Be first and be lonely.

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.

It's very clear that CEOs today are looking at new kinds of innovation to drive substantial organizational change and business growth. It's not just product innovation any more. It's about understanding how to innovate a business model, or an operational process, or management behavior -- such as real-time risk management, collaborative pharmaceutical development, or digital film distribution.

For CEOs today, it's all about achieving growth and efficiency through innovation. It's not about product innovation so much anymore as about innovating business models, process, culture and management.

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.

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.

We have started something called the Corporate Services Corps. Now, it was modeled after the Peace Corps from long ago, the 1960s. And the idea was in this modern day and age, how do you get IBM'ers around the world to be global citizens? You know, globally aware, contribute, understand how to work in that environment, but do it on scale.

Any city has to give some thought to its ambition and brand in order to set sustainability goals.

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.

And the reason I came to IBM was I think - I always say at a really early age, I learned you've got to be passionate about what you do. 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.

Big data is indeed a buzzword but it is one that is frankly under-hyped.

Big Data will spell the death of customer segmentation and force the marketer to understand each customer as an individual within eighteen months, or risk being left in the dust.

The social network will be the new production line in a company,

Don't let others define you. Define yourself.

The most important thing for any of us to be in our jobs is curious.

To me, I learned along the way, you know, culture is behavior. That's all it is; culture is people's behaviors.

For CEOs today, it's all about acheieving growth and efficiency through innovation. It's not about product innovation so much anymore as about innovating business models. process, culture and management.

Growth and comfort do not coexist.

Your value will be not what you know; it will be what you share.

One of the most important things for any leader is to never let anyone else define who you are. And you define who you are. I never think of myself as being a woman CEO of this company. I think of myself as a steward of a great institution.

I learned to always take on things I'd never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.