You will have many more goals in the years ahead. But do not confuse a goal with a purpose.
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 don't think anybody's just B2B or B2C anymore. You are B2I - business to individual.
Work on something that matters. Have courage.
You need to have a great support around you, people that empathise, understand and yet support, because these CEO jobs are all-consuming.
You build your own strategy. You don't define it by what another competitor is doing.
India will not be at the center - it will be the center of this fourth technology shift.
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.
Digital, it is not the destination.
Planes don't fly, trains don't run, banks don't operate without much of what IBM does.
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.
I never look at an acquisition really by size.
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.
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.
I often sit back and say, 'Be sure about what I believe.'
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.
Above and beyond, not only are we an innovation company, we are in service of our clients.
I have a great job at a great company.
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.
If you're clear on what you believe, you have a great foundation to go make a market.
India... what a big part you play in this story for IBM and for the world.
If you step back and look at technology from every era, it has displaced jobs but also created a lot of jobs.
I'm the ninth CEO of IBM. Every one of my predecessors has steered through a technological shift, and every one left the company in a better position than the person before them and prepared this company with a very strong balance sheet to allow it to continue to invest for the next shift.
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.
I was always surrounded by people that wanted to mentor you.
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.
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.
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.
This century, the 21st century, will be the Indian century - and I really believe that.
The social network will be the new production line.
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.
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 make their choice on size. I happen to not be a believer in that. I've often said, especially in an industry that's clamoring for growth, if I wanted size, I wouldn't have divested $8 billion of businesses.
Ask yourself when you learn the most. I guarantee it's when you felt at risk.
As I tell all our folks, the only reason we exist - make no mistake - is our clients.
If you ask me, 'So what is your business model?' Our business model's always about shifting to higher value opportunities.
When I think of revenue growth, I think of the words 'mix' and 'shift.'
Your value will be not what you know; it will be what you share.
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.
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.
There will be times you make decisions that actually detract from growth.
You can engineer change.
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 ability to please your shareholders comes because of what you do for clients.
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.
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.
You've got to keep reinventing. You'll have new competitors. You'll have new customers all around you.
I've always looked for challenges, and I have found plenty.
