Name: MPW Summit 2023: Leading Positive Change
Uploaded: 2023-10-11
Duration: 15 min 15 s
Description: Ginni Rometty, Former Chairman, President, and CEO, IBM; Author, Good Power; Co-chair, OneTen Interviewer: Ellie Austin, FORTUNE

Ginni Rometty, Former Chairman, President, and CEO, IBM; Author, Good Power; Co-chair, OneTen Interviewer: Ellie Austin, FORTUNE

MPW Summit 2023: Leading Positive Change 

Conferences

Next guest is on a mission to help people everywhere, make a meaningful change and solve problems and do it in a positive way. And if there's anyone who has the experience and tools to do it, it is Ginny Rometty, the former chairman and CEO of IBM Coacher at 110 author of the book, Good Power. Ginny is without question, one of the world's most influential leaders. During her tenure at IBM, she invented 50% of the company's portfolio, built a $25 billion hybrid cloud business and pushed for leadership in A I and quantum computing. She did so while keeping diversity inclusion and leading with purpose, a central focus. She joins Deputy editorial director of Fortune Live Media, Ellie Austin to talk about her journey to the top of the business world to share leadership lessons and to offer her thoughts on how good power can bring positive change. Please welcome them to the stage. Hello, everyone. Welcome Jenny. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Um So is Ruth alluded to in and Ellie before you start? Can I say something? Of course, you can I just, I uh Ellie, I got a chance to talk to you before this, but um I just wanted to tell everyone II, I haven't been back here for a few years and obviously, uh since I retired, but I wanted to thank you all for giving such the old dog a warm welcome. So, um I am very appreciative of that and the grandma of the group. So if you walk around the hotel with Ginny, you don't get very far because she's being stopped every three minutes. That's all. So it's been just under two years since you stepped down from IBM. Um As we had in the introduction, you've kept very busy. You've written a book, you're co-chair 1 10. What has that transition away from the CEO office been like for you? What have been the highest? What have been the challenges? Well, as I listened to the introductions this morning, though, many people are far away from that moment that they're stepping down. Yet, everybody is stepping into things now. So let me try to answer Ellie's question in a way that maybe it's useful for whatever stage of life you're in. Um, because I think one of the things that I transitioned that I discounted and didn't uh focus on enough till it was really late because I think we're all in our job till the day we're not. And uh Lou Gerner, who I worked for in the nineties, sort of the infamous Lou Lou would he's still my good friend and mentor to this day would call me in his office and say, you know, what are you gonna do? And I would say, well, I got this long list of ideas and he'd be like, you get a f go back and he says, you've got to think about, you've amassed this platform. And he's like, you know, in experience, what are you going to do to have impact or you're gonna really miss that? And, uh and he was right. And so my, my, my first thing I learned on this transition was and I'm glad it just all kind of linked together. I end up doing this work about 1 10, which is skills over degrees to get more and more people, better jobs. And uh so that was why I would say one thing I think. Um So I did that eventually, right? I got a plus on our last meeting on that and uh and, and sort of sorted out my priorities that way. And the other two things I'd say in the transition I learned, um you know, I think I, I said to all my men friends who had been, who had stepped down and they would all give me lots of tips. I went back to an arm and I said, I said, you guys were not honest. I said no one ever talked about how it feels to leave something you love. And I guess I said, it was like this, you miss this thing, you're going to nurture. And uh I said, you guys, we need to talk about that more because I wasn't prepared for that feeling of emotion. Um And then, and then the other thing, someone said to me, I learned in this transition and this, I think really will be helpful for you. They said, you know, when you step down from a career, sort of toward the end, he said, I don't know if someone wrote this book or was gonna, he said, 20 summers, I think 20 summers you have about 20 summers that you're physically able and all these things to do. So be judicious with your time. Be in, in, as I really thought of it. You know, I looked back and I thought, oh God, all those times I, if I was at a fortune conference in DC, my mom's there and I'd tell my sisters, you know, don't tell her I'm in town. I don't have time and then they'd say to me, well, then don't go on television. Ok. So I said, oh, so I like, ok, but I, I would have done more of that and it has certainly made me now. Absolutely. Like, make time for my husband and things like that. I, so those two things are feelings, I guess you didn't ask me. But it made me think of the transition, those two feelings of that lack of nurture and then this idea about, remember that time is it is finite and you're so used to controlling every minute. And then you realize, you know, it's a resource that never replenishes a lot has changed in our society since you became a CEO with how we think about gender, workplace, culture, social justice. I wonder when you look at the women who have come behind you in terms of rising through to that top office. Does that change mean that they're able to deploy their power differently to how you were? I, I think so, Ellie, Ellie and I were talking about this. You know, I can remember my first year a long time ago and I remember I was told when I was an NCO first things were look whatever you do do no media interviews, you will be defined as a woman. And that is not what we want, you defined as. And I'm like, but well, I relearned the lesson my mom taught me that I've talked about my mother here before. You know, if you don't define yourself, someone else will OK. So valuable lesson. But it was about, you know, just it would be tough, be firm, do all these things. And I think um what I do think is different now. Uh it isn't that the world needs just more women leaders. I think it needs more feminine leadership traits and, and that is what in the end, what I ended up writing about in good power because it was, I think you can do really hard things and I, I know you will do them in a positive way. And that, you know, I, I often said, well, everyone talked about what I did. I hope the greatest legacy I left was how I did it. And that to me, like, you know, Heather was up here earlier talking about divisiveness and that idea that you could unite people, you can appreciate their differences. But you know, you can love tension and conflict, but come to a closure, you could do it with respect. So I actually think this is the moment that, you know, men can have feminine leadership traits too, right? So I think it's very much across the board and I'm hopeful that um this is, I think a unique time though that what you do naturally is gonna really be in demand. You wrote in your book about your upbringing and specifically the adversity that a lot of the women in your family have experienced. I think your grandmother lost two husbands, your mother raised a family on her own after your father left the home. Um You talked about your concern about how you do things. What was the impact of that childhood on the way you thought about leadership and the people around you in the company? Yeah, I think um OK, I, I would say I was raised by three strong women. All suffered hu huge tragedies. Um But it did teach me, I, you know, and my mom is still alive. So I get to tell her in that book. But people sometimes say that book is a love letter to my mom and my husband. Um But I get to this idea that you are never a victim when you have nothing, you have power. And that idea is what has kind of stayed with me that it doesn't matter how bad the situation is, there is always a way forward and that's how to look at it. Don't complain. We all it handed our circumstances. I was handed IBM at a time when it was most tumultuous of change and I knew how deep it would be to have to change it. Um So I think that's what I learned, I learned that there is always a way forward and um, and that's what we're all here to do in one minute, I'm going to open it up. So if any of you have questions for Ginny, get them ready. If we're thinking about power, one very real tussle we're seeing in the workplace at the moment is the remote versus in person work. And I wonder how you look at that debate now and if you were running IBM today, what you would be communicating to your employees. Well, look, I am still a big believer of a human touch. All right, as much as I love technology, I would, I would say that. Um, and there's one, I'll just leave you with one thought about this debate back and forth when I thought about, you know, how did I progress through all the years? In essence, I was an apprentice. I was always doing something. I didn't know. That's probably not comforting for many people. But I mean, give me the thought that she's in a job doesn't know all the time. And, but that idea that I think a lot of jobs are like that, that you have to apprentice with people. And so that's to me why I think on one hand, you want to have people to give them freedom because I think one of the most important things to do to keep when people say, why aren't there more women in our jobs? You've got to keep them in the workforce. And so that's a million things you've got to do to get people to stay in or come back when they've left. And so it's not one thing. And so you have to give flexibility and the like fine hybrid work. But this other idea about if you're not around people, you lose that opportunity to apprentice. And I am so thankful to the like hundreds of people that I apprenticed under. So that's, that's why I think instead of trying to convince people it's good for the company, I try to talk to someone and say it's good for you. You know, that ability for you to learn. Does anyone have a question for Jenny, for the old dog? If not, I will keep going for. Now, um You're a big advocate of skills based hiring. That's so much of what 1 10 is about. Um And the organization has committed to placing 1 million black Americans in upwardly mobile jobs by 2030. Um How could society be different in 5 to 10 years if all organizations adopted skills based hiring? So, first off, um for those members, there's people in the room that are members of 1 10. Thank you. Um Let me give this just a teeny bit, little longer answer because um my commitment to this topic of hiring people for skills over degrees is very rooted. And Ellie mentioned my mom when my mom didn't have an education and we were on welfare. She, she had to go get some, a little bit of education to get a better job, a little bit, get a better job. I, I'm an engineer. Everything's an equation in my head. I took away that access and aptitude are never equal. My mom was smart. She had no access. Then I would go on and learn in my IBM career of having to reskill everyone. Um I would stumble upon, I've been on the stage and talked about the high schools and community colleges and we would start to hire people but not a lot. And I'd ask why we weren't hiring more of them, they could do cyber work, they could do these jobs and people would say, well, we only hire college degrees and phds and, uh, time would go up. We'd start, I'd start, you know, checking how many and how did they do? Get some data. I have all engineers to convince of this, more loyal, more attentive in about one year LD. Better performance. So this is interesting. 75% went back to get degrees. It taught me next equation where you start should not determine where you end. And then I would in the wake of the George Floyd murder, you know, in my mind, economic opportunity, the greatest equalizer to any kind of racism that's out there. So that's a little those things connect every dot to me to this topic. And so why I'm so focused on it now, Ellie Heather was up here to talk about the political system. I believe this is important if you believe in democracy and I do not think I'm overstating it. I think that if people don't view they have a better future, 65% of people do not have a college education. Like most of us, 80% of black Americans don't have a college education. There's not time to put them all through yet. They have valuable skills. So when you say, what would I, I think this country will come alive again because that's all people want. It's a better future for their family. Their kids to be able to provide for a family of four, etc or six or eight or whatever it is. So, anyway, so this is why I am so committed. So those of you that just, it's like a movement, I feel that's what we're trying to do as a movement to get everyone to adopt in our own companies, which by the way, half your jobs are over credentials. That's what I found in 10 years working on this. And by the time I left 15% the folks who are hiring did not have college degrees to start. It doesn't mean that's where they ended. Many went on. But for an 90% of the pool was black and Hispanic. So if you believe in an inclusive workforce, I'm like, I have just discovered they're like the greatest new talent pool that had been overlooked. And so now with 110 it's for everyone. I know it's like a commercial. It's a non profit. It's not a commercial. So, I mean, but the idea that I feel we can lift all boats, that's what I hope for it, that we lift all because it helps everyone those with and without degrees. Hey, I just listened to the last panel skills change every 3 to 5 years, every one of us is going to go through this. So to move the whole culture to be skills based as a talent strategy is really what's underneath it. Makes sense. We've got one time for one question. If you could keep it brief, that would be that she means if I keep my answer brief. Go right ahead. Exactly. Because you're a wealth of information. First of all, Jennifer Legi sales force. Um I just wanna thank you for being such an incredible role model for all of us. Oh And, and now that you're in this introspective space, I'm curious if there's anything that you could go back in time and change, what would you change? OK. Now, and in the process of writing a book, you end up with like a long list of this. Um So, um because I'd never intended to write a book. So, but here would be the 11 thing I would have changed. And I heard this, I heard a lot of women exemplifying this on the stage, you know, because I often was the only woman and certainly in tech, I spent a lifetime not talking about personal things. And I think being vulnerable is one, probably one of the most powerful tools for change that you have. And it really came to life to me writing the book. The book was one of the hardest things I'd ever done because it required me. I first wrote a very academic book with all the proof and data about this and they're like, no one's going to read this. And I'm like, OK, that's, well, that's not what I meant. It for and I had to go back twice and rewrite and it ends up to be a memoir with purpose, but it meant I had to tell my stories and, but now that I see the other side that that is really the only way to reach people. And so I think that idea, if you can, I heard Laura heard others say that storytelling as a leader is the most powerful way. So I would go back way earlier and have been far more vulnerable um decades ago and I think that I would have been a better leader, Ginny. Thank you so much. There's a lot of love for you in this room. We really appreciate you.