Name: Ginni Rometty and John Stumpf on Being Lifers at Their Companies
Uploaded: 2015-11-03
Duration: 4 min 18 s
Description: The IBM and Wells Fargo CEOs discuss whether its a good idea for employees to work at the same place for their entire career.

Ginni Rometty and John Stumpf on Being Lifers at Their Companies

The IBM and Wells Fargo CEOs discuss whether its a good idea for employees to work at the same place for their entire career.

So you know, another interesting thing about the two of you is that you have you were both basically lifers with the company you work for. I mean, in a way, you're talking about industries conflating. I'm not that good, but do you feel old? You know, you're talking about all these industries crossing, overcoming together. You've worked at IBM pretty much your whole career. You worked at Norwest and Wells Fargo Pretty much your whole career is that in this world that's changing so rapidly and ideas are coming at you from so many different directions, is that a good model? Is that an advantage is at a disadvantage that you've had to fight against? Uh, I think it is. Uh, actually, I think it can be good, and it can be bad, depending on where you are. And so you have to balance those things good and that you know how to change an organization and work with it, what it's capable of at its sole. Because I think part of what it is that we do is I would say you have to have the wisdom to know what must endure and what must change. And so because you build on top of that, on the other hand, extremely open to things and ideas on the outside. And so, you know, I look at our company with almost 400,000 people and greater than 50% are millennials, 81% of the hiring millennials. I don't think people think of all that new idea coming in in. Many folks from the outside blended together, And so I think that that is that is a fact of life. Of how we live is that these ideas come from all different places and you have to embrace them and you have to be open to them. I mean, and I think part of what drove that for us is, you know, now, even in my tenure, I think I've done close to 40 acquisitions, right? It's and we've done 150 over the past 10 years. You got to embrace these different ideas to move forward, and so I think that doesn't matter what industry that you are in, and it's how you balance those things. What do you think? I'm where Jenny as I think that it can be a strength and a weakness I think the more important thing is the culture of the company. You have a learning culture, and you have a collaborative culture and a culture that's willing to disagree without being disagreeable. And if you have those attributes, no one person is gonna have all the information. It really is a team sport, But the companies that are, I think the most enduring the ones that have the best chance at winning in the future have the ability to be able to reinvent in a way that's managed chaos. And you can do that with people you trust. I want to come back to go. And I was just gonna say, um I think one of the things that I have learned over time and I have to I've credited John with this many times because when I had first become CEO, I had gone and talked to John a lot about because he has done a great job with the culture of wealth, and, uh, I could give I think, the speech of importance here about employee engagement and how the engaged employee drives the client experience and drives your results, not the other way around. And he's done a masterful job with that. And that's why Wells has left time I looked at with six or seven products per for customer versus the average in the industries. Maybe two or three. I'm giving a talk, and it's a wonderful job on this. And so I wanted to ask for it to You said, Well, how do you drive? Change? In some ways, I often think about our jobs as the chief engagement officer, right? Not CEO, chief executive chief engagement officer. And in this day and age, with the kind of social tools within our own companies, your ability to react and interact with so many and get the truth about, I would say, Take me like a nanosecond to find something out because of the way the all the structure kind of goes away with these tools. And now you open that up in those channels up and an ability to drive change, and I don't think that should be underestimated as a way to harness these large workforces. How much of your time do you spend communicating in that engagement with? I mentioned 2025%? I mean, I leave tomorrow morning to go to Charlotte and I'm gonna do a town hall. I do a town hall every quarter and it's Webcast it. And when it's alive with a couple of 1000 people, any questions, a good question and and if you can get a large group of people to be moving in the same direction but not lose their critical thinking and their critical challenge to the process in that there's magic in that.