Ginni Rometty Quotes

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

Growth and comfort do not coexist.

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“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.'”

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“Be first and be lonely.”

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“When you remove layers, simplicity and speed happen.”

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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.

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

“Don't let others define you. Define yourself.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty

“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.”

— Ginni Rometty

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

— Ginni Rometty