In this interview from Fortune Magazine, IBM’s Ginni Rometty reveals what’s next for the company’s talking supercomputer Watson, including its future service.
In addition, she discusses what it means for IBM to be an innovation company at a scale of more than 400,000 employees, the five key pieces of continuous transformation, and more.
Fortune senior writer Jessi Hempel interviewed the IBM CEO last week at the National Venture Capital Association’s 40th anniversary conference, VentureScape.
Watson, IBM’s Jeopardy!-winning supercomputer, is about to become an advisor to research-oriented industries, says IBM Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty.
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty
Speaking in San Francisco this week to the annual meeting of the National Venture Capital Association, she said that Watson is part of a third era of technology, in which computers learn.
In fact, given today’s confluence of cloud, mobile, social and big data technologies, future historians may regard this era as “a golden era of technology,” she said, because the vast amount of information being generated will change how individuals make decisions and how companies work. Read what else she had to say, in this article by Deborah Gage at The Wall Street Journal.
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What did you think of this article and what’s next for Watson? Let us know in the Leave a Reply field below.
IBM today announced first-quarter 2013 diluted earnings of $2.70 per share, a year-to-year increase of 3 percent. Operating (non-GAAP) diluted earnings were $3.00 per share, compared with operating diluted earnings of $2.78 per share in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 8 percent.
First-quarter net income was $3.0 billion, down 1 percent year-to-year. Operating (non-GAAP) net income was $3.4 billion compared with $3.3 billion in the first quarter of 2012, an increase of 3 percent.
Total revenues for the first quarter of 2013 of $23.4 billion were down 5 percent (down 3 percent, adjusting for currency) from the first quarter of 2012.
“In the first quarter, we grew operating net income, earnings per share and expanded operating margins but we did not achieve all of our goals in the period. Despite a solid start and good client demand we did not close a number of software and mainframe transactions that have moved into the second quarter. The services business performed as expected with strong profit growth and significant new business in the quarter,” said Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.
Virginia Rometty, IBM President & CEO
“Looking ahead, in addition to closing those transactions, we expect to benefit from investments we are making in our growth initiatives and from the actions we are taking to improve under-performing parts of the business. We remain confident in this model of continuous transformation and in our ability to deliver our full-year 2013 operating earnings per share expectation of at least $16.70.”
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IBM Honors Eight New Fellows: Congratulations to the Class of 2013
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty this week marked the 50th anniversary of the IBM Fellows Program by honoring eight IBMers with the company’s highest technical distinction. Only 246 individuals have earned this designation in the company’s history, 85 of whom are active employees.
The Class of 2013
“As we have for half a century, IBM is today honoring its most outstanding technologists and their contributions to computing and society,” said Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.
The eight new fellows – read about them here – join a distinguished tradition of excellence and innovation. Congratulations to the Class of 2013!
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Program celebrates its 50th anniversary as eight new fellows join a distinguished tradition of excellence and innovation
IBM CEO Ginni Rometty today marked the 50th anniversary of the IBM Fellows program by honoring eight new IBMers with the company’s highest technical distinction. Only 246 individuals have earned this designation in the company’s history, 85 of whom are active employees.
“As we have for half a century, IBM is today honoring its most outstanding technologists and their contributions to computing and society,” said Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer.
“Like all IBM Fellows, members of the class of 2013 are recognized leaders in the global technical community. In 2013, this leadership will be focused on IBM growth markets, where each of this year’s fellows will serve as an ambassador and resource to a different country.” These countries include Australia, Brazil, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, New Zealand, Nigeria and South Africa.
In the past, IBM Fellows, a group that includes five Nobel Prize winners, fostered some of the company’s most stunning technical breakthroughs – from the Fortran computing language to the systems that helped put the first man on the moon to the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, the first instrument to image atoms.
– Dinesh Verma, IBM Research
In announcing the program 50 years ago, Thomas Watson Jr. said, “We want to recognize outstanding scientific, engineering, programming and systems people who have made a record over a long period of time for sustained achievement. ” The class of 2013 reflects Watson’s vision. Together, they are adding to IBM’s legacy of innovation leadership and laying the foundation for a smarter planet.
In case you missed IBM CEO Ginni Rometty‘s historic speech last week before the Council on Foreign Relations, there’s good news: the replay is now available for you to watch anytime.
Ginni Rometty
In these early days of the 21st century, Big Data, analytics, cloud, mobile and social technologies are transforming our world. This new era of computing provides the instrumentation, interconnection and intelligence that make it possible to build a smarter planet.
But, in order to do so, countries, cities, corporations and individuals need to rethink how they go about achieving their goals. Watch the speech, followed by a Q&A session with the audience.
Join the conversation by using the hashtags #IBM and #CFRlive.
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Greater IBMers, let us know your thoughts in the Leave a Reply field below.
– Posted by Regan Kelly, Editor/Community Manager, The Greater IBM Connection
CECP, an organization that leverages the work of global corporate leaders to address societal changes, has conferred its Chairman’s Award for excellence in corporate philanthropy on IBM in recognition of the Smarter Cities Challenge (SCC). The SCC is a three-year, $50 million competitive grant program through which teams of IBM top talent contribute their skills to work with civic and community leaders to make cities smarter and move livable.
IBM Chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty speaks to more than 200 South African business leaders about IBM’s commitment to Africa at the IBM CIO Leadership Exchange in Johannesburg, South Africa on February 5, 2013.
(Graham Carlow/Feature Photo Service for IBM)
IBMbeen doing business in Africa for more than 90 years. Most recently, the company has been expanding its presence by focusing investments in more than 20 African countries.
