Businesswoman

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

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

You need to have a great support around you, people that empathise, understand and yet support, because these CEO jobs are all-consuming.

Ask yourself when you learn the most. I guarantee it's when you felt at risk.

You build your own strategy. You don't define it by what another competitor is doing.

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.

My mom had not worked a day in her life, and then she woke up when I was 15 and found herself with four children, no job, no money. But she set out and made it all OK for us, and from that, I saw that there's no problem that can't be solved.

If it's digital, it will be cognitive. If you think that, you're going to change the way you run a business.

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.

It's easy to have an act one and two. Go ahead and have an act three, four, and five. The saying is the easy part. The doing is the hard part.

I never look at an acquisition really by size.

If I have learned nothing else in all my years here, my biggest lesson is you have to constantly reinvent this company. That's how you get to be 103 years old.

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.

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

Be first and be lonely.

IBM existed a good 50 years before mainframes - we started with scales.

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.

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.

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.