Ginni Rometty: IBM CEO on Leadership, Power, and Adversity | Lex Fridman Podcast #362

Joe Rogan gets comedians, Lex gets world-leading CEOs. I love the JRE for entertainment, but I feel the Lex Fridman Podcast will be more influential long term.

It's funny because as a senior software architect in the industry, IBM has the single worst reputation of any of the technical service providers. Parasitic, archaic, slow, poor workforce, poor technology, and extreme strangling of customers. Using a large database? Pay literal millions per quarter renting it out. Wanna replicate or move the database to a more scalable model? No. We won't let you. She can say what she wants, but while she doesn't view it that way, almost no newer company is going to invest into using IBM it services or technology.

I work in Siemens. "Your process is NOT your customer, there's a real customer here that you EXIST FOR" - that hit really hard 😅

Here are the timestamps. Please check out our sponsors to support this podcast. 0:00 - Introduction & sponsor mentions: - Athletic Greens: https://athleticgreens.com/lex to get 1 month of fish oil - ExpressVPN: https://expressvpn.com/lexpod to get 3 months free - InsideTracker: https://insidetracker.com/lex to get 20% off 1:19 - IBM 10:59 - Hiring 16:16 - Leadership 23:00 - Hard work 28:40 - Adversity 35:38 - Power 49:05 - Sacrifice 54:10 - Taking over as CEO 1:12:24 - Negotiating 1:17:31 - Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov 1:22:49 - IBM Watson 1:42:42 - Work-life balance 1:49:46 - Advice for young people

Used to work as a bag boy for her golf club. Her and her husband were always so personable and generous. Cool to see her on this podcast and get to know her a bit better

I've started listening to these podcasts while working out instead of music and I have to say it is so damn enjoyable. Thank you Lex for your endless curiosity, honesty, humor, and heart. You are a blessing 🙏😌♥️

I met Ginni Rometty in person when I was in SXSW this year. I told her about my story, how her "Growth and comfort never coexist" helped me get through some really difficult challenges I faced as a solopreneur. I still remember her saying, "stick with it!". Yesterday and today were really mentally challenging in that I faced a new gig (that I never have done) but I guess I will keep going!

Love how you’re able to bring out the humanity in all your interviews, keep it up brosky

As a female engineer and manager I am very thankful, that you provide such a variety of interviewpartners. I learn about people I would otherwise never have and being able to listen to them in such a longform and with you always being so genuinly interested and gentle in your dialogue is incredibly enriching to me. Thank you.

It is quite interesting to listen to the viewpoint of someone that managed to run one of the worlds top companies into the ground so hard they're barely clinging to life today. Not a common viewpoint for sure. Not being sarcastic, I really mean it. This is a great guest for the podcast.