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

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

March 2, 2023

Duration

1h 52m

Channel

Lex Fridman Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Ginni Rometty is a former long-time CEO, president, and chairman of IBM. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:

• 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

EPISODE LINKS: Ginni's book: https://amzn.to/3KFuXHY Ginni's Twitter: https://twitter.com/GinniRometty Ginni's linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/GinniRometty One Ten Website: https://oneten.org PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 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 SOCIAL:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
• Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
• Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman
• Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Ginni Rometty

  guest

• Lex Fridman

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lex Fridman Podcast, featuring Ginni Rometty and Lex Fridman, Ginni Rometty: IBM CEO on Leadership, Power, and Adversity | Lex Fridman Podcast #362 explores ginni Rometty on Good Power, Reinvention, and Leading Without Fear Ginni Rometty, former IBM CEO, discusses how she led the century‑old company through its most significant reinvention toward hybrid cloud, AI, and consulting, while making many unpopular but necessary long‑term decisions. She explains her concept of “good power”: using influence to do hard, meaningful things in a positive, values‑driven way that serves clients, employees, and society. The conversation explores organizational change at scale, skills‑first hiring, AI’s promise and risks, and how adversity and hard work shaped her leadership. Rometty also reflects on imposter syndrome, diversity, work–life choices, and the importance of curiosity, learning, and relationships in building a life and career to be proud of.

🔗 RELATED EPISODES

Keoki Jackson: Lockheed Martin | Lex Fridman Podcast #33

Elon Musk: Neuralink, AI, Autopilot, and the Pale Blue Dot | Lex Fridman Podcast #49

Grant Sanderson: 3Blue1Brown and the Beauty of Mathematics | Lex Fridman Podcast #64

Rohit Prasad: Amazon Alexa and Conversational AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #57

Gary Marcus: Toward a Hybrid of Deep Learning and Symbolic AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #43

Christof Koch: Consciousness | Lex Fridman Podcast #2