Ginni Rometty on Nurturing Tech Talent, Building Strong Boards and Impact in Business

Ginni Rometty understands that the right talent, including a strong board, can make a big difference for companies of all sizes: She has spent almost 40 years in technology, including eight years as president, CEO, and chairman of IBM, where she oversaw 65 acquisitions and the creation of a multibillion-dollar cloud business. She also prioritized diversity, and in 2018, IBM earned the Catalyst Award for advancing diversity and women’s initiatives. Today, she co-chairs OneTen, an organization dedicated to giving one million Black Americans the skills and opportunities to help families secure sustaining jobs in corporate America over the next 10 years. I had the pleasure of talking to Ginni during the Tough Tech Summit hosted by The Engine, an accelerator and venture fund built by MIT, where I am Chairman of the Board. Ginni is now lending her talents as Visiting Innovation Fellow at MIT. There are many insights worth picking up from Ginni’s comments below, particularly if you’re a tech entrepreneur or leader facing the challenge of hiring the best and brightest today.

Sue Siegel: We’re coping with the “Great Resignation” and a heated war for talent. How did you find leaders in tech? ?

Ginni Rometty: When someone asks “How do you get talent?”, my response is: “It depends what talent you’re looking for.” It’s not as obvious as you think. For a very long period of time I would look for very specific hard skills. I learned that what I really wanted instead was people who had a propensity to learn or be very curious. In tech, the contemporariness of your skill changes so fast, even over a couple of years, that looking for the exact skills you need at an exact moment turns out to not be the right thing to look for.

At one time people would say to me, “You’ve got a lot of ‘old tech’ skills at the company—go get ‘new tech’ skills.” And I did that. What I found was the winner or loser was not one or the other. When we made mistakes it was often because “new skill” people came in and did things without really understanding some of the mission-critical work. But some of the “old tech” skilled people who really understood mission-critical systems would say, “You know what? I can actually work differently.” I had this “aha” moment that the real winner was whoever was willing to learn something new.

I also learned the value—and the particulars—of hiring disruptors. No matter how big or small your company is, that matters. Sometimes you hire a disruptor for just one chapter of your company’s story—they’re not there for the whole book. Recognizing when you’re doing that, and being clear with the rest of your team why and when you're doing that, matters when you bring new talent in.

SS: For many startup founders, it’s hard to find diverse talent. It’s not because there isn’t a pool—it's just not obvious how to do it. What advice do you have?

GR: If you only remember one word I say, remember “authentic.” You have to find in your heart why you believe this is important.

I was raised by a single mom. We were on social welfare programs and food stamps. My mom had to get a little more of an education to keep us from losing our home. It wasn’t a college degree, but she did it. My mom was smart—she just didn’t have access. For her to get started, it was a commitment to the value of education that mattered, not using having a college degree as the only criterion of whether somebody had really great skills or could be a great employee.

Inclusion, to me, is about equity and knowing that you can come to work and make the most out of whatever skill you have and build more skills and feel valued. I authentically believe I get a better team, more innovation, and a better product if I have this kind of talent.

Another reason for taking this approach is scale. In 2012, I couldn't hire enough cyber talent. So we went to high schools and community colleges in underserved areas, gave students a little bit of help and mentorship, and offered people a chance for the job. Fast forward to today and there are a couple hundred thousand kids coming through that program in 30 countries around the world, getting jobs that they start with just an associate degree. ?

Alternatively: I know the talent is there, if you look beyond having a degree to get started. You have to ignore systemic barriers when looking for a skill. I removed degree requirements for some jobs at IBM. Guess what? Those hires are more loyal, more engaged after one year, are equal or better at innovation—and 75% went on to get college degrees, plus some earned PhDs. So if you’re looking for diverse talent, look at pools you haven't looked at.

SS: Such a healthy way to approach this dilemma—expand your recruiting ground, don’t limit yourself to what it’s always been—take a fresh approach to where you are willing to find talent. Let’s now go to the other talent needed to grow companies…building boards and advisors. Knowing that the typical VC board is not one that the founder can necessarily control from the very beginning, how do you go about selecting people for a board to partner with for growth and scaling?

GR: Alignment on objectives is key. Frequently, with younger companies, the difference of opinion between the founder (or the current team) and the board members concerning things like the time horizon to go public is quite a big wedge.

The second thing that works for a young company as much as for an established company is the very simple act of writing down a matrix of the things you think the company needs and the things that you, the CEO, are not so good at yet. That simple matrix forces you to be honest about your weaknesses. It’s a sign of strength when people admit what they can't do versus what they can do. It gives you the ability to set out [prospective] board members against it and ask, “Do they have the abilities we really need here?”

Even though board members do not run the company—they are there for governance—it can be a great benefit to have a great technical leader on your board. Someone who asks the right questions on technology. Now, some founders will say, "No, no, no. I run the company, that's my job. I do the strategy.” But having someone with great tech skills on the board helps you see around corners.

SS: There are a lot of things you can't bring to your board. So how did you build your own personal board of advisors, your “kitchen cabinet”? And how did you work with them?

GR: I am not a fan of the kitchen cabinet. The best way to get advice is to treat everyone like they are your mentor. In my experience, if you ask people for input or help and are willing to listen, there's not a person who won't help you. If you’re respectful and listen more than you talk, everyone will become your sponsor and your mentor.

SS: This notion of companies serving people, planet, and profits has become a rallying cry. Can you talk a little about that and why it's so important in your view?

GR: I like to think of the mosaic of all the people I have learned from. One of them, one of the world's most famous investors, said to me “Ginni, run the company for the owners, not the renters.” So whether you would like to call it the purpose of the corporation or whether you would like to call it people, profits, planet, that’s irrelevant. They all mean the same thing, which is to run the company doing what is right for the long term.?

When I got involved in this work at the Business Roundtable and some wanted to make everything black or white—you either believed in Milton Friedman or you didn’t—well, I just don't see it that way. What I learned was that society determined that we should exist, society gave us the permission to exist as long as we have, and they only give that permission if you do the right things over a long period of time for all your constituents. And I’m mindful of what another executive of a very storied American company said to me: “Be careful. The day you get on the wrong side of society, it’s a very long road back.”