Leading Companies Through Transformative Moments in Time – Episode 5 of “Chambers Talks: A Podcast Series with John Chambers”

I could think of no better person to talk about how to lead a company through transformative change than my friend of 12 years, Jim Whitehurst, President of IBM. “Big Blue” has been an iconic player in the tech industry for decades – I even spent six years working for IBM early in my career. It’s never an easy challenge to change a successful company, but that is exactly what Jim and his team are doing right now because they recognize the needs of their customers are changing. They are on a mission to go from innovating for their customers, to co-innovating with them – from jumping on the opportunity to competitive advantage, to the transition of creating the future together.

Jim shared countless actionable insights from firsthand experience in the fifth episode of my LinkedIn podcast – “Chambers Talks: A Podcast Series with John Chambers.” I was particularly intrigued as Jim talked about combining the cultures of IBM and Red Hat, which was acquired by Big Blue in 2019. By fusing collaboration, open debates, and risk-taking with IBM’s structured culture of working hard for the customer, IBM is now even better positioned to empower employees and teams to experiment and innovate really quickly. This has also helped IBM welcome even more partners – hyperscalers and startups – to its platform and ecosystem, ultimately empowering enterprises all around the world to have more decision-making power and choices with the public cloud.

?IBM is on a constant mission to deliver on its promise to always put the customer first, and I really enjoyed hearing from Jim about how they do this every day – and I think you will too. Give our conversation a listen above, or if you would prefer to listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, etc. you can visit our JC2 Ventures website: https://www.jc2ventures.com/chambers-talks/2021/2/26/episode-5-leading-companies-through-transformative-moments-in-time