Newly appointed CEO of IBM, Arvind Krishna has asked employees to be more entrepreneurial in their mindset across its business and has urged them to adapt to changing circumstances.

In an email to employees, Krishna who became the 10th CEO of the century-old old company started out by saying that the world is in the midst of a global public health crisis unlike any other that it has faced, which is affecting everyone and has disrupted the rhythms of daily lives.

“Our first priority is your physical health and mental well-being”, he said adding that the company is cognizant of the impact COVID-19 is having on IBMers’ families, friends, communities as well as its clients.

Krishna then pointed out that one of his key priorities will be to foster an entrepreneurial mindset across its business. Culture is everything. It’s what drives capability in any organization. This is about being nimble, pragmatic and aiming for speed over elegance. And, it’s about being comfortable with ambiguity and continuously adapting to shifting circumstances,” he said.

IBM’s mainframes powers many of the world’s financial systems, along with its services and middleware. While all three continue to service clients, Krishna said that now the time to build a fourth platform in hybrid cloud. Hybrid cloud and AI are two dominant forces driving change for our clients and must have the maniacal focus of the entire company, Krishna stated.

A hybrid cloud as the name suggests is a mix of computing in private and public cloud. Cloud computing means using computing resources on subscription. To put it in perspective, Krishna in 2017 who was heading its cloud computing division, proposed a hybrid cloud strategy as a future strategy. The cloud is a trillion-dollar market where Amazon and Microsoft are far out in front.

Krishna also announced some global leaders across some of its lines of business. He concluded by saying that in its 109-year history, it has weathered countless storms and seen many crises unfold. “Today, we are financially strong, and we have a loyal client base. When this crisis ends, I’m confident that IBM will emerge strong and we will be focused on growth,” he said.

comment COMMENT NOW