Ginni Rometty

I think when you're a big company, sometimes people think of process as the client themselves.

I always say to people, your process is not your customer.

There is a real customer here that you exist for.

And that's really easy to fall into because people are a master to this process.

And that's not right.

And when you're big, the other thing, and boy, there's a premium on it, is speed, right?

That in our industry, you got to be fast.

And go back, like when I took over and it was 2012.

You know, we had a lot of catching up to do and a lot of things to do, and it was moving so fast.

And as you well know, all those trends were happening at once, which made them go even faster.

And so pretty unprecedented, actually, for that many trends to be at one time.

And I used to say to people, go faster, go faster, go faster.

And honestly...

I've tired them out.

I mean, it kind of dawned on me that when you're that big, that's a really valuable lesson.

And it taught me like the how's perhaps more important than the what.

Because if I didn't do something to change how work was done, like change those processes or, you know, give them new tools, help them with skills.

They couldn't, they'll just like do the same thing faster.

If someone tells you, you know, you've got hiking boots and they're like, no, go run a marathon.

You're like, I can't do it in those boots.