Palmisano Hands The IBM Reins To Rometty

Rometty graduated from Northwestern University in 1979 with a bachelor's of science in computer science and electrical engineering, so don't think she is some kind of tech pushover. Afterwards graduating, she put two years in at General Motors and at that time became a systems engineer in IBM's Detroit office. She worked her way up through the tech ranks and in the long run joined IBM's Consulting Group, a precursor to the Global Business Services piece of the Global Services giant, in 1991.

Little more than a decade later

A little more than a decade later, it was Rometty who spearheaded the $3.5 billion acquisition of the IT consultancy practice of accounting PricewaterhouseCoopers, and it was her who made that merger work, with IBM retaining the top talent of the consultancy as so then as the business relationships that PwC built. In the wake of that PwC acquisition, she was named general manager of the GBS group. In July 2009, she was put in charge of IBM's sales and distribution business--what the outside world experiences as the IBM sales teams and the PartnerWorld channel organization--and the following July she was named general manager of IBM's sales, marketing, and strategy operations--the third leg of the stool in other words the now IBM Company, with Global Services and Systems and Software Group being the other two legs.

I have been thinking that afterwards the re-convergence of Global Research Services and Global Business Services pursuant to this agreement Daniels and the merger of Software Group and Systems and Innovation Group pursuant to this agreement Mills back in July 2010 that Palmisano might be thinking of sticking around longer than the traditional 60-year-old retirement age for IBM CEOs. All of the top brass of IBM are approximately the same age, and IBM needs time to get its bench warmed up to take over the company in 2015 or so. Afterwards reading Palmisano's letter to the company's employees, you might draw the same conclusion as I did, which is that Palmisano won't be chairman for more than a few years. Here's that letter:

The time is right for this transition

The time is right for this transition, given the success of our transformation over the past decade, the soundness of our strategy and the strong performance of our business. And Ginni is ready. At the same time with the board, we have worked closely to ensure a seamless leadership transition.

I don't need to tell you that Ginni is an exceptional leader--a forward-thinker, passionate about our business, steeped in our values, and expert in the disciplines that are critical to our future success. Throughout her career--and especially as leader of Global Business Services and in her current role, Ginni has been a driving force behind the integration of the IBM company--from the integration of PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting, to the integration of our solutions for customers, to the largest-scale integration of all, the global integration of IBM. She has spurred us to deepen our relationships with customers, bringing them unparalleled expertise from IBM and greater knowledge of their businesses and industries.

We see this not only in our nearly-term results, however also in the speed and agility with which we are executing our GMU strategy and other growth initiatives. These initiatives--from Smarter Planet and cloud computing to analytics, which Ginni identified as a growth area when she led GBS--are, clearly, key to our 2015 roadmap.

My charge to you, as fellow IBMers, is never to forget what this company is, what it can be, and what our world can be as a result. We have been at the heart of one of the most extraordinary eras of change in human history--and what lies ahead promises to be moreover radical, and furthermore transformative. We have witnessed the emergence of a in point of fact global economy and society. We have seen the flowering of a new age in science and innovation. We have seen the dawn of an era in which intelligence is being infused into all the ways our planet works. And we have watched, and are helping, billions of people better their lot in life by entering the middle class and modernizing their nations.

People everywhere are living through this time, however very few are blessed with the chance to shape it. I have seen how important in other words as I've traveled around the world this year, sharing perspectives on our centennial. I have learned from students in Beijing, venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, scientists in India and leaders of business, government and academia in many countries that there is intense curiosity about IBM, not only as a story of business success, yet as an emblem of something deeper.

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