Ted Audio Collective

Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant. Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast on the Science

of What Makes Us Tick. I'm an organizational psychologist and I'm taking you inside the

minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.

My guest today is Jenny Remetti. The longtime CEO, Chairman, and CEO of the University of

Britain and President of IBM. As the ninth leader of the Centrialed Company and the

first woman to take the helm, Jenny spearheaded major change, building a massively successful

cloud business, and making IBM a front runner in AI and quantum computing. I brought Jenny

to the authors at Wharton series to discuss her new book, Good Power, and I was taken

aback by how she walks her talk. I watched her treat our staff and students with rare

dignity and curiosity, not only fielding their questions, but also showing a sincere

interest in their experiences and their insights. So here's my conversation from the stage

with an unusually down-to-earth leader.

The place I wanted to start is what did you want to be when you were growing up? Did

you know you were going to be the CEO of IBM? Oh come on, nope. I am sad to tell you

I had no vision. I had only hoped at one point that I could be independent, make enough

money to support myself, and maybe I thought about being a doctor until I could not pass

human reproduction. I just thought I want to be independent. I hope to do okay. I hope

if I do a job okay, I'll get another job and that was how it started.

When did you start to realize that you might be able to run one of the biggest tech companies

on earth? You know, wow. Okay. When did you think you'd be a best-selling author?

The day had happened. Okay, yeah. Exactly the answer. That is exactly

...