Gender is a non issue today
On January 1, 2012, Virginia Rometty is tipped to take over the reigns of IBM from the present CEO Sam Palmisano. Rometty was working as global sales chief till now. IBM has an image of being a male dominated company and the 54 year old computer science engineer is going to be the first female CEO of the company. Both Wall Street and Silicon Valley have reacted positively to this news about IBM CEO. Come January 1, and both
HP and IBM would have women CEO’s.
The new IBM CEO had been running the revenue department for long in the company and so there were no raised eyebrows when the news broke about Rometty taking over from Palmisano and her ascension to the post of IBM CEO is being seen as only logical. The fact that Palmisano is staying in the company as Chairman makes it easier for Rometty to take on the reigns of the company in a smooth transition.
Rometty becomes a part of a small women CEO circle
The new IBM CEO will join a select circle of powerful female CEO’s around the world comprising PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi, HP’s Meg Whitman, Ursula Burns from Xerox, and Ellen Kullman from DuPont. In the field of technology, Rometty will slug it out with Whitman from HP. Imagine the two giants in technology being run by women CEO’s.
It was in June that talks about succession in this technology behemoth first raised head, and the fact that Virginia shared the dais with Palmisano then led many to believe she was the choice of those who mattered. It was in the tenure of Palmisano that IBM concentrated on software, services, and emerging markets, and if insider reports are to be believed, the roadmap till 2015 has already been built and the changeover of IBM CEO is not going to affect major policy decisions. Palmisano himself has declared Rometty as the most capable and devoted soldier of the company who brings her clear vision, focus, passion and unrelenting drive to the table. Rometty has been described by colleagues as someone being a bundle of energy that thinks in an analytical manner (because of her engineering background) and has a unique style of her own.
