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>> Announcer: From theCUBE studios
in Palo Alto and Boston,
it's theCUBE, covering IBM Think,
brought to you by IBM.
>> Welcome back to theCUBE, I'm Stu Miniman,
and this is theCUBEs coverage of IBM Think 2020,
the digital experience,
we're getting to talk to the IBM executive,
the customers, and their partners
Where they are around the globe,
really happy to bring back the program,
one of our people online.
Michelle Peluso, she is the senior vice president
of digital sales and chief marketing officer
for all of IBM.
Michelle, thanks so much for joining us.
>> Thank you so much.
It's great to have you
as we get ready for Think 2020.
>> boy, Michelle, you know,
working for a big company like IBM,
I can only imagine how much
current global activities have impacting you,
anybody If you turn on TV,
you know that the ads that you're seeing
are obviously have a very different manner
than what we were seeing before this happened.
And, you know, the focus of Think,
of course, you know, really centers around
what is happening, how you're helping IBM
(radio interference drowns out speaker) through there.
So give us a little bit of insight as to,
you know, how much the team has had the,
you know, rapidly move towards the new reality?
>> Well, like our company has been very focused
on a couple of major parties.
First of all, our people
keeping them safe and healthy and thinking about
what are we learning from all this?
How do we use new tools in different ways?
How do we work in agile ways
that will outlast even this current crisis?
Secondly, of course, our clients
we have pivoted hard
to the essential offerings for recovery and transformation
our clients need most right now.
Things like business continuity,
things like enabling Watson to
engage all your customers virtually,
things like supply chain resiliency,
things like increased agility on the cloud,
health and human Services.
These are new offerings, new bundles
that we know our clients need most right now,
and so we've been pivoting hard.
Third thing, as a marketer, of course,
I've been very focused on
how does the brand show up in this moment?
How do we think about
this cadre of events we used to do in person?
How do we transform and think about generating demand
in a virtual world,
really improving the end to end digital experiences
of everything we do?
And of course, lastly,
it's about how do we help create a cure?
How do we help make sure that
we speed this process along
so we've done a lot from Deming,
you know, taking super computing power
and really applying it to
the fight to find cures and find vaccines.
We have donated things like Watson assistance
so that governments can get access to
free chatbots to help their customers with
knowledge and information about COVID-19.
So, lots of things we're doing across all those friends.
It's certainly been a time of
really rapid transformation
and the most important thing we can do
is listen and pivot quickly.
>> Yeah, really important points Michelle,
listening to customers. I'm curious,
you know, what are you hearing from customers?
Obviously, you know, they have lots of challenges.
And therefore, it probably changed a little bit
how they think about who they partner with,
you know, who they go to, to be a trusted,
you know, partner in these times.
So, you know, what feedback Are you getting from customers?
How do they look at
the relationship with IBM in your ecosystem,
that might be a little different than before?
>> Well, we're talking to customers more than ever,
as you can imagine.
And I think we have seen seven offerings,
seven things that our clients
really are learning going through this experience
and need help with.
And those range as I mentioned earlier,
from supply chain continuity and resiliency
to the new cybersecurity landscape.
There's so many different and unique cyber risks right now.
Virtual teaming, virtual work from home.
Business continuity and resiliency,
increased agility on the cloud
things like, you know, making sure that
we're supporting the health and
human Services of our people.
So those are some of the examples
of what matters most to clients right now
virtually engaging with customers with Watson.
So those are the things that we have pivoted hard
to make sure that we help our clients
with the essential process of recovery and transformation.
Because there isn't going where,
there's no back to normal.
We were very convinced
that this is a rethink
and Think 2020 is coming at the perfect time,
as businesses start to slowly reopen their doors.
You know, it's going to be a very important conversation
with our clients
on how we accelerate recovery and transformation.
And transformation is important
because we have learned a lot.
And there are some things that
we need to go back and improve.
And there's some lessons we've learned that
we can, you know, take with us
into this sort of new world.
So it's a challenging time for sure.
But it's also one that is ripe with opportunities.
And I've seen so much creativity and so much dedication.
As we, you know, we had to remake Think in 60 days,
a totally new platform,
you know, new capabilities, new content,
and at three x the volume.
So the teams have done a remarkable job.
And I'm excited for the conversation.
>> What I'm curious, what you're hearing,
is customers that are, you know,
starting are in the midst of that journey,
is the global pandemic,
is it accelerating what they're doing?
Is it stalling them?
They're not definitely finding,
(mumbles)
>> you know, and I think it's really two things.
One is, how does the team operate
and you know, I've been very passionate
for my entire career about
agile as a discipline,
small cross functional teams
aligned on a mission, shared values,
really have an incredible ability
using the agile rituals to prioritize
and to move quickly and to optimize
that is more important than ever before.
That is what is enabling kind of
this more rapid, you know, cycles we're seeing
and then I think are critical.
>> What should we be taking as lessons
and, you know, new practices
that will continue in the future?
>> Well, from a client perspective,
I think we're going to see
where digital has always sort of been,
you know, mission critical.
I think there's going to be incredible and continued,
you know, rapid acceleration to a digital environment.
And that's not just outside in what, you know,
do we have a good mobile app?
Do we have a good web experience
that's inside out.
How do we digitize the, you know, the call center
so that customers can get virtual answers with chatbots?
How do we digitize and use AI
to improve HR, supply chain
apart from fundamental, you know,
manufacturing operational procedures.
So that's one thing I think will be a permanent change.
Secondly, I think we're going to see
the same thing on the cloud,
I think clients that had you know,
three to five year journeys
on their roadmaps of how they think about
their cloud architecture in
what workloads are we going to move
to the public cloud?
Almost all of them are saying that now has to be compressed.
So I think we're going to see
more rapid acceleration and adoption and journey to cloud.
I think there's some new things
that we'll see in terms of blockchain and cybersecurity
and others that will also
reimagine the landscape of our clients.
On the people side, you know, we're adjusting, right?
We're going to have to figure out
this new way of being, this new way of normal,
which might be a bit more hybrid than we're used to.
Sometime in the office, sometime at home.
I fundamentally believe more agile teams
truly agile is a mission.
So I think these are just some of the areas
that we're going to see
a reimagination of how work gets done,
and what work gets done
to make us more resilient,
you know, stronger, and to emerge from
what has been an immensely challenging period for so many,
and personally so, for so many.
And how do we take some lessons from this?
So we emerged stronger
>> All right. So Michelle,
I was looking back at when we first (mumbles) on the cube.
And when you were, you know,
just coming on IBM as the CMO.
And you know, you talk then
about how you've always worked for digital companies,
so here in 2020, the global pandemic, of course,
you know, is on everyone's mind,
but when people leave Think,
how should they be thinking about IBM?
if, you know, what is different,
you know, and what is the same,
over 100 year old company, one of the most
trusted brands in the industry,
but new leadership with Arvind,
And how do you want people
to think of IBM going forward?
>> I think times of great challenge,
are actually meant for the IBM brand.
I think that our clients
are looking more than ever for partners they can trust
who can help them find
the world's most innovative technology,
with deep expertise and understanding of
how work actually happens across these industries
and with a blanket of Kind of security
and likely trusted, responsible stewardship
that matters more.
So I hope our clients and our business partners
because we have an immensely
rich agenda for our business partners,
I hope they emerge knowing that
IBM is their essential partner
for recovery and for transformation.
And there is simply nothing we won't do
to help them make their business stronger
and in so doing to build
a stronger more resilient world.
>> Well, Michelle Peluso congratulations and the team
on everything to make Think 2020 Digital
come and really appreciate
being able to participate with you.
>> Thanks for I really appreciate it.
>> Stay tuned for lots more coverage from the cube.
I'm Stu Miniman. Thanks for watching.
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