>> Narrator: From
around the globe,
it's theCUBE.
With digital coverage of IBM Think 2021.
Brought to you by IBM.
>> 'Kay. Welcome back, everyone
to theCUBE's coverage of
IBM Think 2021.
I'm John Furrier, your host of the theCUBE.
We here with a great guest, Maria Winans
who's the CMO of the new spin-out,
the name, Kyndryl.
Maria, great to see you, CUBE alumni,
thanks for comin' on theCUBE.
Appreciate it.
>> Yes, no, thank you.
Happy to be here.
>> So, I was really excited about this
because the new name has been announced of the spin-out,
Kyndryl it's the name.
It's been some time.
What's been the reception?
Well,
the strategy and the reception.
I want to get into this, the brand.
But what's been the reception so far of the name Kyndryl?
>> Yeah. So, let me,
so,
let me
start by saying that,
really, again, excited to be here.
This is
Think 2021.
And
excited to kind of tell you a little bit
about Kyndryl.
Kyndryl, we announced it
on April 12th.
It was our reveal of the name,
been long anticipated.
So, I think
the response has been positive.
It's been long anticipated and it was very well received
by the market,
and by our own
kind of internal
employees that are part of Kyndryl.
And the reason being that it's very different,
it's very new.
And it also signals
directly where this company
is going,
and what this company is about.
Because
the underlining of the word Kyndryl is twofold.
One, it's
"kin," which is, stands for kinship.
So, it's about partnerships,
it's about the relationships,
it's about the enduring and nurture relationships
that we have work with our customers,
as well as our employees, and the way that we work.
And "dryl" is from tendril.
Tendril is about growth.
It's about new growth.
It's about continuous growth.
So, it's the growth that we want to set this company
for, but more importantly, the growth around,
you know, in conjunction with our customers.
So, kinship, tendril,
Kyndryl.
And at the heart of our company,
it's all about the people.
And the relationships with our customers.
>> Wow. That's awesome.
Well, thanks for giving us some insight into the name.
I was going to ask that question but you nailed it.
So, I like this because the theme here, "Think" this year.
And this is an industry theme,
but it's really prominent how you guys are executing
with the whole IBM red hat and the whole
system coming together with hybrid cloud is,
the word ecosystem is, has kind of this new meaning
and this vibe of working together
in a network effect, creating integrations,
so it's like
up and down the stack, whether it's technical
or personal relationships, or business relationships,
there's a communal effect here,
whether it's API is integrating together.
>> Right.
>> Or relationships.
So,
I love the name.
What was the process?
I'm always curious
like,
how long does it take? (chuckles)
Sure, it's like.
>> Yeah! No, no, no, it's a great question,
'cause it's not like, it's not like
we hate you like naming anything, right?
It's not like naming your dog like somebody says (chuckles)
it's, the corporate naming process is very rigorous.
It has been a journey for us
like any other corporate business that's naming
you know, their strategy, their brand strategy.
And
we worked with, as you can imagine,
with our legal teams, with our regulatory teams,
we looked at
linguistics.
We worked with linguistic experts
from around the world, over 70
because we're global company.
So, it was very important for us, not only
to understand how Kyndryl would land in our global markets,
but more importantly also, is what it would stand for.
And so we did a lot of interviews with our employees,
we did interviews with
obviously,
with our customers and prospects.
We looked at trends, we looked at our competitors,
we did market research.
And what,
you know, and within that,
we wanted to land on something that really was
at the heart of what this company was about.
And after all of those
kind of legalities that we went to,
it was, we were very, very fortunate that at the top
of our list,
was actually one of our favorites from the beginning.
And that was Kyndryl because at the heart of Kyndryl,
it really is about our people.
And that's what really what we wanted this company
to stand for.
This is a business,
that in a company,
that at its foothold, is 90,000 experts
in their field
that are going to be part of this amazing company.
And what we wanted to do is speak to
what was that the
kind of at the core
of the idea behind this brand.
What did we want to stand for and what were we going to be.
And that it was that we were going to be a brand that stood
at the heart of progress.
That's our brand idea for not only
the businesses that we are part of or with,
but at the heart of progress,
and at the core was our people and the work that we do.
The work that we do for our customers.
So,
it's super exciting to be able to land on something
that really can represent that
and also differentiates us from
the rest of our competitors in the market.
>> So, I love the overview.
Just real quick question on the language thing,
was there, does it mean the same thing
in different languages?
>> Yeah, and that's something that now is
what we're working on is,
how do we land it into all the different markets
in the appropriate meaning, again, that stands for
relationships and growth.
Relationships and growth.
And that's the work that we have to do
across all of our major markets where we do business.
And that's the exciting part,
to kind of work with our local teams.
Because this company at
the split hole, is what the work that we do
in the markets that we compete with our people,
and with our customers.
>> You know, got to ask, you know what, I remember
I look at
some of the branding exercises that I've been involved in
and talk to experts because I'm not a brand expert,
but I see a lot of like,
there's a lot of work that goes into it.
You mentioned a little bit,
insight into how that is there.
Is there like an architecture
for the brand strategy, 'cause you,
at a high level, I love what you're bringing in,
kind of the purpose
of the brand.
What's the brand strategy for Kyndryl?
You mentioned some of the core principles, first principles.
Is there like an architecture where here's the purpose,
here's our mission,
and here's like the founding principles.
Take us through the brand strategy of Kyndryl.
>> Yeah. Well, and
at the heart, there is a brand idea, right?
It is a little bit of what I talked about.
The brand idea is that
we are at the heart of progress.
The people and the work that we do.
And so, one of the things that we wanted to do
is really look at the art and the science,
bring humanity into the way that
we were going to activate this brand.
And that really is where our brand idea came about
which is at the heart of progress.
At the heart of progress
because
our purpose as a brand is that
together,
and that is at all levels together,
each of us,
you know, advances the vital systems
that power human progress.
Together, each of us
advance the vital systems that power human progress.
That is our purpose as a company.
And the idea, the brand idea is that,
you know, at a nutshell,
we're at the heart of progress for our customers,
for each other.
And underlining that, it's about the beliefs.
We want to really look at
how do we instill this healthy digital economy
to ensure that we accelerate humanity's progress.
You know, and so that's,
you know,
the whole idea of healthy relationships,
purposeful relationships that are about long-term
and sustainability
with our customers.
The openness that we want to encourage
in the diverse perspectives
across our company.
To promote stronger partnerships
with our customers and with our strategic partners.
And then more importantly,
it really had to represent the belief
that the right people,
the right teams with the right mindset
can do anything.
And you know, that they want,
anything can be accomplished.
Again, at the (stammers) heart where the people.
But what was also important in this,
is that we worked on our brand strategy
and our purpose, our brand ideas, and what were going to be
our beliefs
around enduring relationships, open partnerships,
right skills, right people.
But at the same time, there was a culture platform.
We wanted to be everything that we
have been at IBM,
brought the greatness of being part of the IBM company,
but more importantly,
and what our customers look to us for,
but then more importantly,
what is it that we want to lean into as we move forward?
And what was very important was,
how do we activate our experts
and really bring the continuum that what
our customers expect from us,
the expertise, and
that we're about with our people,
and lean into
this,
we want to have and activate a culture where our people
continue to be these devoted experts that are all about
how they're focused and committed
to shared success with our customers.
We're empathetic
and curious about really understanding where
our customers are today, and where they want to go
tomorrow.
We're restless.
And that's another word that we want to really activate
in our culture was, we're restless.
And that means we are continuously improving
ourselves, our skills,
and focused on the opportunity,
and every opportunity with bringing energy
and bringing excitement to the work that we do.
And then we're anticipating,
we're anticipating the what next.
Bringing insights and looking at making these
kind of connections outside of where our customers
may be today, opportunities for tomorrow.
And that really is at the heart
of our culture platform
that we developed in conjunction with our brand strategy
in support of continuing to do business
with our customers in the way that we have been
and what they expect from us
coming from IBM,
but the platform that we're setting forward.
>> That's a great
master class gem you dropped there
in terms of brand architecture and vision, great culture.
I love the progress
because it feels
like
that's what people want.
They want to move faster and they want a positive future.
And I think this idea of,
you know, open,
innovation,
progress,
inclusiveness, inclusion,
diversity, community,
it's the new way
of working.
What's,
what do you look for in the future
as this all comes together?
What's most exciting to you?
About the
future- >> Yeah, what's
(speaks faintly), is that this company
is about the service and our people.
You know, so as part of any new independent company,
at the heart of what we do,
is,
and really our offering,
or the people.
And
that's why it's super important
that here we are a company
that is at the heart of progress
because of the people and the work that we do.
We design, we run, we manage the most modern,
you know, efficient, and reliable technology
that our customers
expect from us.
And they run crucial, crucial parts of their organizations,
their business.
You know, we're the heart and lungs,
we're essential to these customers.
And that's the opportunity ahead,
is how do we continue to build those enduring relationships,
and more importantly, what excites me
as CMO for this brand
is that the heart of what I get to do is really,
our brand is our people.
And how do we best show up, every single day.
And how do we build a culture
because
building a culture is
how you show up for each other,
how you show up for your customers,
and how you continuously improve
and lean on each other
in the way that we
kind of have set ourselves forward.
So, that to me is exciting
to really work at the heart of progress
because of the people,
and then the work that we do for our customers.
>> That's super exciting.
I love that cultural vibe
because what that is, is that's the future.
And now, as people are connected,
whether they're
go back to hybrid office or remote,
the working together progress creates bonds of creation.
This co-creation,
somethin' that we love
here at theCUBE,
we love working with you guys,
co-creating content together.
These experiences of the creation
together, the solutions for the future
really makes a big difference.
This is
game-changing as a psychology,
also people want to be part of that.
And that creates these
expert,
network,
it creates the people value, the inclusiveness.
If you can thread that needle, it's a magical formula.
Don't you agree?
>> Right. No, totally agree, it creates
belief.
And as much as that we like to say,
we're super excited about the name,
we're super, super excited about
the way we're showing up.
I don't know if you've seen
even the brand creative,
very different colors, very different twist
on the way that
our brand's written in a very warm red.
That what's exciting about it is, you know,
is the best of companies are not just the brand
and the logo.
It's really the brand experience.
And that is the way that we need to show up with
our best of service
with the customer,
you know, interactions that are best in class.
And a culture platform that really
you know, provides that experience and shows up as a company
that Kyndryl has the opportunity to be and grow to be.
>> Maria Winans, CMO, Kyndryl, great to talk to you.
What a great career you've having,
what a run.
You're on a great wave here
with a great brand, great brand promise.
Love the progress, love the culture,
love the name.
Congratulations, thanks for coming on theCUBE.
>> No, thank you, and thank you for having me here.
Appreciate it.
>> Okay. This is IBM Think 2021 Cube coverage.
I'm John Furrier, your host.
Thanks for watching.
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