Ginni Rometty Quotes

If you want to be promoted into the first league of carmakers, then you can't just follow suit.

Those that start things have an advantage over those that follow.

I just really love being the first to do something and that drives me to think, 'What are people not doing right now, and how can I be the best at it?'

We were in the market ahead of competition. We brought new products on the market ahead of competition. We rolled out our networks. We begged, borrowed, stole, put things out. And while they were never near perfect, they were first. And that gave us, to my mind, a lot of advantage.

If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business.

You don't want to be first, right? You want to be second or third. You don't want to be - Facebook is not the first in social media. They're the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Jobs' history, he's never been first.

I think it's a competitive advantage that both Amazon and Google and other tech companies have over a lot of their counterparts. They take big risks and are pioneering new markets with the promise of big rewards. It's why Amazon is kind of reliably starting new businesses and opening kind of new frontiers.

The greatest companies in the world were started and are run by fanatics.

For us to be successful, we have to kick our competitors' butt.

You have to be the first, best or different.

The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.

To escape the curse of commoditization, a company has to be a game-changer, and that requires employees who are proactive, inventive and zealous.

You've got to figure out how you're going to come in and significantly impact and redefine a market such that you become a market share leader in it.

I've been fortunate to come on places where the question isn't why did I do it? The question to me is always, why didn't anybody else do it before me? Those are the ones that I scratch my head about.

To be successful be ahead of your time, but only a little.

Most of what we've done at SurveyMonkey is create a market, which I would say is much harder than trying to enter a market that already exists. But if you get it right, it can become a great business.

Wal-Mart's success strategies and tactics are easy to understand yet hard to duplicate.

Don't follow trends, start trends.

If we make the tough decisions now, we will be one year ahead of 80 percent of the states in the race to economic growth. If we fail to act, we will fall even further behind... by going first, we can become first.

I'd rather Apple cannibalize Apple than somebody else cannibalize Apple.

The best founders are extremely thoughtful and have an eye for quality. I don't know if there's any generic advice here that would be helpful. Startup knowledge is a moving target.

It is always the adventurers who do great things, not the sovereigns of great empires.

There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.

Like all pioneers I have labored more in faith and hope.

We must compete or retreat.