WHEN: Today, Monday, January 9th
WHERE: CNBC's "Closing Bell"
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty on CNBC's "Closing Bell" (M-F, 3PM-5PM ET) today, Monday, January 9th live from the FinTech Ideas Festival. Following are links to the video on CNBC.com: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000582538.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
KELLY EVANS: NOW STARTUPS AND BIG BANKS ALIKE ARE VYING TO BE FIRST IN FINANCIAL TECHNOLOGY. AND EXECUTIVES FROM BOTH ARE MEETING TODAY AT THE INAUGURAL FINTECH IDEAS FESTIVAL IN SAN FRANCISCO. DEIRDRE BOSA JOINS US LIVE NOW WITH IBM'S CEO.
DEIRDRE BOSA: HEY KELLY, THAT'S RIGHT. AND LET'S GET RIGHT TO GINNI RIGHT NOW. AND I KNOW YOU JUST GOT OFF THE STAGE. WE'RE GOING TO TALK IN A MINUTE ABOUT THE FINTECH IDEAS FESTIVAL. BUT BEFORE THAT, I WANT TO ASK YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE ONE OF THE FIRST CEOs TO REACH OUT TO THE PRESIDENT-ELECT, THE FIRST CHIEF IN TECHNOLOGY TO BE NAMED TO HIS JOBS ADVISORY BOARD. NOW THAT WE ARE A FEW MONTHS ON, AND CLEARLY YOU HAVE THE PRESIDENT-ELECT'S EAR, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON HIS STRATEGIES, TACTICS, TOWARDS CORPORATE AMERICA?
GINNI ROMETTY: WELL, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT TOPICS I THINK FOR US ALL TO WORK ON IS JOB CREATION. AND TO ME, THAT'S EVEN MORE IMPORTANT IN THIS INDUSTRY. AND THAT'S ONE OF THE TOPICS THAT WE REALLY FOCUSED ON FRONT AND CENTER, WHICH IS SOMETHING CALLED NEW COLLAR JOBS. AND THIS IS THE IDEA THAT, YOU KNOW, I'M HERE AT THE FINTECH CONFERENCE. AND WE TALKED A LOT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES LIKE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ABOUT BLOCKCHAIN. AND WITH ANY NEW SET OF TECHNOLOGIES, WITH THEM COMES AN IMPACT. AN IMPACT OF PRODUCTIVITY TO JOBS AND THE LIKE, AND ALSO, YOU CREATE NEW JOBS AROUND IT. AND SO IN THIS COUNTRY, THERE ARE MILLIONS OF JOBS OPEN AROUND TECHNOLOGY AND THIS WILL COME DOWN TO BEING SURE EDUCATION'S IN PLACE. SO THIS IDEA OF NEW COLLAR SAYS FOR THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE HERE, THERE ARE MANY IN TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN BE DONE WITHOUT A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE DEGREE AND, THEREFORE, NEW COLLAR NOT BLUE COLLAR, WHITE COLLAR. IT'S NEW COLLAR. AND OUR CENTERS, SOME OF OUR BIG CENTERS IN THE UNITED STATES, A THIRD OF THE FOLKS DON'T HAVE FOUR-YEAR DEGREES. SO WE'VE WORKED WITH NOW IT WILL BE OVER 100 SCHOOLS, OVER THE WEEKEND I SAW A COUPLE MORE STATES OPENING MORE, CALLED P-TECH SCHOOLS. PATHWAYS TO TECHNOLOGY. THINK OF IT AS A FOUR-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL, TWO YEAR ASSOCIATE, COMMUNITY COLLEGE, SIX-YEAR DEGREE OR SIX-YEAR HIGH SCHOOL IF YOU WANT TO CALL IT THAT TO PRODUCE KIDS THAT HAVE GOT THE BASICS THAT ARE EMPLOYABLE AND IT'S NOT JUST IN OUR INDUSTRY, IT'S IN MANY INDUSTRIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY TODAY.
BOSA: AND YOU'RE TALKING 25,000 JOBS HERE IN THE U.S. OVER A NUMBER OF YEARS.
ROMETTY: OVER THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS. THAT'S RIGHT.
BOSA: 6,000 THIS YEAR. ARE YOU CREATING NEW JOBS HERE? ARE YOU THINKING ABOUT MOVING ANY MANUFACTURING OR SERVICES JOBS FROM CHINA OR INDIA TO THE U.S.?
ROMETTY: WELL, WE DO VERY LITTLE MANUFACTURING. AS YOU KNOW, WE ARE BASICALLY A SERVICES AND A SOFTWARE, A CLOUD COMPANY.
BOSA: OK, ANY SERVICES JOBS?
ROMETTY: AND WE DO MANUFACTURING. WE DO A FAIR AMOUNT OF MANUFACTURING HERE IN THE UNITED STATES ALREADY. AND SO THIS IS GOING TO ALLOW US TO DO MANY THINGS HERE. AND SO WE'RE BUILDING AND HIRING OUT IN THOSE CENTERS FOR CLIENTS. AND SO A LOT OF THIS IS AROUND THINK CYBER SECURITY, THINK ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, WATSON, AND WHAT'S OUT THERE. AND SO I AM QUITE CONFIDENT BECAUSE I'VE SEEN THE RESULTS OF THIS PROGRAM ALREADY AND WE'VE HIRED MANY, MANY KIDS OUT OF THIS ALREADY.
BOSA: THE REASON I ASK IS BECAUSE THE PRESIDENT-ELECT HAS HAD THIS STRATEGY OF TWEETING OUT AND WE KIND OF KNOW WHAT HIS STRATEGY HAS BEEN, BUT IS IT SOMETHING THAT WORRIES YOU THAT ONE DAY HE MAY DECIDE TO TWEET ABOUT IBM AND HOW MANY JOBS THAT YOU DO EMPLOY OUTSIDE OF THE U.S.? IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU THINK ABOUT OR CHANGE YOUR STRATEGY ON OR WORRY ABOUT?
ROMETTY: NO, ALL OF US THAT RUN OUR COMPANIES, ALL OF US TAKE THE RIGHT ACTIONS FOR WHAT OUR COMPANY IS. MANY OF US ARE GLOBAL COMPANIES, OF COURSE. WE HAVE WORK FORCES AROUND THE WORLD. THAT'S PART OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A GLOBAL BUSINESS. YOU HAVE SALESFORCES AND THE LIKE ALL OVER THE PLACE. SO LIKE OTHERS, WE CONTINUE TO DO WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING FOR OUR OWN BUSINESS AND DO THE RIGHT THING FOR IBM.
BOSA: I ALSO WANT TO TALK ABOUT IBM STOCK, WHICH HAS BEEN UP MORE THAN 25% OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS. ALSO THE PACE OF QUARTERLY REVENUE DECLINES HAS BEEN DECREASING. WHAT'S CHANGED? AND CAN YOU CONTINUE THIS MOMENTUM GOING FORWARD?
ROMETTY: WELL, WE'VE CERTAINLY SHARED VERY BROADLY OUR STRATEGY AND THE TRANSFORMATION THAT WE'VE BEEN ON. I THINK YOU SEE THREE THINGS PLAYING OUT. CLOUD, YOU SEE COGNITIVE, WHICH I'VE OFTEN SAID ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN UNDERPINNED BY INDUSTRY AND YOU START TO SEE THIS INDUSTRY DIMENSION SHOWING THROUGH. A LARGE PART OF WHAT I'M DOING HERE, JUST LOOK AT THE ANNOUNCEMENTS TODAY. THIS MORNING WE MADE AN ANNOUNCEMENT IN HEALTH CARE WITH ILLUMINA THAT WATSON WILL BE. AND THEY ARE THE WORLD'S LEADING GENOME SEQUENCING PRODUCER. WATSON WILL BE IN THEIR NEXT GENERATION PRODUCT. AND THEN, DTCC THIS MORNING. AS YOU KNOW, THEY ARE THE ONE THAT DOES ALL OF THE CREDIT DERIVATIVES AND WE MADE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT WITH THEM ON BLOCKCHAIN. SO THIS IS ABOUT SERIOUS BUSINESS WITH A STRONG INDUSTRY DIMENSION. CLOUD, COGNITIVE, BLOCK CHAIN AND YOU'RE SEEING THAT COME THROUGH.
BOSA: RIGHT. AND YOU WERE JUST TELLING ME EARLIER THAT THIS IS GOING TO BE A BIG YEAR FOR BLOCKCHAIN. SO LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HOW THAT –
ROMETTY: YES, I THINK FOR A NUMBER OF THESE TECHNOLOGIES THIS IS GOING TO BE A TIPPING POINT. SORT OF CHAPTER ONE IS OVER AND YOU'RE GOING TO SEE SERIOUS BUSINESS DONE WITH THESE. AND SO I TAKE SOMETHING LIKE BLOCKCHAIN, WHICH AT THE END OF LAST YEAR WE HAD ANNOUNCED CLS, WHICH DOES ALL OF THE FX SETTLEMENT – 5 TRILLION A DAY – BUILDING WITH IBM ON HYPERLEDGER, WHICH IS AGAIN, AN OPEN SOURCE BLOCKCHAIN, TO MOVE THAT PROCESS THERE.
BOSA: AND I THINK WE'RE GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT IT A LOT IN THE FUTURE.
ROMETTY: YOU WILL. THE OPPORTUNITIES ARE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS.
BOSA: THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR BEING HERE WITH US. WE LOOK FORWARD TO TALKING TO YOU AGAIN SOON. KELLY, BACK OVER TO YOU.
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