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You cannot have companies where many of the largest ones lose money indefinitely without someone finally waving the white flag, and IBM is the most recent example of that.

We can learn from IBM's successful history that you don't have to have the best product to become number one. You don't even have to have a good product.

You know, IBM was almost knocked out of the box by other types of computer software and manufacturing.

IBM has research and development; so do Microsoft and Nike and even Jose Andres. But there hasn't been enough R&D on feeding people in the Third World. This has to be part of the process; if not, we'll keep throwing money at the problem instead of investing in true solutions.

We got bigger, much scarier competitors. We ended up with Microsoft, a company with all the money in the world, the way I look at those guys. And IBM, another company that, historically, dwarfed us.

I have realised more and more that great companies, founded for a long-term purpose, such as Google or Facebook or SpaceX, may do more good in the world than any other vehicle that we have.

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

At IBM, if we kept our same leadership for 36 years, we'd be bankrupt.

IBM has a very solid business image.

Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.