????IBM很少對(duì)外部公司直接投資，而是選擇和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資進(jìn)行合作。這一策略是如何運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的呢？

????我和你分享一下IBM收購(gòu)時(shí)的選擇標(biāo)準(zhǔn)以及背后原因，這至關(guān)重要。事實(shí)上，我們會(huì)仔細(xì)斟酌這家公司如何整合，通常會(huì)花一段時(shí)間進(jìn)行考察。我們會(huì)做一個(gè)財(cái)務(wù)路線圖。兩年前，我們開(kāi)始了一個(gè)歷時(shí)5年的財(cái)務(wù)路線圖，截止到2015年，IBM總計(jì)將在收購(gòu)方面投入200億美元。

????所以，我們非常清楚自己的專注領(lǐng)域。我們所進(jìn)行的收購(gòu)都是有關(guān)聯(lián)的。它們都與IBM的發(fā)展戰(zhàn)略密不可分。

????其次，這些收購(gòu)?fù)ǔ６寂c知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)相關(guān)。我們?cè)?70多個(gè)國(guó)家運(yùn)營(yíng)。如果收購(gòu)得當(dāng)，我可以讓一個(gè)也許只在一兩個(gè)國(guó)家成功的公司實(shí)現(xiàn)規(guī)模化，這就是IBM能帶來(lái)的價(jià)值所在。

????在年報(bào)中，你談到IBM在收購(gòu)決策中利用了分析流程。

????的確如此。我們對(duì)你公司的方方面面都進(jìn)行了預(yù)測(cè)，而結(jié)果直接影響到你的業(yè)務(wù)價(jià)值。所以，我們?cè)谒惺召?gòu)中都應(yīng)用了這一流程。一家公司的評(píng)估點(diǎn)多達(dá)300到500個(gè)。順便提一句，這種方法在速度上真沒(méi)有優(yōu)勢(shì)。我們自身的研究機(jī)構(gòu)進(jìn)行了大量分析工作，以預(yù)測(cè)將對(duì)收購(gòu)影響最大的三至五個(gè)獨(dú)立的因素。

????大家都知道沃森可以參加Jeopardy猜謎游戲。不過(guò)，在你看來(lái)，沃森還有更大發(fā)展前途，對(duì)嗎？

????是的，沃森還有潛力可挖。第三次科技變革即將來(lái)臨。最原始的計(jì)算機(jī)只能計(jì)算。第二代計(jì)算機(jī)可以編程。而現(xiàn)在的沃森具有學(xué)習(xí)能力。只需要少數(shù)指令，沃森就能自主學(xué)習(xí)更多的知識(shí)！

????所以，你看到沃森登臺(tái)Jeopardy猜謎大賽。它能回答簡(jiǎn)單的問(wèn)題而且擊敗了最好的人類選手。現(xiàn)在，我們讓沃森嘗試醫(yī)療工作。我們的合作伙伴包括斯隆凱特林紀(jì)念醫(yī)院（Memorial Sloan Kettering）、馬里蘭安德森中心（MD Anderson）和哥倫比亞大學(xué)（Columbia）等全球頂級(jí)醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)。

????對(duì)沃森而言，醫(yī)療是個(gè)收益極高的行業(yè)。風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資也許也能加入其中？例如人機(jī)交互和某些細(xì)分醫(yī)療市場(chǎng)。

????Instead of making direct investments in companies, you guys work closely with the VC company. How does your strategy work?

????Let me share with you kind of what we look for and why when we look at an acquisition, because it's a vital piece. In fact, it's so important to how we think of remaking the company, we actually commit over a period of time. We do something called a roadmap, it's a financial roadmap. And the five-year roadmap that started a couple of years ago ends in 2015. We've said we'll acquire $20 billion of companies.

????So, we're pretty clear about what are the areas I talked about some that we're focused in. So where we'll do acquisitions, they're adjacent. They'll always cluster around strategic areas.

????The second, they'll typically always be intellectual property. I've got a distribution system that goes to 170 countries. If I acquire properly, you know, you may be successful in one or two countries, or one place; I can scale, and that's part of the value that IBM brings.

????In your Annual Report, you talk about an analytics process that you use for acquiring.

????Yes. So, every part of your business will change based on what I consider predictive analytics of the future. So, we did this for all of our acquisitions. We used to look at 300 to 500 things on every acquisition. Okay, well, that wasn't necessarily good for speed, by the way. We did a lot of work with our own Research group on the analytics to be able to predict three to five factors individually by acquisition that are going to make the biggest difference.

????Ginni, for many of us, Watson is that Jeopardy! Game; but when you think of Watson it's a much bigger thought, right?

????Yes, she has done way more than that! It's about the coming of a third area of technology, right? You know, the original systems counted things. The next set of things were programmable. This thing learns, right? You give it very little instruction and then the more information it has, the more it learns.

????So, since the time that you would have seen it on Jeopardy! when it could answer simple questions and it beat the best humans out there, we put it to work for medicine. And we have been working with Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, Columbia, some of the finest institutions in this world.

????Medicine is one high-value area for Watson. Might there be a role for venture capital there? There might be, in areas such as interfaces and certain specialized areas.