????羅睿蘭對企業家的建議：千萬不要僅僅依靠一個產品。現代社會瞬息萬變，這么做會讓一家公司陷入萬劫不復之地。“你會錯過（技術）革新，會錯過那些最具顛覆性的東西，例如商業模式。”

????身為IBM董事長兼首席執行官，羅睿蘭曾親身經歷過危機。她在IBM就職30多年，經歷了上世紀90年代初公司命懸一線的那段日子。如今，她是這家百年企業的首席執行官。IBM歷經102年，到羅睿蘭也才是第九任首席執行官。正是由于這個顯赫地位，56歲的羅睿蘭再次榮登《財富》（Fortune）雜志“美國最具影響力商界女性”排行榜的首位。

????10月16日，羅睿蘭出席了《財富》雜志在華盛頓舉辦的“最具影響力女性峰會”，向與會者闡述了IBM未來發展的5大方向。首先，專注科研，IBM一直是科研領域的領導者。這家公司延攬了3000多名博士，擁有業界最大的科研團隊，過去20年一直在全球專利申請數量上排名第一；其次，與客戶保持良好關系，它們與IBM在創新方面的合作越來越密切；再次，關注與科研院校以及風險投資機構的合作；最后，新型社交網絡工具也是重中之重。依靠它們，羅睿蘭得以與公司40多萬名員工密切溝通，隨時從中發掘出閃光點。

????IBM成功的秘訣之一就是能妥善處理好與數量眾多的員工的關系，集思廣益，讓員工為公司的發展出謀劃策。例如，羅睿蘭提到了IBM的《全球技術展望》報告——公司科研人員每年撰寫該報告，以預測科技的發展趨勢。羅睿蘭依靠這份報告制定公司戰略，而且每年對過去的《全球技術展望》報告進行評估，判斷它對未來趨勢的把握是否準確。

????IBM將依靠沃森等新技術在計算機模型領域取得突破。沃森超級電腦在兩年半之前參加了Jeopardy電視問答大賽，當著美國全國電視觀眾的面戰勝了多位奇才。沃森向大家展示了超級計算機的諸多能力：存儲海量信息、進行快速篩選、以自然語言的形式反饋并能從錯誤中學習經驗。這是IBM實驗室過去數十年的研究成果，對于這些技術，IBM才剛剛開始商業化嘗試。我在最近的《財富》專欄中寫過一篇IBM打算商業化沃森的文章。

????羅睿蘭說：“沃森的下一站是醫學院。”它將進駐克里夫蘭醫療中心，幫助那里的醫學院學生學習醫學文獻。

????與此同時，IBM實驗室的科學家們正在改進沃森。羅睿蘭稱：“沃森2.0將具備識別圖像的能力，沃森3.0有望實現和人交流”。（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航??

????Ginni Rometty's advice to companies: Don't define your business by a product. In a world of consistent and constant change, it's the most dangerous thing for a company to do. "You'll miss [technology] shifts. You'll miss dangerous ones like business models," said Rometty.

????As Chairman and CEO of IBM (IBM), Rometty has seen the danger firsthand. Having spent more than 30 years at the company, she lived through the near-death experience of the early 1990s and is now just the ninth CEO in the company's 102-year history. It's this role that has earned Rometty, 56, the top spot on Fortune's list of the Most Powerful Women in Business.

????Speaking October 16 at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington, D.C., Rometty outlined five areas on which she depends to help her prepare IBM for future markets. First, there's research, an area in which the company has long been a leader. The company employs 3,000 Ph.D.s -- the largest research outfit in the technology industry -- and has been the global patent leader for the past 20 years. Just as important are relationships with clients, who are increasingly partnering more closely with IBM on innovation initiatives. Rometty also nurtures relationships with universities and with the venture capital community. And, thanks to new social tools, Rometty has been able to connect more deeply with IBM's 400,000 employees to unearth ideas bubbling up internally.

????One secret to IBM's success has been the discipline it applies to nurturing these relationships and harvesting insights from them. For example, Rometty described the company's global technology outlook, a document that researchers prepare annually to map out future trends. Rometty depends on it to inform strategy, and each year grades past GTOs for their success in predicting trends.

????It's this discipline that leads to breakthrough computing paradigms like Watson. It's been two-and-a-half years since the Jeopardy-winning computer beat a couple of brainiacs on national television -- and demonstrated that computing tools could store and sift through copious amounts of information, respond to natural language, and learn from its mistakes. It's technology that represents decades of work in IBM's labs, and the company is just beginning to commercialize it. I wrote about IBM's efforts to bring it to market in a recent Fortune feature .

????Now, says Rometty, "Watson is off to medical school." The technology will be deployed at the Cleveland Clinic to help medical students better understand medical literature.

????Meanwhile, in IBM's labs, scientists are working to improve Watson. "A Watson 2.0 will see -- pictures of things," says Rometty. "And a Watson 3.0 can reason with humans."???