Samuel J. Palmisano

From now on, the technology companies that succeed will be those that have developed skills at listening and a sophisticated understanding of their customers' industries.

Tech never comes back the same.

IBM isn't investing billions of dollars every year into research and development - and winning more patents than our top 10 competitors combined for more than a decade - as an academic exercise. But research is now being driven much more by what people need rather than just by what is possible.

If we overregulate, over control, impose too many burdens and too much bureaucracy - or if we do it across the board, without taking into account the differences among businesses and their relative impact on society - that could make people risk-averse and dampen the entrepreneurial spirit.

Enterprise is hard work. You have to integrate the client with the optimized systems of all the servers and software.