IBM's Harriet Green tells how India became disruption centre of universe

IBM was one of the handful of global companies that had to leave the country in 1978. It re-entered in 1992 and hasn't looked back

From what I have read about her, Harriet Green, chairman and CEO of IBM Asia Pacific, seems absolutely driven. She has had a very successful stint in the electronic components industry rising to the top slot in at least two firms she has worked for. Later, as chief executive, she was instrumental in bailing out then-struggling travel company Thomas Cook. In 2016, she won the Women in Technology Institute award and was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame. Despite her schedule she doesn’t miss even a single session of hatha yoga. And she manages all that with just four hours of sleep. 

I am scheduled to meet Green for dinner at The Market, a multi-cuisine restaurant at Ritz-Carlton on Residency Road, Bengaluru. It is centrally located, and she is also staying there. Since taking over as chief executive of the Asia Pacific business managing 14 countries for Big Blue in January, Green has made many trips to India, but this one is special: The company is celebrating 25 years in the country. 

I am told that Green has already returned to the hotel after a day-long event at the IBM India office at Manyata Tech Park on Outer Ring Road, and I wonder why she hasn’t turned up for our meeting yet. Just then she appears and offers a long explanation for the delay: She had been wearing a saree all day and needed to change to something more matter-of-fact because she has to catch a flight to Singapore, her next stopover, after our meeting. Green adds this is not the first time she has worn a saree, but this one, a cotton silk from Fabindia, is “the best” sari she has ever worn. The only problem was the amount of time it took to drape, she says with a broad grin. Her favourite office wear, however, is a leopard-print coat, which is kind of timeless and goes with every kind of attire. 

As we settle down, Green orders a lime soda and I a cappuccino. We decide to order the food right away as she has a flight to catch. Green orders a bhindi masala, dal fry and butter paneer with roti. I decide to go along with her choice and add a green salad. 

“I was not always a vegetarian, but haven’t eaten meat for quite some time now,” says Green. I ask her how she developed interest in hatha yoga, which traces its origins to Hinduism. She says she started practicing it around 9/11 when she was living in Manhattan managing the contract manufacturing business of Arrow Electronics, a Colorado headquartered company that specialises in electronics and computing products. Interestingly, she learnt the yoga form from an African American instructor. “I am not a big sleeper. So yoga helps me energise and reactivate the brain’s photoenzymes.” Now yoga has become part of her life. 

I didn’t realise when the waiter came and placed the food on the table. But I can see Green really likes her bhindi. 

She starts talking about how IBM India is contributing to the innovation agenda of the company at the group level. In 2017 alone, the Armonk, New York-headquartered company received a record 9,043 patents globally, the most prolific in this respect in the US, 25 years in a row. IBM India contributed 9 per cent to that number. With over 800 patents received by its inventors in India, the country was the second largest contributor — after the US region — to the company. One reason, Green knows, she has to work really hard to keep employee morale in India high. This is where the bulk of IBM’s software developers are located.

What about developing new skills sets, especially at a time when machines are presumably on their way to replace humans? She brushes aside the fear that emergence of new technologies will eliminate jobs. “Augmented intelligence is affecting many jobs but not eradicating them. Man and machine are better together.” 

I try to steer the discussion to India and the market potential here. The company has been strong in the telecom and BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) space, serving customers such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and State Bank of India. Of late, telecommunication companies are going through a rough patch with data taking precedence over voice, the traditional revenue stream. There is also some consolidation in that space.

In the financial services segment too, while newer opportunities are emerging in the fintech and payments space, the regulatory uncertainty, especially around data privacy and localisation, has made global companies jittery. Green says while India’s concerns are genuine, there is a fear that too much focus on data localisation may throttle innovation. “It’s of prime importance for India to enable free flow of data while ensuring security, by bringing in artificial intelligence (AI) to data management.”

A couple of months ago, Sundar Pichai, the Indian-origin CEO of the US tech giant Google, had also expressed similar concerns. “Free flow of data across borders — with a focus on user privacy and security — will encourage startups to innovate and expand globally and encourage global companies to contribute to India's digital economy,” Pichai had said in a letter to Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. 

Data privacy is a huge issue at IBM. Its AI engines must be fed huge dollops of data as its software manages critical data-driven organisations. “Corporates need to be clear in their approach to customers’ data,” Green adds.

Things appear to have shaped up much better at IBM India than they appeared some decades ago. Indeed, the company’s early experience in India was far from happy. It was one of the handful of global companies that had to leave the country in 1978. It re-entered in 1992 and hasn’t looked back. IBM is now one of the few global technology companies helping the government in various citizen-centric programmes, whether it is the Atal Innovation Mission or the Atal Tinkering Labs. IBM is also associated with policy think tank NITI Aayog. It is using available data around agriculture and marrying those with AI to provide insights to farmers and predict crop yield. The project, initially started with 10 districts, has now been extended to 50. 

One of things that make India so attractive to operate in is the pace of change in the country, she says. To begin with, clients in the country do not require extensive sales pitches because they already know how digitalisation can transform their businesses. “India is the disruption centre of the universe. The sectors, technologies and markets here are changing at such a pace that it creates a disruptive force difficult to find anywhere else.” 

I notice that Green is almost done with her dinner and I am amused by the fact that she is taking special interest in a piece of masala papad that was served a while ago. I realise I have not progressed much with my meal and try to hurry up as my guest has a hectic schedule ahead. 

I ask her how she landed up in the technology space after studying medieval history and business psychology in college. “In Britain, you are encouraged to study any subject you like. But after passing out, I realised that after studying history, you can teach or work with BBC, but I like solving problems more.” 

As she prepares to depart, Green says the best thing she likes about India is the “appetite, interest and hunger of the people to learn”. She plans to give more time to IBM India, a “microcosm of the larger IBM company”, she says.