(TheHiduBusiness) IIT-Kanpur alumni Arvind Krishna will replace Ginny Rometty as IBM’s Chief Executive Officer. Krishna joins a growing club of Indian CEOs that now includes Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Alphabet Inc’s Sundar Pichai, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen, Palo Alto’s Nikesh Arora and Mastercard’s Ajay Banga.
Krishna, 57, was so far the head of IBM’s cloud and cognitive software unit and has been pioneering two big bets for the Big Blue: Quantum Computing and Blockchain.
This article from the Hindu Business newspaper recounts Krisna’s statements on quantum technologies. He said while countries like China are heavily investing in on quantum computing, India could lose its technological edge by missing out on the upcoming technology. “If all India wants to do is to manufacture basic commodity sub assemblies, there’s probably nothing to lose when it comes to quantum computing. But if they want to be the designers of the next generation sub components of a vehicle, a fraction of that would be deeply influenced by quantum computing in a few years from now,” he said.
With Krishna’s focus on cutting edge research, IBM could be better placed to compete with the likes of Google and Amazon that are quickly grabbing marketshare.
NOTE: IBM’s Dr. Robert Sutor, VP of Quantum Ecosystem Development, will keynote the upcoming IQT Event in NYC. IBM is a Diamond Sponsor of the IQT Event as well.