In the spirit of our upcoming IBM Entrepreneur Week — here is our Interview with Connie Wright, Principal Commonwealth Pacific Ventures. She dishes with us on keys for entrepreneurs!
Category: Blogs (Page 7 of 24)
Women-led businesses receive only 13% of VC deals, and that’s up 20% YTY, according to Pitchbook, a venture-capital research firm. This is good momentum! And for me, this is means 2014 will continue to be a breakout year for women in technology too.
I’m also thrilled to help spark this breakout by hosting IBM Global Entrepreneur Week, February 3-7th. I’m honored to be the first woman to host this premier event. Register to join us!
http://vshow.on24.com/vshow/EntrepreneurWeek/registration/5787#
This one-of-a-kind event will feature virtual and in-person opportunities to learn from and network with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, academic leaders, IBM executives and IBM Business Partners. There’s no better place to connect with other female entrepreneurs and find out what it takes to build and maintain a successful startup … and there’s no better time to register!
Spread the word with all of your fellow female entrepreneurs using the promo below on all of your social networks. Then join us on February 3 during our Online Bash at 10:30 AM EST to hear from leading women on how to survive this competitive marketplace.
I hope to virtually see you there! Register NOW!
http://vshow.on24.com/vshow/EntrepreneurWeek/registration/5787#
I consider myself an Intrapreneur at IBM! Yes, and IBM has hundreds and thousands of entrepreneurs who joined our ranks through numerous acquisitions!
We’d love for you to join us at our IBM Entrepreneur Week Feb 3-9 for a mix of great virtual and in person events!
This week will be global!!!
Intrapreneurs and Entrepreneurs are great friends!!!
- Entrepreneurs provide the spark. Intrapreneurs keep the flame going.
- Entrepreneurs are found anywhere their vision takes them. Intrapreneurs work within the confines of an organization.
- Entrepreneurs face many hurdles, and are sometimes ridiculed and riddled with setbacks. Intrapreneurs may sometimes have to deal with conflict within the organization.
- Entrepreneurs may find it difficult to get resources. Intrapreneurs have their resources readily available to them.
- Entrepreneurs may lose everything when they fail. Intrapreneurs still have a paycheck to look forward to (at least for now) if they fail.
- Entrepreneurs know the business on a macro scale. Intrapreneurs are highly skilled and specialized.
Crazy title I know. But did you know since I had my accident in Brazil, I have swam everyday consistently for 3 months in my quest for total recovery. And have earned my new nickname — Aquawoman!
Given that I go to the same pool daily ( except for the 2 weeks at Christmas where I went to another location and pool!), I have learned the names of the lifeguards, their shifts, who swims when and what injury they have sustained, where kids are heading to college and the list goes on. Given the lifeguards had to help me into and out of the pool for a while, I gave them each a small present of my appreciation at Christmas. I have developed a new small family of swimmers!!!
I thought about how amazing this was! And it was all SOCIAL! I learned a lot of lessons in that pool for my Social World!
- Consistency earns Trust. In Social or any relationship, you can not come in and out. You must remain consistent in your interactions. Plan time to interact and develop relationships.
- It is P2P – People 2 People. People are not robots. And they are not just all business. They have lives and their lives extend far beyond their business side. Get to know things that matter to them — their families, hopes, dreams, and injuries! This helps you to know them as a full person.
- Reward those that help you. Yes, the small token I gave each lifeguard (22 in total!) was a way I could express how appreciative I was of their help. Everyday I thanked them. And they responded in kind. I get so much help and great attitudes every time I come in. The same is true in Social. Re tweet others, interview them and spotlight them. Thank them for their help and assistance!
As I have said many times, Social is not magic. It is simply something people have been doing throughout the ages — forming relationships!
You don’t have to be as smart as Watson just have the social skills!!!!
At NRF, Ginni Rometty discussed the use of cognitive for Retailers. On the Main Event, she talked about an application that our IBM Partner Fluid has built to take advantage of this use of cognitive in the retail space. I had the great pleasure of meeting with them on Monday!
Fluid, which builds online shopping experiences for retail businesses to drive customer engagement and conversion, is developing the Fluid Expert Personal Shopper(sm) powered by IBM Watson. The app calls upon Watson’s ability to understand the nuances of human language and uncover answers from Big Data. Consumers who use Fluid’s app will interact with rich media and dialogue with Watson, as their newfound “cognitive, expert personal shopper.” The Fluid app incorporates the information users share and questions they ask to help them make smart, satisfying purchases by putting a knowledgeable sales associate in the hands of consumers, on demand!
On stage, she mentioned David Jones leveraging this new paradigm!
See how cognitive can assist Retail in this use of data in a cognitive way!
Happy Monday! Yes I am at NRF today but see the breadth of questions coming in from IBM’s announcements last week on Watson so I would like to summarize in a blog post!
With the introduction of the new Watson group comes a host of supporting activity including a new headquarters in Silicon Alley section of New York, over 2500 professionals staffing and over a Billion dollars in funding.
•We’ve added two new offerings also announced today further expand our cognitive portfolio:
1. The IBM Watson Discovery Advisor will discover connections within Big Data to help organizations speed up research and bring new innovations to market.
2. IBM Watson Analytics will revolutionize how business users—from C-level to front-line—discover, visualize and share Big Data insights.
1. The IBM Watson Discovery Advisor will discover connections within Big Data to help organizations speed up research and bring new innovations to market.
2. IBM Watson Analytics will revolutionize how business users—from C-level to front-line—discover, visualize and share Big Data insights.
•We’re continuing investment in research to push the boundaries of cognitive systems
•And we’re continuing to push the Ecosystem initiative forward with direct investment in partnerships and moving toward additional partners within the program!
I am live at NRF. We saw Bush in the morning and Ginni Rometty, our IBM CEO is coming up in the afternoon!
Here’s what I think is the one of the most important elements in 2014 for retailers: Omnichannel.
I now get to manage IBM’s Global Entrepreneur program. I love learning about the new start-up business models and that’s why this Infographic made my top of the list for this week!
Fascinating facts:
- Top performers spent 14% of their time on marketing but did you know that less than 52% of start-ups save any money for Marketing?
- Did you know that 68% earned less than $5K on their first successful app?
Today IBM unveiled its plans to embark on a bold new direction with Watson by launching the IBM Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated solely to the development and commercialization of cloud delivered cognitive innovations. This is a strategic shift by IBM to accelerate into the marketplace a new class of software, services and apps that think, improve by learning, and discover answers and insights to complex questions from massive amounts of disparate data.
I am here in the room in downtown NYC at this announcement Event!
Through the IBM Watson Group, IBM will continue to provide our academic partners with the types of tools and resources needed to help students build the T-shaped skills (discipline depth and cross-industry breadth) needed to succeed in the era of cognitive systems. This includes new workshops and seminars at its headquarters on topics such as development skills and techniques, as well as networking opportunities for students, academics and professionals.
Following are key details about today’s announcement:
- IBM will invest more than $1 billion into the Watson Group, focusing on development and research and bringing cloud-delivered cognitive applications and services to market.
- This will include commitments of $100 million in venture investments to support IBM’s recently launched ecosystem of start-ups and businesses that are building a new class of cognitive apps powered by Watson, in the IBM Watson Developers Cloud.
- The IBM Watson Group will have a new headquarters at 51 Astor Place in New York City’s “Silicon Alley” technology hub, leveraging the talents of approximately 2,000 professionals, whose goal is to design, develop and accelerate the adoption of Watson cognitive technologies.
There are several other ways in the near future that you can learn more about the new IBM Watson Group and the way that cognitive systems will transform how we live, learn and conduct business:
- Register for a virtual conversation on Jan. 17 with Katharine Frase, IBM vice president and chief technology officer, global public sector and Chalapathy Neti, IBM director of education transformation research about the role of cognitive computing in education.
- Attend IBM Global Entrepreneur Week virtually or in person, Feb. 3-7, for online and in person venture and startup focused events including a presentation from Fluid, a startup using Watson technology to transform the retail industry.
As always, please reach out to us with any questions, ideas or opinions about the IBM Watson Group. We invite you, your students, colleagues and network to join us in the ongoing conversations about IBM Watson via social media using #IBMWatson. You can also watch this video series that brings the IBM Watson story to life.