Vision is easy. It's so easy to just point to the bleachers and say I'm going to hit one over there. What's hard is saying, OK, how do I do that? What are the specific programs, what are the commitments, what are the resources, what are the processes we need in play to go implement the vision, turn it into a working model that people follow every day in the enterprise. That's hard work.

For the first month, I listened, and I tried very hard not to draw conclusions

This really is a merger of equals. I wouldn't have come back to work for anything less than this fantastic opportunity. This lets me combine my two great loves - technology and biscuits.

You can never be comfortable with your success, you've got to be paranoid you're going to lose it.

The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.

I look for people who work to solve problems and help colleagues, I sack politicians.

I just think we should look at this as a chess match," he said, "between the world's greatest chess player and Garry Kasparov.