Chairman and CEO, IBM
The best advice was from a former boss, who told me, “Don’t view your career as a linear progression.” He advised me to take horizontal rather than vertical steps: to try out situations that are unstructured, to learn different ways of working, and to get outside of headquarters and experience different cultures. I’ve applied this advice many times – most notably, taking a decidedly unstructured job at IBM Japan and then joining the fledgling IBM services business. After those experiences, I had the confidence that I could manage pretty much anything.
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