As IBM spins out a new company, Mr Krishna recently said that it will have a separate leadership team in India. However, people working for IBM India have nothing to worry as the IBM CEO said that he expects the employees to be accommodated in one company or the other. “I do not expect the creation of the new company to have any material impact in India,” Krishna had told reporters in a call, adding that there will be nothing “controversial”.

“This is not a restructuring, this is a spin out,” he said. IBM will separate the Managed Infrastructure Services unit of its Global Technology Services division into a new public company. The yet to be named new company is currently codenamed “NewCo”. Mr Krishna, who guides IBM’s overall strategy in core and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, blockchain, cloud platform services, data-driven solutions and nanotechnology, has the task at hand to tap the growing talent pool in new-age technologies and leverage the true potential.

Today, IBM powers two of the largest telcos in India. Nine out of 10 top banks, 2/3rd of milk and dairy products industry, country’s largest airport (traffic), etc are run and managed by IBM. Mr Krishna, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K), knows the potential the country has and has gone bullish on India, especially on the R&D and innovation to create for the world. IBM’s businesses in India include Cloud and Cognitive Solutions (including RedHat and Watson), Services, Systems, Security, The Weather Company (an IBM business), R&D labs and client innovation centres.