>>from around the globe. >>It's the cube >>With digital coverage of IBM think 2021 brought to you by IBM. Welcome back to the cube coverage of IBM Think 2021. I'm john for your host of the cube ricardo for lenses here with me is the global managing director for IBM at Citigroup recorded. Great to see you. Thank you for coming on the cube. >>Thanks for having me. >>You're the team leader for Citigroup Managing Director um, a lot going on in the world of finance, Fintech technology, scale transformation. All this is happening. Always a leading edge indicator give us your perspective on the market right now on the, on that vertical and in general because there's so much scale is so much machine learning, so much going on, so much competitive advantages. Give us an overview of the industry, how you see them. >>So john I had the good fortune of working essentially around the world of work in europe in Asia in Australia, back here in north America. And I'll tell you what, there are some, some uh, dynamics are specific to a market. There are also a lot of common threads, right? You know, a lot of common threads right? As you know, my industry, financial services in the middle of uh great disruption right from payments to a global wealth to understand exactly. Not to reposition yourself is a, is a startup. Oftentimes looking time to be dis intimidated by many of the context. I have found that many financial institutions are very adept, a change in the way they operate a lot more nimble than they had been in the past. And they found ways to incorporate a lot of the techniques that some of the Frontex operate with. So they all have shark tanks, they all find a way to uh progress investments that they get to a point of uh, failing fast, right, more are some more adept than others. But for the most part, I'd say that everyone in the market is looking to beef up their, their core competences. >>And, you know, the financial, um, industry has never been shy of using technology ever. They've always poured it on. They always want to get more edge. Um, what's your, what is the edge now in the industry for, um, financial and, and in general, businesses who were learning how to be agile? What's the edge? >>I think the edges really finding a way to be ambidextrous, right? Because in many respects that you don't want to hold on to a franchise to what got you to a level of success. It's oftentimes it's in the case of my client is to be in good stead for more than 100 years, Right? So you don't want to let that go. But you also want to grow a new set of skills and grow competences that they need to take into the future. I have found that in many respects that many of my clients are remind me of what lookers and one said maybe 2025 years ago, our former Ceo and chairman, who said the last thing that IBM needs is a strategy. In fact, I think that many of our financial institutions that don't need a strategy, they just need the competences to innovate and executed scale and it's a lot easier said than that >>card. I want to get your perspective before we move on to some of the initiatives and work at city, which is probably compelling. But I want to get your expert opinion on a question that comes up all the time with customers and that are going post pandemic and looking at growth strategies. The idea of the unit economics of their business models tend to change with more data, more digital acceleration. Is there any observations that you could share for leaders who are looking to get that financial mindset or how the business is changing with whether it's copies or business models. Because at the end of the day, the financial upside of what we're seeing with digital is pretty significant. The economics are seem to be a real game changer on these, these conversations about acceleration, but also the results are business results are money. >>Absolutely, john, as a matter of fact, that I'd argue that while it's true that the common theme, so many and that several of our financial institutions are growing a skill in, in a, in a uh, approaching problems in a different fashion is also true that there's been a lot of redistribution of wealth across financial enterprises, Right? So it's not lost on all of us. Right. The security look at market globalization of the financial institutions, on the work. They really come all over the place with the clear winners in several sectors, site in Asia and europe as quality of North America. So what I argue is that while I think we're all tired of hearing the data is the new oil, right? It's also true that we need to find a way to finally harness the power of it. Right? And that's what I think IBM is more more adept at, right, argue that many of the common threads that we've seen across the financial institutions and back to the, to the measures of success you would indicate in a minute ago, not really around cloud, right around data and around digital transformation. Right? So our approach to cloud, for instance is unique, right? While there are a number of uh very competent hyper scholars, we've taken a different approach to it, right? We've taken our approach is more than after other highly specialized regulated workloads, right. Organ after the layer that allows you to port application seamlessly based on regulation costs and competition across multiple platforms. Right? So this hybrid concept has only been at the center of our strategy and that's the one that mama is is delivering our clients greatest value. Tell you what. I think one client told me once after hearing our hybrid story that while there were many cloud providers, there wasn't anyone that could help them out as much as I B. M. Dealing with your legacy and in all candor. I think it's fair to say that legacy is here to say well past our investment horizon. Right? So that level of self awareness, I think ended up believe forming our collaborations for years to come. >>You know, I'm a big believer and I've reported this and certainly talked to Arvin when um he was on the cube about this microservices, containers, kubernetes, these kinds of new technologies really allow for legacy to integrate well into the new modern era of computing in hybrid cloud. So totally agree. And that is really key tailwind for for innovation and these transformations. I have to ask you ricardo what's going on at city and IBM tell us take us through some things that you're working on, some of the exciting projects that you're driving. >>So the disclaimer is that I started this well three months ago, so I'll try to do my my team proud here. But what I'll tell you is that the teams you talk about are alive and well, it's sitting right? So on the cloudfront we are doing exactly that. We're focusing on on on being uh cities partner on the heavy cloud deployment, acknowledging that higher Ecologist is an ecosystem of participants, right? Technology that IBM s dominance in on prime computing. We'll go through a very different face going forward. We not only a comfortable with it, but we are trying to accelerate its deployment. Right? So you mentioned communities, you mentioned containers, Hence a redhead acquisition, right? Which has been central to the collaboration that we've uh we've established the city and we look at the broad, I'm also gonna go back to data and I will tell you that, uh, you know, uh, cities in the midst of a transformation journey of their own right. It's also the middle of a regulatory challenge. That's second to none. Right. With with the zero cc. Findings that then led to a financial remediation plan that the bank has put in place over the past two months. With that in mind we are looking to help the bank make a make a good crisis make the most of the crisis, right? And so helping, for instance, Mark Sabino, the head of Innovation City, find ways to infuse Ai into their internal Codec practices doing that. It's just smart business. The results in much better outcome at a lower cost and it's something that can scale because it's all seen before. Oftentimes our solutions have lacked the ability to scale to really keep up with them in >>ricardo. The relationship between IBM and city has been long standing. I believe. I read somewhere you're celebrating 100 year partnership. Is that true? If so. I mean, it's a huge milestone. What's the take us through the history and where this is going as a partnership? >>I've heard as a matter of fact is that as I first came on board that in fact our companies have been added for more than 100 years and someone showed me an actual document 100 years old, there was proof positive of that. So I'll tell you, I know that our firms would be added again 100 years from now. I will probably not be here to toast to it but I'm certain they will continue to collaborate and for the strong is this is my responsibility. I'll do whatever I can to help you continue to grow. We're only going to focus on three things I spoke about every cloud. Would you also want to be the partner? Is the bank transforms its operations right and infuse in it. Our Ai and process, information skills and capabilities. I think if we do that, we'll continue to collaborate and will continue to have our partnership fully rests on two pillars that is always independent, which are really innovation can trust >>great commentary, great uh an account that you're leading probably a great team behind how many people are on this team must be pretty massive and I'd love to see that document by the way, was it a memo? Was that type written was a handwritten? You know, it was a P. O. >>It was an Akron document and I get your copy. >>Uh so historic. I love those history. I love the IBM culture longstanding relationships. Final question for you. You've been in the industry for a while, you've seen many waves of innovation if you're talking to a customer, your friend or colleague and they had asked you ricardo, why is this wave so big and so important? What would you tell them, >>john I think at the heart of this transformation, the evolution, the way they should call it is not the intellectual products, the international new processes but entire no value chains that are being established by players that in many cases need need each other to coexist. This is hardly been the case in the past. I think IBM will form a great example of it, right? And so I do think that this is far more disruptive than what we have witnessed in years past and I can't wait to get get in it and my part to lead us through it >>ricardo, great insight, totally agree. This is a time of open collaboration, an ecosystem you're seeing in the ecosystem and network effect where people are integrating together in this new connected distributed economy. Global economy, thank you for coming on the cube, appreciate your >>time. Thank you so much for having me. >>Okay, Ricardo for Relenza, Global managing director for IBM at Citigroup. This is the Cube coverage of IBM think 2021. I'm John for your host. Thanks for watching. Yeah.