Lori Steele
Consulting Services Leader, North America
IBM
Excellence in Client ServiceLori Steele has had four roles with IBM since coming to the firm as part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers acquisition in 2002. First, she ran the CRM practice, then life sciences, then distribution/consumer goods. Her latest role as consulting services leader for North America, however, is her favorite.
“My new job is very exciting, and I’m very passionate about it,” Steele says. “It’s more strategic than my other roles, and it’s focused on the next decade of growth, rather than just cost cutting.”
While cutting costs was top of mind in 2009, smart clients are realizing that innovation is going to allow them to be leaders of the future, Steele says. “It’s my job to make that happen,” she says. “If you look at the new normal, what is it going to take to be successful in the future and what new capabilities will be required? How can IBM be positioned to drive that transformation? It’s not about saving your way to greatness anymore; it’s about creating new business models for the future.”
Steele says IBM—with its ability to combine research, technology and services, including its software portfolio—is perfectly positioned to make that happen. The opportunities are across all 17 industry segments IBM serves, she says. Some sectors—such as energy, healthcare and life sciences, financial services, banking and insurance, retail and government—may see the most radical transformations over the next decade.
One key pillar of the platform, she says, is analytics. “Leveraging all the information to make better decisions” will be key. Steele says she’s thrilled with the award, but “even more thrilled with the category. At the end of the day, that’s the essence of what we do. If the client doesn’t value it, we shouldn’t be doing it,” Steele says. “People buy from people they trust. I’m proud of IBM’s capabilities, but that all has to be embodied in me.”
—Joseph Kornik
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