Big Blue is wearing a Red Hat

TALENT Leadership expert Jeff Sonnenfeld weighs in on IBM CEO shake-up  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE FRI, JAN 31, 2020 TECH, TRANSFORMATION AND THE FUTURE OF WORK EDITOR'S NOTE Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Big Blue is wearing a Red Hat. It's hard to know why IBM CEO Ginni stepped down this week. Was she forced out, did she leave voluntarily, perhaps setting up her next act as a cabinet secretary? Or was it simply an age thing? Rometty's 62, which isn't very old. But her two legendary predecessors, Louis Gerstner and Sal Palmisano, stepped aside at 60, as IBM tradition dictates. What is clear is that Rometty has moved the company away from its dying legacy businesses, and closer to a cloud-computing, AI-centric future. But they're not quite there yet, and it must surely be frustrating to her that she won't be the one to get them over the finish line (if indeed they make it there). The new CEO will be Arvind Krishna, who seems the polar opposite of Rometty. While they are both engineers by training, Krishna seems a quieter, less polished executive. But a brilliant technologist he is, and he was responsible for IBM's biggest and most important acquisition of the cloud-computing company Red Hat. While Rometty used her considerable charisma to become one of the most recognizable CEOs in America, it seems unlikely that Krishna will be as visible. It seems to some that he may be a caretaker CEO for Red Hat's CEO Jim Whitehurst, who was named IBM's president. Krishna is 57, and can keep the trains running for a few years while Whitehurst, 52, masters the intricacies of Big Blue. Of course, one big downside to all this is that we're down to just 7 female CEOs in the Fortune 100. Here's hoping that the (near) future of work includes a reversal of this backwards trend. KEY STORIES TALENT Leadership expert Jeff Sonnenfeld weighs in on IBM CEO shake-up CEO Ginni Rometty is stepping down from IBM in April and Arvind Krishna will take over. Jeff Sonnenfeld, associate dean for leadership studies at Yale School of Management, joins "Squawk Box" to discuss the leadership change. PRODUCTIVITY Automation and AI sound similar, but may have vastly different impacts on the future of work Read more from the Brookings Institute, and read their full report on AI's impact on the workplace CAPITAL 5 things we know about the jobs of the future This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. Learn more at the link above. JOIN US @Work Summit 2020 Technology, Transformation and the Future of Work Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation, along with demographic changes, are leading to big shifts in today's workforce. These developments will also fundamentally change the relationship between employers and their workforce and require a reimagining of the workplace. CNBC's @Work event taps the unrivaled expertise and connections of CNBC's journalists to examine the impact of new technology on three different disciplines— human resources, IT and finance. REQUEST AN INVITATION CNBC EVENTS CNBC Events @CNBCEVENTS Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service Join the CNBC Panel   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy CNBC Events   © 2020 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS