IBM Conversations with Ray Day and Gary Koops
With 400,000 employees, 170 countries and 600 members on its communications team, IBM is changing the world of technology through communicating their values. On Oct. 30, three IBM representatives, Ray Day, Gary Koops and Sunita Menon, were welcomed by UF PRSSA students and majors outside of the College of Journalism and Communications.
Ray Day, chief communications officer at IBM, covered a variety of topics beyond the scope of PR and communications. He expressed that, “trust is not the issue of our time but the opportunity of our time” if storytellers use given opportunity as an advantage. Ray not only discussed the art of storytelling, trust and diversity with students, but he also shared his thoughts on the developing role of artificial intelligence. Still, he believes that, “the human brain still trumps any machine out there.”
For the past two years, Ray expressed the honor of working alongside a passionate communications team at IBM. To a room of future storytellers, Ray expressed the importance of telling stories with a passion and a purpose. He starts every question by asking, “What’s our story?” Ray asks this question in the workplace each and every day and emphasized to students how creating and telling stories is important for building and maintaining relationships.
Gary Koops, a consultant for IBM, offered additional advice to students on storytelling and engagement. “Content is still king,” Gary said. In the world of PR, Gary emphasized the importance of credibility, relatability and maintaining relationships.
Gary gave three important tips to PR students: remain current, curious and as excited as you were the day you started. He encouraged students to “never lose your curiosity” and to build and engage relationships. A last helpful piece of advice Gary offered to students was to think of where they can add value to their job. “Continually work on your soft skills,” Koops said. “Technical can be taught, but soft skills are learned.”
Sunita Menon, data analyst for IBM, shared insight on the importance of company values and diversity and inclusion at IBM. “Diversity and inclusion have been in the DNA of IBM for more than a hundred years,” shared Sunita. Sunita expressed to students to never stop learning and to be a trusted source as storytellers.
As future communicators and leaders, the panel collectively advised students to keep learning, developing their skills and building relationships through storytelling.
Follow Ray on Twitter at @RayDayIBM and Gary at @GaryKoops. For more information on IBM’s company values, visit https://www.ibm.com/ibm/us/en/?lnk=fab.
Written by Kailey Kiss
Photo taken by Micayla Yates