Is IBM CEO Not Seeing Red for Not Getting Green

As it turns out, green is not the favorite color of IBM CEO Ginni Rometty—at least when it comes to the green blazer of The Masters Golf Tournament.  Traditionally, the CEO of the companies that sponsor the tournament are offered a club membership complete with the famous green blazer, and while IBM is  a major sponsor of the Masters, which is held at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia each year,  Ginni Rometty is a woman and that is a no-no for membership at Augusta.

I know what you are thinking unless you are from the South: “Still? Isn’t it time to let the women folk in?” But it’s a private club that didn’t let African Americans in until 1990, so I think women might yet have a few more decades before we overcome.

However, For Rometty, this has to be a principle perplexer.  As a woman who fought her way to the top executive spot in the technology world, a still predominantly male environment, she has the chance to make a stand and say, “Hey, I am woman hear me roar!” But she probably will not.  The Masters offers status, visibility and a marketing reach that might be too valuable for IBM to pass up no matter what the principle.  The tournament is advertising gold for its sponsors as it limits the number of TV commercials, and all the commercials focus on that select number of sponsors.

So what to do? What to do?  She could pull IBM’s sponsorship but would that translate into lost revenue and eventually lost jobs?  Does she even have the power to do that? And if she did pull sponsorship, would she feel the wrath of her Board of Directors?  I know if I pulled a power coup in my company (yes, I am a CEO), my board of directors – namely my dogs, Frankie and LuLu, would make their disppoinment and anger quite clear. True, my misstep might result in the wrong lunchtime snacks while hers might result in the pink slip for 10,000 people, but really it’s the same thing– right?

So, as one female CEO to another, I say, let’s form a protest and march all over the Augusta golf course dragging our feet, leaving divots in our wake. We can don pink blazers instead of green. Oops, no. We need another color or the breast cancer people will want a chunk of our protest pledges.  How about orange? Orange is bright and will get a lot of attention.  Then, as our march reaches the locker rooms of the golfing elite, we will handcuff ourselves to the sauna doors and refuse to come out until women are permitted.

I don’t know if Ginni is the protest kind of woman I am hoping for, but if she is, I think my plan has merit.  Who knows with her powerful influence and my pink golf balls and animal golf club covers, we can transform Augusta into a place where men and women can play side-by-side and revel in this new bond of equality.  Oh, there is one thing though.  When Augusta does admit women, I would like to request that they put in Ladies Tees because the Ladies Tees are always situated away from the crowd, and I don’t play golf well when so many eyes are watching me swing.  I know that might be a pain, but it’s a small price to pay for the privilege of having women in your club.

 

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4 thoughts on “Is IBM CEO Not Seeing Red for Not Getting Green”

  1. I suppose you think they will let women drink with the men on the 19th hole? I also assume they will need to increase the number of restrooms and locker areas. Maybe it would be easiest to just raze the clubhouse and start over. Besides, I always thought golf was just for people with balls, anyway!

    1. Seriously, they would have to raze the clubhouse as it has no facilities for women or at least build on. All those wealthy CEOs, someone has to know a good contractor! As for golf balls…HA HA Mike!!!

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