Second Life at IBM

I've just met someone called Tim Ringo who is Global Leader of Human Capital Management at IBM. That sounds pretty senior and it is, yet he has a boss of HR sitting above him. Imagine that - global leader and you have a boss who also has a boss above him. Leader of the universe I would guess.

With a name like Ringo he has been mistaken a few times for Ringo Starr although there is no resemblance. Tim does however look a bit like Val Kilmer (fatter around the jowls but film star perfection teeth. I'm talking about megga expensive dental work here). He also speaks a little like Kilmer did when he played Doc Holliday in Tombstone.

Tim says he has met Ringo Starr who told him that he did not like to be called Ringo and preferred Richard, his original Christian name.

I'm wondering, after this revelation, whether subliminally we were trying to create the Beatles when naming two of our sons John and George. I must have had some aversion to Paul since the other boy is called Rob and I would never entertain "Ringo" for myself.

Tim Ringo says that IBM is using Second Life, the Internet community, to do some of its employee induction. Apparently Sam Palmisano, the boss of IBM, has his own Second Life avatar. He wears a suit in Second Life for meetings and expects every other IBMer to wear a suit in the same meetings. No change there then.