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In 1990, IBM had its most profitable year ever. By 1993, the company was on a watch list for extinction -- victimized by its own lumbering size, an insular corporate culture, and the PC era IBM had itself helped invent.

Enter Lou Gerstner. The presumption was that Gerstner had joined IBM to preside over its continued dissolution into a confederation of autonomous business units -- effectively eliminating the corporation that had invented many of the industry's most important technologies. Instead, Gerstner took hold of the company, making the bold decision to keep it together, defiantly announcing, "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision."

Told in Lou Gerstner's own words, this is a story of an extraordinary turn-around, a case study in managing a crisis, and a thoughtful reflection on the computer industry and the principles of leadership. Summing up his historic business achievement, Gerstner recounts high-level meetings, explains the no-turning-back decisions that had to be made, and offers his hard-won conclusions about the essence of what makes a great company run.

Read by Edward Herrman
With an introduction Read by the Author

Average Customer Rating:

Is it the same when it's changed?

Customer Rating:

The critics were predicting IBM's demise when he took the rains, apparently after much prodding. He took the bold step of listening to customers and cutting the price of their cash cow, the 360, to raise cash. He also decided that the business model (proprietary) that had worked for IBM in the 50s-70s just wasn't going to work, and he made a big bet on middleware and services. What's important to his management philosophy? First, he considers big to be good: IBM doesn't have to scrounge for resources to do something. He also loves to win and wants to hear the same from his people. That said, the book reads a bit like he's trying to sell us IBM: the brand. I also find myself asking what it means to save IBM if he has to lose almost 200K employees (they were hired back eventually) and change the culture. How much can you change something and keep it the same?

Elephants Can't Dance

Customer Rating:

Never forget that Gerstner was one of the big dog tobacco executives before he came to IBM. One of the tobacco executives who took an oath and swore before Congress that he did not believe that tobacco was addictive. Tobacco was known to be addictive since at least 1932 according to the tobacco companies' own records. Before you believe anything that Gerstner wrote or (more likely) had ghostwritten for him, always keep that in mind.

Great leader

Customer Rating:

When I started the book, I have no idea about the history of IBM. I am not an IT person, so I have heard IBM but that is basically it. I learned a lot from the book about IBM, what they did wrong and how he changed it. But besides everything he revised the company culture and organizational structure. I think that is the hardest thing a CEO can achieve. His vision, his attention to details but still seeing the big picture amazed me. No wonder they picked him as the great saver of the IBM legend. The book is long and sometimes repeats itself, without going into details. The part I enjoyed the most was his e-mails. How encouraging was he after 9/11, he mentioned employee names and all the things they did both to help and also to get their business going. He sent e-mails to his 300.000 employees. His tone and the things he mentions, his clarity was amazing. He is an excellent leader. IBM is very lucky to have such a good CEO.

What Life at the Top is Really Like--As Told By a Superb Leader

Customer Rating:

Having spent twenty-three years in management before I became an entrepreneur, I recognize that moving from one side of the desk to the other side may be the longest journey a professional person ever makes. When we shift into a leadership spot, not only do we find that our prior perceptions might have been totally inaccurate, we have to address personal and professional challenges we would have never imagined. I applaud this book as one man's record of what life at the top is really like. He won me over immediately when he decided to wear a blue shirt because everyone else was wearing white. Thoreau would have applauded his individualism. With my current profession dedicated to improving individual and corporate communication, I agree with Gerstner's assertion that "No institutional transformation takes place, I believe, without a multi-year commitment by the CEO to put himself or herself constantly in front of employees and speak in plain, simple, compelling language that drives conviction and action throughout the organization." Another striking bit of Gerstner wisdom: "Success in a company comes foremost from success with the customer, nothing else." He's right on target again when he observes that "lack of focus is the most common cause of corporate mediocrity." Yet Gerstner goes beyond mere platitudes: "Execution--getting the task done, making it happen--is the most unappreciated skill of an effective business leader." Possibly two of Gerstner's words capsule his approach to awakening IBM to its possibilities: "constructive impatience." In my judgment, Louis Gerstner should rank alongside Jack Welch as a take-no-prisoners leader. Read this book, and you will agree that he was the right man at the right time for IBM.The Complete Communicator: Change Your Communication-change Your Life!

Where Were the Details?

Customer Rating:

Throughout this book Gerstner discusses the changes IBM made and how he helped turned the company around. I have no doubt that he was a large part of the dynamic shift at IBM to again make it the successful, global company that it is today, but I felt that I went through the book without completely understanding what those changes were. There was a lot of discussion of how IBM was operated and managed when Gerstner took control of the company in 1993 as it was falling apart before the public's eyes, and there was a lot of explanation of how IBM was successful and reborn when he stepped down from the CEO position in 2002. But there was little substance in between. I am not sure if that is because the day-to-day steps taken throughout the mid and late 1990s are too mundane for the average business reader, of if the details were just left out. Gerstner does share some insight into leadership skills and his management style, but IBM as is left in the shadows. All in all, this is not a bad book, but be aware that the reader is left wondering exactly how IBM regained its dominant position in the marketplace.