Gerstner (Reinventing Education) tells the inside story of his nine-year reign as CEO of IBM during the company's unprecedented time of crisis and his successful effort to turn around the pending demise. From his four-year stint as CEO of an equally intriguing corporation, RJR Nabisco, the author moved into the hot seat at IBM in April 1993, the most troublesome time in the company's history. Gerstner finds a pondering, insular culture, mostly unchanged since its beginning, and he briskly reviews his initial major decision to halt the breakup of IBM, refocuses energies on its historic mainframe business, streamlines repetitive processes, focuses employee attention on the needs of its customers and the quickly changing market, and significantly reduces the work force throughout IBM's worldwide locations. This is an important contribution to the business genre, and Edward Herrmann's basso, richly told tale maintains listener interest. An insider's take on IBM that provides a nice update to the solid historical analysis of the downfall and near death of the company revealed in Paul Carroll and Jim Wade's super business history, Big Blues.


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword
Introduction

Part. I Grabbing Hold
1 The Courtship
2 The Announcement
3 Drinking from a Fire Hose
4 Out to the Field
5 Operation Bear Hug
6 Stop the Bleeding (and Hold the Vision)
7 Creating the Leadership Team
8 Creating a Global Enterprise
9 Reviving the Brand
10 Resetting the Corporate Compensation Philosophy
11 Back on the Beach

Part. II Strategy
12 A Brief History of IBM
13 Making the Big Bets
14 Services - the Key to Integration
15 Building the World’s Already Biggest Software Business
16 Opening the Company Store
17 Unstacking the Stack and Focusing the Portfolio
18 The Emergence of e-business
19 Reflections on Strategy

Part. III Culture
20 On Corporate Culture
21 An Inside-Out World
22 Leading by Principles

Part. IV Lessons Learned
23 Focus - You Have to Know (and Love) Your Business
24 Execution - Strategy Goes Only So Far
25 Leadership Is Personal
26 Elephants Can Dance

Part. V Observations
27 The Industry
28 The System
29 The Watchers
30 Corporations and the Community
31 IBM - a Farewell

App. A: Employee Communications
App. B The Future of e-business
App. C: Financial Overview
Index