Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround

Rating:
Summary: What's next?
Review: Not only can Lou Gerstner run a business, he also writes a credible, well-crafted account of what he did. Despite many ex-IBM reviewers who despise him and a certain amount of ego that has to show through in a book like this, it feels like Lou had the analytic skills, strategic vision and ability to execute that made him the right guy at the right time for a very tough job.

That said, he lost some credibility with me in his chapter on "The System". Lou shows his distaste for government regulation then proposes an income tax revision that would tax away short term profits, a classic example of suggesting the system be micro managed with narrowly based regulation at a time when simplification and true reform are vital. And in case you didn't pick up his contempt for investment bankers earlier, this is the chapter where he really lets them have it. Ironically just after the book came out he signed on as the part-time Chairman of the Carlyle Group.

Which leads to the strongest impression the book left on me: Lou's true success will be measured by history that still has to be written. Mr. Gerstner will now sit on top of a company that lives off of a military-industrial behemoth that's bigger than ever forty plus years after Ike warned us of it. If he can do big things to make that system work for the greater good, he'll be a hero of the 21st Century. If, however, he is just renting out his Rolodex, "Elephants" could turn out to be another on the long list entitled, "buy the book, short the author."

Rating:
Summary: View from the top of IBM's recent adaptations
Review: "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" is the history of Louis Gerstner, Jr.'s tenure at IBM. Mr. Gerstner joined IBM at a critical time when sales were slumping and the behemoth of a company was laying people off almost every quarter. What they needed was someone who could turn the company around and take it to new heights. What they had was a complex bureaucracy that allowed little change and tended to support the continued decline of the company. Of course we all know now that Mr. Gerstner was able to change IBM and produce a viable thriving company able to compete in the world markets once again. This is the story of what happened from Louis Gerstner's own hand.

Mr. Gerstner provides insight into his viewpoint of what was happening in the company and his own fears and concerns from before the day he was named CEO until his retirement in 2002. If you want to know what was happening at the top and what he was thinking as he went along, you will want to read this book. If you read and liked Lee Iococca's book on his turnaround of Chrysler you will find this book similar and also very interesting in its own right. A study in tough management and changing direction with a company that has its own momentum, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" is a recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: How Lou and the Big Blue did the Lambada
Review: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance: Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround is a very well written account of how Lou Gerstner was able to steer IBM away from the brink of bankruptcy in 1993 back to profitability and growth. It is the story of IBM's amazing strategical and cultural transformation within a very short period of time from the man who is responsible for being the chief decision maker during this process. Who Says Elephants Can't Dance is a basically a very thorough case study in crisis management. It contains an impressive collection of keen observations about the challenges of operating a very large corporation, a set of fundamental lessons on how to create and execute business strategies and a lot of common sense.

The first thing that impressed me about the book was its very direct and concise style. Apparently, Gerstner wrote this book without the aid of a coauthor or a ghost-writer, so it is truly a first-hand story. Gerstner does not waste any of the reader's time. Each chapter has a very clear goal of what he is trying to communicate, and he gets to the point right away. I am usually disappointed by non-fiction authors that make excessive use of repetition in an attempt to drive important points home. Gerstner knows how to say it only once but precisely and lucidly.

The second notable aspect of the book was the modesty of the author. His humbleness starts from the very first page of the book:

This book is dedicated to the thousands of IBMers who never gave up on their company, their colleagues, and themselves. They are the real heroes of the reinvention of IBM

Gerstner continues to give proper credit to the people who were responsible for some of the most critical decisions throughout the rest of his book. It is refreshing to see that a person with respect for others and an emphasis on ethics can still rise to the top position in one of the largest companies in the world and succeed in this age of megalomaniac CEOs and backstabbing corporate cultures.

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? is required reading material for executives or people who are contemplating a career in corporate management. Though Gerstner's tone is surprisingly down to earth, he presents a set of strategies that are crucial for running a successful business. Gerstner shows that there is no magical formula for success. The basic tools are a lot of common sense, focus, execution and dedication. Many of the concepts presented in this book are likely to be beneficial not just inside the context of managing a large technology corporation but also for the leaders of any organization with culture, efficiency and execution problems.

Rating:
Summary: Saving IBM from Itself
Review: While at IBM Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. developed a reputation of aloof arrogance. One would not suspect this from reading his book, in which he gives generous credit to the tens of thousands of people who created the company and to many others, some by name, who helped to save and resurrect it.

As a former IBM executive who took early retirement twenty years ago, just as the company's bureaucracy was beginning to strangle the organization, I was fascinated to learn how that bureaucracy spread and the extremes to which it went, creating a culture thst led to decisions (if any) by committee, conspiratorial compromise, and self-protective behavior. This is not the IBM I had known. Even more interesting is the rapidity with which Louis Gerstner diagnosed the sickness of the company and the speed and persistence with which he administered tough medicine.

Despite IBM's near-terminal condition Gerstner saw it correctly not only as a business enterprise but as a "national treasure" that was well worth the collossal efforts needed to restore it.

Unlike Jack Welch's adolescent "Jack: Straight from the Gut", this book focuses on the processes of leadership and management, strategic choice, and the decision process. But it speaks also to the essential importance of corporate culture, at IBM a way of life that is based on values rather than just on being first.

As a recovering IBMer I salute Mr. Gerstner for his remarkable achievements and as a reader applaud him for this exceptional contribution to the business book genre.

Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Overall, good, but had a few problems
Review: `Now before getting turned off from the stars, let me just say this: the rating reflects, for the most part, my personal connection to the book. The book itself, as well as the author, is very nice. The writing, and style of, is also nicely done. However, the writing may set you off if youfre a gslowh individual such as myself. Most authors, when writing about business, generally use the expression grepetition, repetition, repetition.h Gerstner on the other hand is very straightforward and`` doesnft repeat as much as other authors. Again, this is not bad; I however, donft care for it.

The subject matter is very well organized and easy to pick up, even in cases where you need to look up a quote. The first part, entitles gGrabbing Holdh mainly talks about the background to IBMfs problems and the effects. Part two, gStrategyh is well, self-explanatory. Part three, gCultureh talks about corporate culture inside and outside of IBM. Part four, another self-explanatory piece,`` is gLessons Learnedh. Lastly, you have the Appendices.

While reading this, I found that this was not all about IBM. A lot of it wasnft about large corporations at that. What I did notice was that a lot of saying, quotes, teachings and the such, could also be applied to other fields of life, both in and out of business. I use the comparison to gPoor Richardfs Almanach a lot, but it seems to fit and describes it quite well.

Again, this is not a bad book, not at all. Personally,` however, I had a few problems with the writing and such, but I do recommend it as a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Dances With Elephants
Review: IBM should thank its lucky stars that Louis Gerstner, Jr. was there to save the day. His strategic and complex scheme to save the country was utter genius. In his book, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance", Gerstner explains how he took IBM by the throat and shook its economical and technological foundations until a dramatic metamorphosis occurred. I liked the fact that Gerstner went solo to write this book because that helped me to understand what he was thinking when he made his different choices. Everything from reintegrating the IBM management team to unveiling IBM's e-business idea was so precise in a book that lacks length (being under 300 pages long). This book will inspire anyone with the hopes of being management material. It's definitely worthy of a five-star rating.

Rating:
Summary: Leaping across the chasm - a WONDERFUL case study
Review: Most MBA programs utilize case studies to one degree or another. As you work through them you develop mental habits of analysis that help you get to the nut of the case fairly quickly so you can get prepared for class. One of the problems is that most cases are oriented as marketing cases, or operations cases, or strategy, or finance, or organizational behavior, or accounting, or whatever cases. A few are used by multiple disciplines, but very few integrate all the management disciplines.

This book is a terrific integrated case. I enjoyed it tremendously and feel I have learned a lot from it. What I enjoyed most was the way Mr. Gerstner demonstrated the way all the disciplines are important in leading a great corporation. And especially the difference between the emergency room behavior he had to engage in when he first joined the company and had to start the bleeding and the different emphases he had to have in transforming IBM into an organization that could thrive in today's marketplace while remaining a great corporation.

I am glad to read about his emphasis on corporate culture while retaining a fierce focus on operations and backing strategy with constant, continuous analysis with hard numbers. All fueled with passion to win. I think this is a winning recipe. And it is very easy to write down, but almost impossible to really execute. Mr. Gerstner did a great job and we all owe him thanks for keeping IBM together and making it competitive once more.

People who are angry that the old IBM is gone shouldn't blame Mr. Gerstner. The old IBM was dying and was going to be broken up. Finding the right markets for the organization to compete in and remain together was a bet not many would have made. Certainly, it is not likely that Mr. Gerstner made perfect decisions nor did the people who worked for him act with transcendent brilliance either. The point is not perfection; it is competing effectively, actively, and with some intelligence. Mr. Gerstner shows us how he and his team did that in the 1990s and I thank him for this great book that I encourage all students of business to read closely.

Rating:
Summary: Gerstner wins with experience, insight, creativity, guts
Review: Gerstner's drastic changes may have disrupted the lives of many employees, but far more would have suffered if IBM had continued down the road to dissolution he diverted it from. In this book Gerstner distills his insights into modern business imperatives in a clear, readable, lively style open to the vast majority of us citizens who do not subsist on electrons and silicon chips.

Rating:
Summary: View from the top of IBM's recent adaptations
Review: "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" is the history of Louis Gerstner, Jr.'s tenure at IBM. Mr. Gerstner joined IBM at a critical time when sales were slumping and the behemoth of a company was laying people off almost every quarter. What they needed was someone who could turn the company around and take it to new heights. What they had was a complex bureaucracy that allowed little change and tended to support the continued decline of the company. Of course we all know now that Mr. Gerstner was able to change IBM and produce a viable thriving company able to compete in the world markets once again. This is the story of what happened from Louis Gerstner's own hand.

Mr. Gerstner provides insight into his viewpoint of what was happening in the company and his own fears and concerns from before the day he was named CEO until his retirement in 2002. If you want to know what was happening at the top and what he was thinking as he went along, you will want to read this book. If you read and liked Lee Iococca's book on his turnaround of Chrysler you will find this book similar and also very interesting in its own right. A study in tough management and changing direction with a company that has its own momentum, "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" is a recommended read.

Rating:
Summary: The grand turnaround straight from the source
Review: This is the story of IBM's miraculous turnaround in Lou's own words. I use "Lou's own words" with intent here, as there was no ghost writer or co-author. The story of the revival of an American icon is written from the viewpoint of the man picked to do it himself.

The book is organized into 4 sections: Getting Hold, Strategy, Culture, Lessons Learned and Observations. (ok, so that's 5 sections)

Getting Hold covers Gerstner's initial immersion into the new environment, and his analysis of the problems. He also covers his famous comment that "the last thing IBM needs is vision" and explains his view in the need for tactics and execution. This flies in the face of what one might expect from a former consultant, and is consistent with other recent books such as "Execution" by Charan and Bossidy.

Strategy covers how Gerstner came to the belief that IBM should not be broken up. This was in contrast to the spinoff frenzy of the times, and came from his view as a former customer that the market needed someone to pull all the technology pieces together, and that was IBM's only competitive advantage. The strategy is covered in business terms accessible to people outside the industry.

Perhaps the biggest "Aha" in the book is the story of Gerstner battling the legendary IBM culture. This is covered in the Culture section, along with his stories of how he tried to insure that his changes are permanent. The importance of this culture change is highlighted in Gerstner's pride that his successor is a blue bleeding IBM life. (Ultimately Lou admits that even after 10 years he was still an outsider)

The lessons learned and observations sections are less a narrative of the IBM turnaround, and more lessons on turnarounds in general, and the computing industry. For students of management, this will hold the most value.

There were two downsides of the book. First is coming to grips with some of the inconsistencies in the methods used to turn around IBM. For a while, Gerstner rails against processes, instead challenging people to focus on customer needs. While reading it, one wonders how a complex organization can integrated many businesses without good processes. Later on Gerstner extols the virtues of his re-engineering project, especially along several key processes vital for turning around IBM. Makes sense, but contradicts his earlier writing.

The other downside is answering why IBM needed an outsider to change it. Gerstner points out several times that IBM was a great company that just appeared stuck in some bad behaviors. Current management wisdom holds that insiders are better turnaround artists than outsiders. Why is this the exception that proves the rule? Is modesty the answer? (It is generally left to the reader to assume that a customer's viewpoint was needed)

I would not let these detract from what was otherwise an interesting (and overdue) story of one of today's great turnarounds. The material comes straight from the source (as compared to the story of Ghosn's turnaround of Nissan) and from an individual of much higher personal integrity than Sunbeam's Al Dunlap.