Rating: 
Summary: Some true stuff, some wishful thinking
Review: As a departed employee of many years, the book provided little to capture my attention except to learn that Lou did at least have some grasp of the gridlock and culture problems resulting from chronic political infighting in the management ranks. There was no sudden clarity for why his apparent reign of terror was good for IBM, its customers, employees or the communities. Developing a good understanding of the situation inside of the company, but without a clue of how to compete in the industry, he develops a plan to keep IBM solvent. Indeed, IBM was a place where the brown spots in the lawns were painted green prior to a visit from the CEO. How much can a CEO actually know in a place like that? Lou neglects to discuss that his plan was to sell the seed corn, slash, burn and reap whatever was left of intrinsic value for personal gain. Basically, his plan to save the company was to 1) Surround himself with loyal friends. 2) Fire anyone that could get in his way. 3) Buy everyone else out with stock options and the resulting fear of loss 4) Sell every asset possible to generate cash. (including trees from un-used land) 5) Shut down every business that lost money. 6) Lay off everyone possible that contributed to pension liabilities. 7) Raid the remaining pension fund and use that cash to prop the stock price. 8) Make stock price the primary objective for everyone. 10) Ride the dot-com bubble to the top and bail out. 11) Write a book to justify his actions so he could sleep at night. Nowhere in the book does he mention anything about the rank and file, the thousands of families that lost their homes, ability to send kids to college, and lifetimes to prepare for retirement. Little is mentioned of any effort to develop new businesses, or describe technological initiatives, or the creation of anything. Nowhere does he describe the untold wealth he accumulated through his vast stock options. There are almost no stories about encounters with anyone interesting except a couple of backhanded swipes to the likes of Bill Gates. There are virtually no facts or numbers to back him up other than some very selective charts in an appendix. If you are looking for a book to tell you how to save a company, this is not it. If you are looking for book to learn how to be a great leader, this is not it. If you are looking for a book to learn how fouled up a big company can get, and how to leverage that for personal gain well, you will get that, but you have to read between the lines to put those pieces together.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite insightful
Review: I joined IBM about 9 months ago, so this book was interesting to me in understanding some of the culture of my new company. But I also found it generally quite well written, and very easy to read --- I finished the whole thing in a few hours on a plane.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Bio
Review: I was a bit amused & surprised to see the extreme, differering reviews posted here. To me, this book certainly deserves 5 stars for its simple, straightforward style and Gerstner's pin-point diagnosis & prescriptions and of course results.
To those who says he was a heartless tyrant, I say you cant run a huge corporation effectively by being a wishy-washy. To those who accuses him of self-centredness and self-aggradisement, I say well ... he deserved what he got by producing results - we are living in a capitalistic world . . . . finally for those who says that he made it on the expense of thousands of lay-offs, I say get a new pair of glasses ... look at those people's jobs he saved, and the economic turmoil he prevented had a corporation of 300,000 employees bankrupt.
Rating:
Summary: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnar
Review: This is an excellent book giving a birds eye view on how a large, successful company can deteriorate to a level that is destroying the company and yet insiders are virtually oblivious to the actual impact their actions are playing in that demise. How an outsider is sometimes needed to help them see the way out. I think Mr. Gerstners skills as a consultant and especially his experience as a significant IBM customer were significant to the turnaround at IBM and gives clear examples how a person does not have to be an expert at a specific business to lead it to higher ground. I really appreciated the strategic planning and reasoning provided by the writer as to the direction IBM took on mergers and acquisitions and the reason most of the proposals were best left alone. Growth for the sake of growth is not advisable if it is not strategic to the core of the company's goals. This is a good, easy read and relatively captivating book. It does get a little lengthy, and the many letters at the end of the book are only interesting to get a better view inside Mr. Gerstner. Actually, I found them enlightening, but not always portraying the message he actually intended, at least not as strong as he thought he made it.
Rating:
Summary: A Bold Leader
Review: This is a fascinating account, written by the man who orchestrated it, of the historic turn around of IBM. In 1993, IBM was heading to extinction; mired in the tradition and culture of its own success, it was unable to respond to the pace and behaviors of the new economy. Through relentless determination to return IBM to profitability, Gerstner sold what many would consider significant assets and developed ideas that were considered risky by the established wisdom. A significant section of the book concerns the work done to change the culture of IBM. While this turnaround was the most significant to the success of the venture, it was also the most difficult to accomplish. He turned the popular wisdom on its ear by exposing that "vision is not the same as "strategy. It's very easy to develop visions. It's the same thing as Babe Ruth pointing to the fences". Customer focus ruled the day, with quick responses to their needs. Leadership was brilliant in understanding that Service would become a vital part of the industry and became the niche that IBM was perfectly suited to inhabit. "Who says elephants can't dance?" is a fast paced read, hard to put down and written in the style of a novel. It holds the readers interest with unfolding developments and exciting outcomes. I would recommend this book for people who are interested in the new network economy and the companies that rule the day. Also for anyone in a leadership position, this book has invaluable support for making the hard decisions.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting read especially if you are an IBMer
Review: Being an IBM employee at that time and having lived though the first 6 months of Gertsner's reign, I see that Lou has chronicled quite accurately the events during the remaking of the New IBM and rationally explaining some of the decisions that were made at the time. Its amazing how much bitterness still remains from those bloodletting days as shown in the previous reviews. All in all though, despite the pains from the early days and the constant critiscms from both inside and outside of IBM, Lou has done a really good job as CEO and this book simply explains what was happening at the time and why some decisions were made the way they were made. I give credit to where credit is due and I recommend this book to all former and current IBMers.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is my review ?
Review: I wrote an honest opinion and followed the guidelines. But my review never appeared. What's up ?
Rating:
Summary: Worth a quick read if you have an interest in IBM in the 90s
Review: The book is interesting in describing the world of a CEO tasked with turning around of worlds the biggest, most visible companies. A universe most of us cannot hope to get personal insight into. If the world of the CEO or top-level IBM management is a topic that interests you will enjoy reading through this book. However do not expect a page-turner thriller or much depth in the description of the day-to-day management. The individual chapters are well written however they do not mesh strongly enough giving a feeling of the parts being better then the whole.
Rating: 
Summary: good primer on business basics, but not a compelling yarn
Review: This is a fairly good book by an immensely talented CEO. It takes up more or less a few decades after the retirement of one of the greatest businessmen of the 20C (TWatson Jr.), when the business had lost its way and was under attack by extremely nimble rivals. Gerstner took over the failing, almost bankrupt, company and both re-made its startegy and culture, re-focusing it on customer needs and re-engineering it (i.e. laying off an awful lot of people). In this book, he tells the outlines of how he did it, which is indeed extremely interesting. In particular, he stresses that while a strategy is needed, implementation of it is far more important. Unfortunately, he does not go into enough detail for the reader to fully understand what he faced and how he did it. Neither the technology nor the brutal methods he had to employ were adequately addressed, at least for me. I read it carefully and did not feel I had had quite the full meal I expected. The reader also gets virtually no insight into what makes Gerstner tick, other than that he "wants to win" with passion. THe book was also entirely written by Gerstner; his style is competent, if somewhat like a business memo: good analyses are "actionable" and effective actions are "impactful." Nonetheless, this is a very good primer on basic strategy and organizational behavior. He has lots of valuable advice to give and pinpoints many important issues. I will keep it and return to it. THere were some things that I found questionable and surprising, if also unintentionally revealing. FOr example, he made IBM both an honest broker in offering comprehensive technology-based business solutions - for the first time, its employees could recommend the hardware of competitors if they better suited the customers' needs - while another part of the company continued to strive to produce the best hardware. This flatly contradicts both what Porter advises and Gerstner himself argues elsewhere in the book regarding the self-reinforcing compatibility of the elements of a business strategy and makes me question if Gerstner really thought it all thru. In addition, he astonishingly posits that Japanese business reporters are the best in the world, when in fact - and I worked in Japan for Nikkei, a leading business news wire service - they are merely part of the PR apparatus of firms, reporting verbatim what they were told to report by companies! If that is what Gerstner expected of Western reporters, then he was naive. But then, he was a benevolent dictator and is open about his dislike and lack of trust of the press. REcommended. But if you really want a rivetting account of IBM, I would recommend Watson's autobio, Father Son & Co. There is also an excellent account of the turnaround of Xerox, using TQM, that is far more compelling a read than this book.
Rating:
Summary: A good book to look back in 2002 and look forward to 2003
Review: Surely, Mr. Gerstner wouldn't (or can't) reveal all the details and secrets about how he and the IBM people turned this American icon around. However, the last few chapters are worth reading and make the modern business people think over and over again.
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