Rating: 
Summary: Very interesting story
Review: This book is very easy to read and keeps the reader's attention throughout. I felt that the author got into just enough detail to make his points without dragging down the pace of the book. Being able to see inside the "IBM machine" to understand how it functioned and how it changed was very fascinating to me. Getting thousands of people to change the way they think about their jobs, about IBM's business, and about the culture of the company just seems like an incredibly daunting task, yet he walks the reader through just how he did it, while reminding us all that it's only impossible if you believe it is impossible (an excellent life lesson). While reading the book I found myself asking if I would have made the same decisions that Gerstner did. In many cases the answer was yes (Monday morning quarterbacking is great isn't it?), but there were many decisions that he had to make that took a lot of guts, and in some cases they were the wrong decisions. He freely admits that not all of his ideas worked, but it was better to try, fail, learn and move on, than never to try at all. Throughout the book Gerstner gives credit to many people that were instrumental in the turnaround. I respect a person who doesn't assume all of the glory. I can see why he was able to get thousands of people to believe in and follow his ideas. He comes across as a very charismatic individual. Easily one of the top ten people you would love to meet at a party. In the appendix of the book the author includes copies of employee communications so that the reader can gain a better understanding of the situation at the time. Some of these are letters to employees; some are announcements, while others are e-mails to Gerstner himself from employees. I found this to be an excellent addition to the book, providing additional insight into his and IBM's world. Conclusion
This was a very good book and highly recommended for anyone in management. I believe it to be an excellent case study in what happens when companies become complacent, and an equally valuable case study in how to turn a company around. I believe it has some very instructive advice while at the same time reminding the reader that every situation is different, and that sometimes you have to go with your gut feel. This book gives the reader the unique opportunity to get inside the mind of one of the great, and highly successful businessmen of our time, during a time when he was attempting to tackle perhaps his greatest life challenge. I found the book very informative and insightful, and will most likely find myself reading it again. Rating
I gave this book a rating of four stars out of five. While I found the content fascinating, the author's style could have been better. I found some sections to be a little too brief and needing a bit more elaboration. The flow could have been a bit smoother also. All in all, I would still definitely recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: Pretty good book, at least the 1st half. The second half was pretty boring.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for Business Students
Review: Our graduate level class was studying various business models, new and old. This book is a great example of how a man came into a dying business and transformed its business model. I know Gerstner has many critics...but the bottom line is...he saved the company. He did it by reinventing the way IBM did business. I was very impressed with this book. It's worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: A CEO's Account of an "Historic Turnaround"
Review: At the outset, it is important to understand that this volume is not an autobiography; rather, in response to apparently substantial curiosity, Gerstner offers his explanation of how he and his associates achieved what he calls "IBM's historic turnaround." In process, he also explains how and why he became CEO, what his initial assumptions about the company were, to what extent they proved wrong (and why), and finally, what he had learned by the time he resigned as CEO after guiding IBM from April 1993 until March 2002. Having carefully observed Gerstner during the infrequent interviews to which he reluctantly agreed, the book seems to have been written by him without assistance except stenographic. The style and tone as well as the observations are clearly his. This is important. More often than not, a book bearing the name of a CEO as its author has been rigorously edited and thoroughly sanitized by one or more "manuscript doctors" before publication. Not so with this one. Its title was perhaps suggested by that of a book written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter (When Giants Learn to Dance, 1989) and implies that it may be unlikely but is nonetheless possible for an organization as large and as cumbersome as IBM once was to become "quick on its feet" again. Soon after becoming CEO, Gerstner realized that IBM's culture -- not its core strategies -- prevented it from being able to "dance." As Gerstner observes, "[IBM's] decades-long run of uninterrupted success ties in with the other closely related, and vitally important, aspect of IBM's recent history. This is about its corporate culture -- specifically, the kind of culture that arises in an environment without intense competitive pressure or threats." By the time Gerstner had become CEO, the company and its people had lost touch with external realities. It was widely believed that what was happening in the marketplace was essentially irrelevant to the success of the company. "IBM's dominant position had created a self-contained, self-sustaining world for the company. IBM had ridden one horse, and ridden it well. But that horse could carry it only so far before it broke down. This was the corporate culture which Gerstner encountered as he assumed his duties, a culture the product of two predominant forces: the runaway success of the System/360, and, the impact of the antitrust suit filed against IBM by the United States Department of Justice on January 31, 1969, the final day of the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. "For thirteen years IBM lived under the specter of a federally mandated breakup." It would be a mistake to assume that most of the credit for what was accomplished at IBM during Gerstner's tenure as CEO should be given to him. He dedicated this book 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." This book explains how that was accomplished, a transformation whose objective was to re-establish "the high-performance cultured that animated IBM under both Watsons." Having relinquished his duties as CEO to Sam Palmisano, Gerstner suggests that his successor has an opportunity to make connections to IBM's past which Gerstner had not. "His challenge will be to make them without going backward; to know that the centrifugal forces that drove IBm to be inward-looking and self-absorbed still lie powerful in the company. Continuing to drive change while building on the best (and [in italics] only the best) of the past is the ultimate description of the job of Chief Executive Officer, International Business Machines Corporation." It is probably too early to take full measure of Gerstner's performance in that position. However, now having his own account of those critically important years in IBM's history, we can at least appreciate the nature and extent of what he and his associates experienced...and what together they eventually accomplished. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Kevin Maney's The Maverick and the Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM as well as Thomas Watson, Jr. and Peter Petre's Father, Son & Co: My Life at IBM and Beyond.
Rating:
Summary: Louis's IBM Story
Review: I enjoyed the first half of the book a lot. The first couple chapters are very interesting. You can see the story of IBM in the early 90' from Louis's eyes. The author did a good job to summary IBM's problems and environments at that time. They are common problems in many large companies. However, the second half chapters are not interesting any more. The author just repeted many common or general business management best pratices. Not too many new.
Rating: 
Summary: I ARE GREAT AND WONDERFUL!
Review: As a 35 year IBMer, I survived the Cookie Monster years. I found this book very shallow and self-serving. It may have been written to justify to the author, in his own mind, why he destroyed what was once the best corporation in the world. He glosses over the 100,000 people he laid off and never even addressed the rape of the pension plan. Forutnately, I didn't buy this book, it was a gift so no more of my money went into his pocket.
Rating:
Summary: Fairy Tales from Versailles
Review: For those of us who survived King Louis XVI's entire reign as IBM CEO, the image of our unbeloved monarch as some sort of brilliant savior is painfully laughable. It's true that Gerstner instituted a few much-needed reforms during his first couple of years: do-nothing employees ("retired on the job") could no longer coast their way along. The number of habitual slackers was small, however, and they were pushed out the door quickly. Those of us who remained were promised great things for our hard work and loyalty. So what we did we get as our reward? In 1999, in the midst of a booming stock market when IBM was rolling in money, Gerstner gutted our pension plan. His forcible conversion to a cash-balance plan would have cost many older employees half of their pensions. Luckily, the uproar was so great that Big Lou soon relented and magnanimously allowed employees over 40 to keep what they had been promised for decades. Those under 40 were out of luck: by most estimates, they lost "only" a quarter to a third of their pensions. A previously unthinkable IBM employees' union was formed in response to this atrocity. (Gerstner does not even bother to discuss the pension issue in his book. On July 31, 2003, a federal judge ruled that IBM's alterations to its pension plan illegally discriminated against older workers.) More back-stabbing was to follow. Retired employees who were promised free medical coverage for life are now required to pay a big chunk of their pension for health insurance -- and this in the face of only one tiny cost-of-living adjustment in a decade. It was around the time of the pension massacre that the last vestiges of trust and open communication between employees and executives disappeared. "Respect for the individual" had been replaced by "Respect for the size of Lou's bank account." The annual opinion survey was gone -- in pre-Gerstner days, it had been taken quite seriously -- and open discussion of difficulties and complaints had all but evaporated. As late as 1997, we received a candid memo from our division president apologizing for the horrendous problems associated with Lotus Notes (another of Lou's unadmitted disasters). By the end of the 1990s, the best we could expect were bland management-speak memos whose content was about as perceptive and inspiring as Marie Antoinette's comments on peasants. Instead of candor and respect, we were offered Gerstneresque pearls such as the worthless "Win - Execute - Team" garbage that even our line management found hard to discuss without laughter. ("What's the latest name for our annual list of accomplishments? Personal Business Commitments? No, that was last year. Oh right, now it's called WET. Whatever." Muffled guffaws.) In short, Louis V. Gerstner's "turnaround" changed IBM from one of the best companies on the planet into Animal Farm. "All animals are equal but ... oh, why bother. Just hand over any remaining benefits we forgot to take away."
Rating:
Summary: a reader
Review: I worked for IBM in Israel for 8 years, 1984 until 1992. The full employment policy was used as an excuse for lower salaries, as we were guaranteed employment as long as we wanted it. When I confronted HR with the fact that I am being sold an insurance policy that IBM can't possibly maintain in a competitive market I was branded a troublemaker and all my chances of promotion were eliminated. Managers were the people that made the least number of mistakes, 'we are IBM, we can't make any mistakes' was the leading concept. All this culture was there for Lou Gerstner to change. My friends at IBM tell me that he had done a tremendous job at that, and this book is a great description of what he did and how he did it. For those with internal IBM knowledge it is a hilarious reminder of the old IBM, for those without, it is an invaluable lesson on business.
Rating:
Summary: Another ex-IBMer
Review: My first job after college was with IBM - during the boom of the S/360 computer introduction. These were glorious times with IBM. I left IBM eventually (for reasons not negative to IBM) but have always had a special fondness for the company. Even though IBM's internally focused management style ultimately got them into trouble, it spawned a workplace that treated the individual with the utmost respect which all of those who once worked for IBM could not help but appreciate. This book was a simply written and accurate depiction that covered the latter years of T.J Watson Jr.'s era through to today and the viability that the entrenched 1960's IBM culture had in the 1990's. The story is a facinating one and worth reading since I believe it is a 20th century story unique unto itself. For any of you who are IBM history buffs, two other books that I found very interesting fill in some of the detail around the 1970 and 1980 time period of IBM when Microsoft and Intel were taking market share. They both lay the groundwork for what Gerstner describes in his book:
1. Big Blue, the Unmaking of IBM
2. Hard Drive, Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire Clearly Gerstner could not have seen every turnaround action he initiated through to conclusion. Many of these will take years. But I for one wish IBM the very best in the future and thank Lou for taking on this mission.
Rating:
Summary: I worked for IBM during the big crash
Review: Gerstner accurately describes what IBM was like back then. Employees believed they had a right to play around and still get paid. They were owed a lifetime job. Managers were frightened to death of actually disciplining anyone. Personnel dept would make your life miserable. Plus you would become known as someone who can't manage effectively. Fire someone?, forget it. First thing I learned when I made manager was never fire anybody. Just wait till you can unload them on someone else. IBM socialism meant that the sales offices constantly played around with quotas. So you never got really hurt, and you never really made big money. So why put out the effort? You weren't going to get fired. The [...] labs could care less what the market needed. They would play around with stuff until they had perfected it that last 1%. The fact that it would come out 6 months late and 20% overpriced never bothered them. Sales reps didn't sell what made a profit, they sold what had the most sales points attached. I don't think this is a great book but it is interesting and easy to read. And it is absolutely true that IBM needed someone to shake it violently by the collar to make it pay attention to the crisis. All the other reviwers whining about the changes remind me of all the people I knew at IBM who were in denial...."if we just wait a little longer... everything will be all right". Like it or not someone had to radically change the Company we all loved. Even though I lucked out and took the first buyout, I wish I still worked there. There is something about being an IBMer.
| 
