Re-Organization of IBM

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews Louis Gerstner's book "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?" In particular, the paper highlights Gerster's management of IBM as CEO, and the changes he has made during his tenure. The most salient change according to the book has been how IBM makes the customer the center of as many strategies, initiatives and activities as possible. Throughout the book Gerstner uses many examples to show why competitive analysis and instilling ownership to employees, and not tolerating complacency are critical to turning around a corporation and making it more market-driven. This is what Gerstner did with IBM.

Our Primary Measures of Success are Customer Satisfaction and
Shareholder Value
We Never Lose Sight of our Strategic Vision
Outstanding, Dedicated People make it Happen, particularly when they Work Together as a Team
We are Sensitive to the Needs of all Employees and to the Communities in which we Operate
We Operate as an Entrepreneurial Organization with a Minimum of
Bureaucracy and a Never-ending Focus on our Customer and our
Productivity
We Think and Act with a Sense of Urgency

From the Paper:

"Further, Mr. Gerstner's book offers insight into how our company can bring about the change needed to achieve long-term competitive advantages through a series of six principles he has actually tested and verified through his management experience at IBM. What makes the key points from Gerstner's book so valuable is that they are far from the theoretical; they are from real-world experiences the CEO and author has experienced in transforming what had been a massive organization resting on its past successes, complacent to live off its license revenues, into a market-driven and highly aggressive force in many areas today including Web Services and business processing outsourcing with the acquisition of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) earlier in the decade. From these many transformation processes successfully accomplished in IBM, Mr. Gerstner has outlined six principles that can help our corporation bring about our success. "

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