WHO SAYS

ELEPHANTS
CAN’T DANCE?
LOUIS V. GERSTNER
By:
Simeen Akbar Khalfay
SYMMS-HR-01
Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute
INTRODUCTION
 Historic turnaround of IBM
 Close to bankruptcy
 Did not cope with changing scenario of information
technology industry
 Need for a change agent who would shake-up the
organization from top to bottom

 A world-class challenge
 More than 300000 employees worldwide
 Wide geographical distribution
 Multiple product divisions
 Research Labs
 OVERVIEW

Grabbing Lessons
Strategy Culture Observations
hold Learned
GRABBING HOLD
 Keep the company together; no splitting

 Change the fundamental economic model at

IBM

 Reengineer how IBM did business

 Sell IBM’s nonproductive assets

RADICAL CHANGE
 Radical change in the way of doing business, not
the business itself

 Continue with the mainframe & protect the R&D

budget, making research the core strength

 Restructure & streamline the organization structure

 ESOPs & employee retention

 Reviving the IBM brand

RADICAL CHANGE THROUGH
STRATEGY
 Market-driven company

 Grow the service side of the business, offer

complete end-to-end solutions

 Give in to the future industry requirement of

large-scale systems & networks

 Selling the technology

RADICAL CHANGE THROUGH
STRATEGY
 Integrating the software business

 Unstack the stack

 Harness the emergence of e-business

 CULTURE
 Marketplace is the driving
force for everything we do
 We are a technology company
 Excellence in everything committed to quality
we do  Measure success by customer
satisfaction & shareholder
 Superior customer value
service
 Entrepreneurial organization
 Never lose sight of strategic
vision
 Respect for the  Sense of urgency at all times
individual
 Always work as a team
 Sensitive to needs of
employees & communities
CULTURE

Win Execute Team

•Lead & manage by principles

KEY LESSONS

Focus

Execute Lead
KEY LESSONS
 Strategies: Long on detail, short on vision.
Vision creates a sense of self-confidence.

 Execution:
 People respect what you inspect rather than
expect
 World-class processes are required
 Strategic clarity is a must
 High performance culture
KEY LESSONS
 Great business leaders are:
 Passionate
 Knowledgeable
 Highly-visible
 Hands-on
 Driven
 Change agents
 Good communicators
 Even-handed
 Tough minded but fair
 Unwilling to make exceptions on values
KEY LESSONS
 Centralization vs. Decentralization
 Small vs. Big
 Shared activities:
 Leverage size of enterprise to yield economies of
scale
 Link business processes closer to the market
place & customer
 Shared approach to winning a marketplace