This is not my autobiography. I can't think of anyone other than my children who might want to read that book (and I'm not 100 percent sure they would, either). However, in the spirit of trying to provide some contextual background for my views, what follows is a brief historical perspective.
Lou Gerstner on the Turnaround
"Heading into IBM, I would have bet large sums of money that these frenetic early months would be the hardest work of my professional career. I would have bet wrong. What happened through the second half of the 1990s would determine whether IBM was merely going to be one more pleasant, safe, comfortable - but fairly innocuous - participant in the information technology industry, or whether we were once again going to be a company that mattered."
Gerstner on Strategy
"Good strategies start with massive amounts of quantitative analysis, hard, difficult analysis that is blended with wisdom, insight and risk taking. Truly great companies lay out strategies that are believable and executable. Good strategies are long on detail and short on vision."
Gerstner on Culture
"I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game - it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value."
Foreword
Introduction
PART I-GRABBING HOLD
1 The Courtship
2 The Announcement
3 Drinking from a Fire Hose
4 Out to the Field
5 Operation Bear Hug
6 Stop the Bleeding (and Hold the Vision)
7 Creating the Leadership Team
8 Creating a Global Enterprise
9 Reviving the Brand
10 Resetting the Corporate Compensation Philosophy
11 Back on the Beach
PART II-STRATEGY
12 A Brief History of IBM
13 Making the Big Bets
14 Services--the Key to Integration
15 Building the World's Already Biggest Software Business
16 Opening the Company Store
17 Unstacking the Stack and Focusing the Portfolio
18 The Emergence of e-business
19 Reflections on Strategy
PART III-CULTURE
20 On Corporate Culture
21 An Inside-Out World
22 Leading by Principles
PART IV-LESSONS LEARNED
23 Focus--You Have to Know (and Love) Your Business
24 Execution--Strategy Goes Only So Far
25 Leadership Is Personal
26 Elephants Can Dance
PART V-OBSERVATIONS
27 The Industry
28 The System
29 The Watchers
30 Corporations and the Community
31 IBM--a Farewell
APPENDICES
Appendix A--Employee Communications
Appendix B--The Future of e-business
Appendix C--Financial Overview
Index