Why I love IBM
I'm currently reading (listening) to "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. He was the CEO at IBM a few years back and completely saved the company in the early 90's. He's revered by many at the company, I don't know much about him though.
Lou took over when IBM was going down in flames, the stock price was around $13 from $40 a year before. 3 weeks into his new job role, he hosted the annual share holders meeting, which was a massacre. After the meeting he flew back to NY on an IBM corporate airplane and this was his conversation with the flight attendant:
I turned to the flight attendant and said "This has been a really tough day, I think I'd like to have a drink."
She said, "You don't mean an alcoholic drink do you?"
"I certainly do," I replied, "what kind of Vodka do you have?"
"We have no alcohol on IBM airplanes, it is prohibited to serve alcohol."
I said, "Can you think of anyone who can change that rule?"
"Well, perhaps you could, sir."
"It's changed, effectively immediately!"
Lou took over when IBM was going down in flames, the stock price was around $13 from $40 a year before. 3 weeks into his new job role, he hosted the annual share holders meeting, which was a massacre. After the meeting he flew back to NY on an IBM corporate airplane and this was his conversation with the flight attendant:
I turned to the flight attendant and said "This has been a really tough day, I think I'd like to have a drink."
She said, "You don't mean an alcoholic drink do you?"
"I certainly do," I replied, "what kind of Vodka do you have?"
"We have no alcohol on IBM airplanes, it is prohibited to serve alcohol."
I said, "Can you think of anyone who can change that rule?"
"Well, perhaps you could, sir."
"It's changed, effectively immediately!"
posted by Vincent @ 20:14
6 Comments:
At 6/28/2005 1:20 PM,
eirishis said…
interestingly (for me), louis gerstner is now the head of the Teaching Commission, who we do some work with.
At 6/29/2005 3:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
dude thats an old story....you work for them? and you are just telling us now????
At 6/29/2005 3:58 AM,
Anonymous said…
dude thats an old story....you work for them? and you are just telling us now????
At 6/29/2005 7:16 AM,
Vincent said…
Old story??? Do you know how many old stories there are in this world? I'm sure this was a 'new' fact to the majority of people. Just cause something is old doesn't mean everybody knows about it.
'New' doesn't necessarily imply time.
At 6/29/2005 11:22 AM,
Anonymous said…
Vinny, I used to have alot of respect for that guy...until I heard he was chairman of the carlyle group http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/team/l5-team861.html
He could of put his expertise in helping out the country that helped him become so great....thats sad
At 6/29/2005 12:54 PM,
Vincent said…
I don't know enough about them (other the Fahrenheit 9/11) or his plans there to comment either way.
Wikipedia article
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