Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Sums up Lou Gerstner’s historic business achievement, bringing Ibm back from the brink of insolvency to lead the computer business once again.Offering a unique case study drawn from decades of experience at some of America’s top companies – McKinsey, American Express, Rjr Nabisco – Gerstner’s insights into management and leadership are applicable to any business, at any level. Ranging from strategy to public relations, from finance to organization, Gerstner reveals the lessons of a lifetime running highly successful companies. From Publishers Weekly Gerstner quarterbacked one of history’s most dramatic corporate turnarounds. For those who follow business stories like football games, his tale of the rise, fall and rise of IBM might be the ultimate slow-motion replay.
He became IBM’s CEO in 1993, when the gargantuan company was near collapse. The book’s opening section snappily reports Gerstner’s decisions in his first 18 months on the job-the critical “sprint” that moved IBM away from the brink of destruction.
The following sections describe the marathon fight to make IBM once again “a company that mattered.” Gerstner writes most vividly about the company’s culture. On his arrival, “there was a kind of hothouse quality to the place. It was like an isolated tropical ecosystem that had been cut off from the world for too long. As a result, it had spawned some fairly exotic life-forms that were to be found nowhere else.” One of Gerstner’s first tasks was to redirect the company’s attention to the outside world, where a marketplace was quickly changing and customers felt largely ignored. He succeeded mightily.
Upon his retirement this year, IBM was undeniably “a company that mattered.” Gerstner’s writing occasionally is myopic. For example, he makes much of his own openness to input from all levels of the company, only to mock an earnest (and overlong) employee e-mail (reprinted in its entirety) that was critical of his performance. Also, he includes a bafflingly long and dull appendix of his collected communications to IBM employees. Still, the book is a well-rendered self-portrait of a CEO who made spectacular change on the strength of personal leadership. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. –This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Review “Gerstner entertains as he educates.” (New York Times Book Review) “A well-rendered self-portrait of a CEO who made spectacular change on the strength of personal leadership.” (Publishers Weekly) “Effective, to the pointLouis V.
Gerstner Jr deserves his place in the management hall of fame.” (Financial Times) “The best business book I’ve ever read.” (Imus in the Morning) “Lou Gerstner has the substance of a genuine and interesting story.” (Wall Street Journal).