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Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner
 
 
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Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner [Hardcover]

Robert Slater (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)


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Book Description

July 20, 1999
In this honest, inside look at one of the world's most inspiring corporate success stories, bestselling business author Robert Slater reveals how Gerstner stressed service, catapulted IBM into the Internet revolution, and restored IBM's mantle of leadership. Starting each chapter with a success maxim -- as in his bestselling Jack Welch and the GE Way -- Slater provides nothing less than the roadmap for achieving success in today's turbulent corporate world.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From the early 1950s into the late '80s, IBM was the computer industry. Not only that, IBM was, to many, industry itself. It consistently set the standard for corporate performance and profitability, both in the U.S. and worldwide. But that all changed in a strange, swift, and brutal way. IBM--which had fiddled while Microsoft and Intel created a firestorm in the personal-computer world--lost money for three consecutive years in the early '90s. The decision to allow Microsoft to control PC software and Intel to supply the microprocessors (they're both companies IBM could've easily bought out early in the game) came back to bite IBM on its bloated blue butt. And its no-layoffs policy, though admirable, meant the company kept a workforce of more than 300,000, making decisions at a glacial pace while other companies nimbly jumped from one new market to the next.

All that changed when Lou Gerstner was named CEO of IBM in 1993. Gerstner had already led turnarounds at American Express and RJR Nabisco, and, as Saving Big Blue details, he proved to be the right man for the job. Gerstner started by changing the company's funereal dress code and eventually redirected the company to provide computer services rather than just computers. Saving Big Blue makes for interesting reading as a case study, but also provides a blueprint for any manager attempting to turn around a business. --Lou Schuler

From Publishers Weekly

Former Time magazine reporter Slater (Jack Welch and the GE Way; Ovitz: The Inside Story, etc.) doesn't go as far as Garr in IBM Redux (reviewed above) to document the story of IBM's turnaround. Slater's main method of getting at Gerstner the man is to stud the book with quotes from previously published Gerstner interviews in such magazines as Fortune and Business Week. In the chapter "What's Lou Gerstner Like: 'You're Not Getting Inside My Head,'" Slater fails to dig for meaningful biographical information and instead serves up twice-warmed tidbits that shed little light on his subject: "Once I have a feeling for the choices, then I have no problems with the decisions. I love to make strategic decisions." As for telling the story of Gerstner's miracle-working, or of his notorious imperiousness, Slater's conceit of making each chapter convey a "Leadership Lesson" ("Sweep Aside the Old Corporate Culture If Necessary, but Do It Quickly"; "Shift Turnaround Tactics: End the Cost-Cutting; Search for Revenue") drains much of the drama from what, as Garr demonstrates, is a rousing business story. Slater does a credible job explaining IBM's shifts in the design and marketing of mainframes and in the conceptual changes the company underwent in moving to Web-based business, but that story is available in more detail from Garr. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 309 pages
  • Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill; 1 edition (July 20, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0071342117
  • ISBN-13: 978-0071342117
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #601,160 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robert Slater was born in New York City on October 1, 1943, and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1962 and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, where he majored in political science. He received a masters of science degree in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1967. He worked for UPI and Time Magazine for many years, in both the United States and the Middle East.
Slater has written 16 books about major business personalities before his new book on Donald Trump:
' The Titans of Takeover (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987).
' Portraits in Silicon (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987).
' This ... .Is CBS: A Chronicle of 60 Years (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988).
' The New GE: How Jack Welch Revived an American Institution (Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1993).
' Get Better or Get Beaten! 31 Leadership Secrets from GE's Jack Welch (Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1994). This book made the business best-seller list in Japan.
' SOROS: The Life, Times, and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles superinvestor George Soros, and it appeared on the Business Week best-seller list.
' Invest First, Investigate Later: And 23 Other Trading Secrets of George Soros, the Legendary Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996).
' John Bogle and the Vanguard Experiment: One Man's Quest to Transform the Mutual Fund Industry (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles the most important business figure in the mutual fund field.
' Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1997). This book made the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times business best-seller lists.
' Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1998). This is an updated look at the business secrets of General Electric's chairman and chief executive officer. It made the Business Week and The Wall Street Journal best-seller lists.
' Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999).
' The GE Way Fieldbook: Jack Welch's Battle Plan for Corporate Revolution (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1999).
' The Eye of the Storm: How John Chambers Steered Cisco Systems Through the Technology Collapse (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003).
' Magic Cancer Bullet: How a Tiny Orange Capsule May Rewrite Medical History (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003), co-authored with Novartis CEO, Dan Vasella.
' The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2003). A paperback version was published in June 2004.
' Microsoft Rebooted: How Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Re-Invented Their Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2004
' No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump (New Jersey, Pearson, Prentice Hall, February 2005)


 

Customer Reviews

18 Reviews
5 star:
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4 star:
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3 star:
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Light on Facts, Light on Analysis, January 21, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (Hardcover)
I was disappointed by this book. As an ex-IBM'er who was there during the bad times as well as the Gerstner led recovery, I was looking forward to insights about the times and the man. The book lacked both. It was written in a sloppy way, with the same tired facts about stock price recovery and growth in different parts of IBM's business being repeated over and over again. When it appeared there would be some fascinating insight, it faded into nothingness e.g. when Slater started to write about the demise of senior execs, the best he could do was trot out some triteness about the disposal of Lou's brother Richard who was at that time a consultant. The book was filled with quotes from Fortune and many other business magazines as if all his research was done from them. Over all, a disappointment.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Geez-whiz and golly gee...., September 7, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (Hardcover)
Too wishy washy for me. Seemed more like a PR release. Bob Slater should write for Microsoft's PR department. Hardly objective, not that I disagree with how Lou Gerstner turned around the company. The man is my hero. Its too touchy-feely, Leave it to Beaverish.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars This is only the prolog, September 3, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (Hardcover)
Mr. Gerstner has indeed steered IBM from some very troubled waters. However, the turn around is much more reactionary than it is thought out and planned. With the bulk of Gerstner's compensation issued in the form of stock options he has been very motivated to bring the stock price up. The real story is yet to be written. Will his title as the savior of IBM stand the test of time? Or will time reveal that the companies infastructure and future were sold short to raise the stock price long enough for Gerstner and his appointed executives to grab the cash and run? That will be the real story and it remains to be written.
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