Who is Lou Gerstner? to top

(Click Lou's pic to see)

Like a stroke of pure genius.

Lou stepped in and refocused the entire company. It was, "like a stroke of pure genius."  He "took IBM out of the commoditization game by emphasizing its services business."  The company's new focus would be toward helping customers select, install, operate and maintain their computing systems.
This was what many people said was Gerstner's most significant move. 

What happened since Lou stepped in?     to top

In 1993, when Gerstner arrived at IBM, it was a company that was loosing 8.1 billion in that year.  Since Lou's arrival, the company is now turning a profit of 7.7 billion. Lou renovated  IBM's add campaign. He changed it from bland and nerdy, to Big Blue. Gerstner's services aspect of Blue changed from 27% to 41%.  As a direct result of his efforts, his salary went from 2.6 million in 1993 to 10 million in 2000.

What did Mr. Big Blue do to IBM's  work place?   to top

Gerstner started making changes in the way his employees went about tasks at work. One way he did this was by changing presentation formats. He threw out the old over head presentations and brought in an new tactic. He requested a  written proposal ahead of time and then spent the time in the meeting interrogating his executives. Mr. Big Blue  also set up call quotas along with incentives for coordination among IBM companies. 

How did this relate to Management?   to top

Louis V. Gerstner's outstanding management techniques are exemplified  in nearly all of the models studied in this course. The following  model incorperates several of the elements in the Hierarchy of Goals, which replicates Lou's  management style the best. 

Lou accomplished what many thought couldn't have been done by following the 5 elements of the Hiearchy of Goals. 
1. Purpose: Lou wanted long term survival.
2. Mission: He redirected the scope of IBM by issuing orders to narrow the scope of the company and work as a single unit. 
3. Strategy: Part of Lou's mission was his strategy of reconfiguring the companies resources in order to better serve his customers.
4. Goals: Like any true leader, Gerstner had no different objectives. He wished to turn a profit and grow at the same time.
5. Action Plans: Mr. Gerstner's plan was to think quick and stop the land sliding company from hitting rock bottom and declaring bankruptcy by means of radical managerial focuses.

Due to the prior example it is clear to see that Louis V. Gerstner is a superb leader of a great company.  Lou does this by employing aspects from all the models that we discuss in class to accomplish his immense goals.