Ducks In A Row: Happy 100th Birthday, IBM
by Miki Saxon
IBM turns 100 this week, which is an impressive birthday for a person or a company, but it’s huge for a company that plays in the high tech world which counts years more like a dog does—seven to one. IBM not only plays, it wins.
It wins by constantly changing itself.
“Its ability to keep on re-inventing itself over the decades has been key to its survival.” –Bob Djurdjevic, of Annex Research
In the late 1980s IBM stumbled badly and over the next few years it became obvious that the stumble could be fatal.
IBM almost died because positive process had morphed into an ossified bureaucracy that was killing innovation.
In 1992, the recession and the company’s failure to keep up with its competitors resulted in a $5 billion loss, more than any U.S. company had ever experienced in a single year.
In 1995 Lou Gerstner was chosen to turn IBM around, but he didn’t focus on products, he focused on culture.
“Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success—along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game—it is the game.”
Current IBM CEO Sam Palmisano is still focused on culture.
“I still come to work every day at a company with a unique ability to create — and continually recreate — a culture of innovation.”
The article is interesting, but Lou Gerstner’s book Who Said Elephants Can’t Dance is truly fascinating.
Pick up a copy if you believe in the importance of culture; read it if you don’t—I guarantee it will change your mind.
No person or company lives a century or more without a great culture—one that is strong enough to support the entity and flexible enough to grow and change as the world does.
Fickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/
