Setting a journalistic standard upon which a wise and honest individual may depend.
Peter E. Greulich's Background, Research and Writing
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Published June 1, 2021
Updated January 8, 2022 |
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
A Retired, Thirty-Year IBM Employee
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After thirty years with the company, Peter E. Greulich retired from IBM in 2011. During that time he served IBM and his customers as an administrator, a first-line manager, systems engineer, salesman, worldwide brand/product/market managers, sales evangelist, and sales instructor. He’s spoken before and interviewed thousands of IBMers worldwide—from the United States to China, Canada to Brazil, and Australia to Scandinavia.
The themes in his three books and on-going publications reflect these discussions, his own personal and corporate experiences, voracious reading of the works, biographies, and autobiographies of early journalists, industrialists, capitalists, and politicians, and a multi-decade research project to understand Tom Watson Sr.’s leadership—the guiding force, that in the face of nine recessions, the Great Depression, three major wars, and four of the six steepest declines in U.S. stock market history, created one of the 20th Century’s greatest corporations.
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PETER E. GREULICH: IBM BOOKS |
Books About IBM and IBM Leadership
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THINK Again!: The Rometty Edition (2020)
THINK Again! is in its second edition. Both editions cover all of IBM's chief executive officers. In the latest edition, charts, graphs, and data points throughout the book have been updated with current information through the end of 2019. A chapter has been added to capture the performance of IBM’s first female chief executive officer, Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty. This additional chapter focuses on the former chief executive’s key performance metrics such as revenue and profit generation, sales and profit productivity, shareholder risk and returns, and goodwill. |
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A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant (2014)
An IBM employee's perspective of the changes that occurred as the corporation entered the 21st Century. If Lou Gerstner’s Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? is the yang, this book is the yin—that quintessential opposing and balancing force. It is an IBM employee-owner’s perspective. It captures the views of those that will ultimately determine IBM’s 21st Century permanence. |
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The World's Greatest Salesman (2011)
A chronological collection of speeches, articles, and thoughts of Thomas J. Watson Sr., the traditional founder of IBM. It starts the day after Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) and ends soon after the Great Depression's trough (March 1933). These are words delivered by Tom Watson to his employees, shareholders, customers, peers and society during one of the worst economic storms the United States and the world had ever faced. |
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PETER E. GREULICH: 21ST CENTURY IBM ARTICLES |
Articles About the 21st Century IBM
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Has the Twenty-first Century IBM become a dysfunctional social institution?
Many of its second-century results, such as revenue and net income per employee would seem to indicate so. As most analysts watch IBM's quarter-to-quarter revenue, they would be wise to recognize that the business doesn't have a quarter-to-quarter problem. The corporation is experiencing a two-decade-long cultural dilemma that has impacted decades--not quarters--of revenue productivity. In 1999 dollars, IBM's sales productivity is down 50%, and its profit productivity is down 56%. To define it clearly, every single one of IBM's 375,300 employees is producing 50% less revenue and 56% less profit than an employee in 1999. This is an on-going problem that encompasses all of IBM's 21st Century Chief Executive Officers: Gerstner, Palmisano, Rometty and Krishna. |
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PETER E. GREULICH: 20TH CENTURY IBM ARTICLES |
Articles About the 20th Century IBM
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Warren Buffett believes in strong moats. Watson Sr. and Jr., though, went further. They built technology moats, but their architecture included battlements manned by passionate, engaged, and enthusiastic stakeholders, because, to a competitor, a moat without defenders is just a pleasant water course.
To keep their defenders vigilant, the Watsons practiced “profit for the customers, profit for the employees, and profit for the stockholders.” IBM’s responsibilities for more than four decades reflected this single priority: an equitable distribution of profits--given the social, economic, and business-first needs of the day--between customers, employees, and stockholders which included a social responsibility to help others.
It was these stakeholders who built IBM’s powerful worldwide brand.
They manned the battlements in defense of IBM.
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PETER E. GREULICH: BUSINESS, POLITICAL, SPIRITUAL AND FICTION ARTICLES |
General Business, Political, and Fiction Articles
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Corporate History Lessons 101
Study these basic corporate history lessons to see how early American industrialists learned from the school of hard knocks--so you don't have to: John H. Patterson sent cash registers to England that couldn't make 1 + 1 = 2 and learned that employees matter; Tom Watson Sr. learned some critical lessons weathering ten major economic declines; Tom Watson Jr. decentralized in a controlled way and his business scaled beyond his father's wildest dreams; and much, much more. |
The Hindsight School of Hard Knocks
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General Business Articles
Read these general business articles to learn: Where the "Razor Blade Business Model" originated; How Henry Ford dealt with his shareholders when they took him to court to force a payment of dividends; About a common rule of ethics many early American industrialists shared; The difference between a capitalist-minded and an industrialist-minded chief executive. |
Business Articles: Henry Ford and Such
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General Political Articles
This is Pete's outlet on sensitive topics. In "America: Home of the Brave, Respectful, Tolerant, and Forgiving," he writes about why he stands for the national anthem. After reading two articles of Teddy Roosevelt's on socialism, he edited them and published them here. In early 2020, Pete drove across the heartland of America during the pandemic. He writes about his beliefs and these experiences. |
Political Articles: Memorial Day and Such
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General Spiritual Articles
In Woodrow Wilson's last days, he was too feeble to write for himself so he dictated a last article for publication. His wife captured the following: “Our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually. … Here is the final challenge to our churches, to our political organizations, and to our capitalists—to everyone who fears God or loves his country. Shall we not all earnestly cooperate to bring in the new day?” Indeed! This are Pete's individual contributions. |
Spiritual Articles: Because We Need Them
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Fiction: Old Men Talking
These old men may not use twitter, but they are amazing producers of twitter fodder: one-liners of wisdom and insight learned over a combined millennia of hard knocks, great loves found and lost, knock-down, dragged-out battles fought but always - - when won - - won through respectful disagreement. They talk about "A Father's Love." They introduce "A Friend to God." They wrestle with the idea of America's "Hyphenated Relationships." Sometimes it takes a while to start these meetings. |
Just Ol' Men Talkin' Bout Nothin' Much
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LET'S COMMUNICATE |
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