A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant Home Page
Date Published: June 4, 2021
Date Modified: June 30, 2024
If Lou Gerstner’s Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? is the yang, Peter E. Greulich's A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant is the yin—that quintessential opposing and balancing force. It is an IBM employee's perspective of the changes that took place at IBM from 1993 through 2013 placed within the context of IBM's 100+ year history of leadership. It captures the views of those who will determine IBM’s 21st Century permanence: its workers.

​IBM must rediscover its Corporate Constitution—its basic beliefs of Respect, Service and Excellence.
The information in this section can be accessed from the "BOOKS / BIBLIOGRAPHY + A VIEW FROM BENEATH" menu items above or ​by selecting one of the menu buttons below which are supported with additional descriptive text.
A View from Beneath: Preface, Resource Actions, and Videos
Although my opinion is only one of many, I have interviewed thousands of IBM employees over my thirty-year IBM career. We are an opinionated bunch, and our perspectives on change at IBM are as diverse as the company is old.

​There are three distinct generations of IBMers when it comes to evaluating Louis V. Gerstner: the elder generation, the transition generation, and the younger generation.

This preface helps understand why there are so many different perspectives on Lou Gerstner's leadership.
To understand the impact of Gerstner, Palmisano, Rometty and Krishna's emphasis on maximizing shareholder value, it is important to understand the impact of resource actions--layoffs.

These are two resource actions captured by the author in his journal.
Two videos that provide:
  • An Overview of A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant
  • An Excerpt from the Chapter: "Life in the Redwood Forest" (also provided above)
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