DISCERNING READERS
  • Home
  • About
  • Books / Bibliography
    • Keys to Success >
      • Preface
      • Introduction
      • Appendix
      • You: The First Key
    • THINK Again! Series >
      • Ideas and High Ideals >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Prologue
        • Insights into Tom Watson >
          • Tom Watson's Character
          • A Wartime Humanitarian
          • Democracy's Man O' War
          • An Exemplary Man
          • On Youth & Education
        • A Successful Rebranding
      • The Rometty Edition >
        • Preface
        • Foreword
        • Introduction
        • Business Talk Interview
        • Book Trailers and Videos
      • The World's Greatest Salesman >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Workplace Safety
        • Images and Quotes
        • Book Trailers / Videos
    • A View from Beneath >
      • Preface
      • Resource Actions >
        • Two R.A. Days Hit Home
        • R.A. Day Kills Productivity
      • Business Talk Interview
      • Book Trailers and Videos
    • Essays on Leadership >
      • Democracy in Business
      • We Are All Assistants >
        • Frank Venner: We Are All Assistants
      • We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes
    • Bibliography Overview >
      • Authors and Writers >
        • Garland, Hamlin
        • Wise, John S. >
          • Slave Auction
          • Tribute to Robert E. Lee
          • On Lincoln's Assassination
      • Capitalists >
        • Baruch, Bernard M. >
          • My Own Story
          • The Public Years >
            • A Review
            • Second Thoughts
        • Davison, Henry P.
        • Schiff, Jacob H.
      • Educators >
        • Washington, Booker T >
          • Up From Slavery
          • My Life and Work
          • Character Building
          • My Larger Education
          • The Man Farthest Down >
            • Booker T. Washington and John Burns
          • Future of American Negro >
            • Future of the Negro
      • IBM >
        • IBM Books >
          • IBM Classics
          • IBM Executives' Books
          • IBM Employees' Books
          • IBM Outsiders' Books
        • IBM Publications >
          • THINK Magazine
          • Business Machines
          • IBM Heart and Soul >
            • Endicott Memorial Day
            • Poughkeepsie Memorial Day
          • IBM Art Books
        • IBM Situational
      • Industrialists >
        • Anthologies >
          • The Book of Business
          • New Ideals in Business
          • Master Workers' Library
          • The Age of Big Business
          • Famous Leaders Series Home Page >
            • Leaders of Character
            • Leaders of Industry: 1st Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 2nd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 3rd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 6th Series
          • Forbes' Anthologies
        • Armour, J. Ogden >
          • The Packers
          • The Packers: Second Look
        • Baldwin, William H.
        • Beatty, Edward
        • Bell, Alexander Graham
        • Carnegie, Andrew >
          • Carnegie Quotes
          • Carnegie Autobiography
          • Carnegie Biography by B. J. Hendrick
          • Round the World
          • The Empire of Business
          • An American Four-in-Hand
        • Eastman, George
        • Edison, Thomas A. >
          • Edison: His Life and Inventions
          • Edison: My Friend
        • Farquhar, A. B.
        • Filene, Edward A. >
          • The Way Out >
            • Captains of Industry vs. Captains of Finance
          • Successful Living >
            • Rules of Success
        • Firestone, Harvey S. >
          • Men and Rubber
          • Making an Organization
        • Flint, Charles R.
        • Ford, Henry >
          • Books by Henry Ford
          • The Last Billionaire
          • My Forty Years with Ford
        • Gary, Elbert H.
        • Guggenheim, William
        • Hill, James J.
        • Hollerith, Herman
        • Johnson, George F.
        • Patterson, John H.
        • Penney, James C. >
          • Fifty Years With the Golden Rule
        • Procter, William C.
        • Rockefeller Jr.
        • Rockefeller Sr.
        • Rosenwald, Julius
        • Sloan Jr., Alfred P.
        • Swope, Gerard >
          • Swope of G.E.
          • The Swope Plan
          • Selected Addresses
        • Verity, George M. >
          • True Steel
          • Character & Success
        • Wanamaker, John >
          • A Business Biography
          • Retail Firsts
        • Watson Jr., Thomas J. >
          • A Business and Its Beliefs
          • Management Briefings
          • Father, Son & Company
        • Watson Sr., Thomas J. >
          • Human Relations
          • Men-Minutes-Money
          • The Lengthening Shadow
        • Young, Owen D. >
          • Selected Addresses
          • New Industrial Leader
      • Inventors & Innovators >
        • Fulton, Robert
        • Goodyear, Charles
      • Journalists >
        • Baker, Ray Stannard >
          • Autobiography
          • The Color Line
          • Woodrow Wilson
        • Crowther, Samuel >
          • Articles >
            • Bantam Ball Bearing
          • Biographies
          • Industrialist Anthology
          • "Why Men Strike" Review
        • Gunther, John >
          • Eisenhower
        • Steffens, Lincoln
        • Sullivan, Mark >
          • Our Times
          • The Education of an American
        • Tarbell, Ida M. >
          • Overview
          • Lincoln Centennial
          • Lincoln Publications
          • Corporate Publications
          • Fiction Publications
          • Other Publications >
            • Mme. (Madame) Roland
          • Magazine Articles >
            • Disbanding the Confederate Army
            • Disbanding the Union Army
        • White, William Allen >
          • Woodrow Wilson, The Man
      • Military Leaders >
        • Lee, General Robert E.
      • Pioneers / Explorers >
        • Byrd, Richard E. >
          • Alone
          • Discovery
          • Little America
        • Columbus, Christopher
        • Lindbergh, Charles
      • Politicians >
        • Eisenhower, Dwight D.
        • Hoover, Herbert >
          • American Individualism Book >
            • American Individualism Article
          • Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Problems of Lasting Peace
        • Lincoln, Abraham >
          • Lincoln in the Telegraph Office
          • Abraham Lincoln Books By Ida M. Tarbell
        • Mesta, Perle
        • O'Connor, Basil and FDR >
          • Friends and Partners (Against Polio)
        • Roosevelt, Theodore >
          • Roosevelt: A Story of Friendship
        • Roper, Daniel C. >
          • Fifty Years of Public Life
        • Taft, William H.
        • Wilson, Woodrow >
          • The New Freedom
          • The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Wilson's Last Words
          • Wilson's Tasks and Life
          • Wilson's Life and Letters >
            • Volume IV: President
            • Volume V: Neutrality
            • Volume VI: Facing War
      • Preachers >
        • Fosdick, Harry Emerson >
          • The Meaning of Prayer
          • The Meaning of Faith
          • The Meaning of Service
          • Power to See It Through
      • Publishers >
        • Forbes, B. C. >
          • Men Who Are Making America
          • Men Who Are Making the West
          • Automotive Giants of America
          • Little Bits about Big Men
          • America's 50 Foremost Business Leaders
          • America's Twelve Master Salesmen
          • Scrapbook of Thoughts on Business of Life
          • 101 Unusual Experiences
          • Keys to Success
          • Teamwork
        • Fortune Magazine >
          • USA: The Permanent Revolution
        • Shaw, A. W. >
          • Handling Men >
            • Why We Are Hiring Women
            • The Dream Behind the Business
          • The Companion Series
    • Research Sites
    • Acknowledgements
  • 21st Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • Comparing KPIs
      • Brand Performance >
        • Forbes' Best Employer
      • Patent Performance >
        • 2021 Patent Performance
        • 2020 Patent Performance
        • 2019 Patent Performance
        • 2018 Patent Performance
      • Revenue Performance
    • Corporate Practices >
      • Acquisitions >
        • Acquisition: Red Hat >
          • A $35 Billion Gamble
          • IBM + Red Hat 2019 Results
        • Acquisitions: Goodwill
        • Acquisitions: Since 2001
      • Centralization >
        • A Lost Federation
        • The Need to Decentralize
      • Divestitures >
        • Kyndryl Analysis
        • Kyndryl Top Questions
        • Martin Schroeter
      • Employees >
        • Resource Actions
        • Age Discrimination >
          • Cutting Old Heads
        • Employee Engagement
        • Aren't Buying Into IBM
        • Massive Work Slowdown
        • Failure of Work at Home
      • Financial Engineering >
        • Workforce Rebalancing
        • Aggressive Bookkeeping
      • Shareholders >
        • Share Buybacks
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Overall Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Employment Security
        • Employee Engagement
        • Warren Buffett's Mistake
        • Do Share Buybacks Work?
    • CEO Performance >
      • Arvind Krishna Overview >
        • First Year Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Share Buybacks
        • The First 100 Days
      • Ginni Rometty Overview >
        • Shareholder Value
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Share Buybacks
        • Dividend Strategy
        • Acquisition Strategy
        • Revenue & Profit Productivity
        • Revenue & Profit Growth
        • Revenue & Profit
  • 20th Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • IBM's Greatest CEO >
        • Shareholder Returns
        • Revenue Growth
        • Revenue Per Employee
        • Profit Growth
        • Profit Per Employee
        • Market Value
        • Goodwill
        • Economic Contractions
        • Economic Expansions
        • Stock Market Headwinds
        • CEO Historic Footnotes >
          • IBM's Founding Team
          • Financial Engineering
          • The Greatest Gamble
    • Corporate Practices >
      • IBM Anniversaries
      • IBM Benefits
      • IBM Creativity >
        • IBM Cartoons
        • IBM Song Books
        • IBM UK Dictionary
        • IBM Computing Dictionary
      • IBM Wild Ducks >
        • The Wild Goose
        • Royal Dissenters
        • Corporate Constitution
        • Respect for the Individual
        • Service to the Customer
        • Pursuit of Excellence
    • Corporate Products >
      • 1890: U.S. Census
      • Dayton Scales in 1920
      • 1940: The Electromatic
    • Thomas J. Watson Sr. >
      • Quotes By Watson
      • Quotes About Watson
      • Articles By Watson >
        • On World Peace
        • On the Cost of War
        • On Public Education
        • On Thomas Jefferson
        • On Thoughtful Mistakes
        • On Stakeholder Relations
      • Articles About Watson >
        • A Gift of Retirement
        • A Gift of Home Ownership >
          • Construction Timeline
        • The $1,000-A-Day Chief Executive Officer
        • Employees are Valued
        • Democracy's Man o' War
        • Human Relations in 1956
        • A CEO Who Earned His Pay
        • The Story of "THINK" >
          • Two Journalists "THINK"
          • A Buddy Davis Interview
        • Learning from Crises
        • Tom Watson's Wild Ducks
        • The Lengthening Shadow
      • Slice of Life Stories >
        • Dali, Salvador
        • Drucker, Peter F. >
          • Authority and Power
          • Short-Term Thinking
          • A Corporate Culture
          • Raising Business Issues
          • Focus on Principles
          • Character and Manners
          • Knowledge Workers
          • Recognizing Ability
          • Individual Respect
          • Employee Paternalism
        • Eastman, George
        • Penney, J. C. (James Cash) >
          • Watson Homestead
          • Golden Rule Businesses
        • A 1943 Tax Problem
        • Fighting Discrimination
        • A Pajama Party
      • Pre-World War II >
        • Women in the Workplace
        • A Lost Dream of Peace
        • USO Camp Show Founder
      • World War II Effort >
        • Selling War Bonds
        • Production Awards
        • Controlling Profits
        • Machine Records Units
        • Wartime Contributions
        • Widows & Orphans Fund
        • Declaring Human Rights
        • Supporting Home Morale
        • Employee Military Service
        • War's End & Reconversion
      • Post-World War II >
        • Endicott Memorial
        • Poughkeepsie Memorial
        • Rehiring WWII Veterans
  • Articles
    • Corporate Articles >
      • High-Performance Corporations
      • The Art of the Restart
      • Crises, Recoveries & Lessons Learned
      • Strategy Should Create Human Relationships
      • A Time-Tested Corporate Constitution
      • IBM, JC Penney and The Golden Rule
      • How IBM Created its 20th Century Brand
      • The Greatest Business Risk of the 20th Century
      • How to Grow a Business
      • The Importance of Sales Productivity
      • How Much Is a Great CEO Worth
      • Let Your Guard Down
    • Business Articles >
      • Business Witticism
      • The Golden Rule and Productivity in Business
      • Who and What Built Early American Capitalism
      • Capitalism Needs Industrialist Minded CEOs
      • Producing Corporate True Steel
      • CEO Perspectives >
        • Rules of Success
        • Top Employee Qualities
        • Industrialist vs. Capitalist
      • An Open Letter to the World's CEOs
      • Henry Ford Takes Control
      • The Razor Blade Business Model
      • Two Successful 20th Century Businesswomen
      • Sears: A Dead Franchise Walking
      • A LinkedIn Incognito Mode
      • Value a College Education
    • Political Articles >
      • Political Witticisms
      • Meritocracy and Teachable Humility
      • What Is Patriotism?
      • Presidents' Day 2024-25
      • Memorial Day 2025
      • Pursuing The "American Way"
      • America: Home of the Brave
      • Securing the Borders of the Americas
      • General Grant's Stand for Justice
      • America's Heartland Stands Strong
      • The New Freedom
      • Teddy Roosevelt on Socialism & Individualism
      • Women as Citizens
      • Mary Slessor of Calabar
      • Walt Rostow Speaks to Congress
    • Spiritual Articles >
      • Inauguration Day Prayer
      • Reincarnated Thoughts >
        • Why Lies Should Never Be Glorified
        • Are You More Than A Wise Entrepreneur?
        • A World of Peace or Turbulence?
      • Wilson's Last Words
      • Spiritual Songs
    • Fiction Articles >
      • A Father's Love
      • Introducing a Friend to God
      • Hyphenated Relationships
  • Contact
  • Blog
Lou Gerstner wrote, "People truly do what you inspect, not what you expect." … Lest we forget, these "inspection pages" exist because chief executives are "people" too.

Peter E. Greulich

Arvind Krishna: First-Year IBM CEO Performance

Date Published: July 23, 2021
​Date Modified: June 30, 2024
Image of Las Vegas roulette wheel with tagline:
Arvind Krishna’s First-Year Performance Numbers
  • Summary of How Arvind Performed in His First Year
  • Links to the Details of Arvind's First-Year Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
  • This Author's Thoughts and Perceptions on Arvind's First Year as CEO

How Did Arvind Perform in His First Year?
How did Arvind Krishna, IBM's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) perform in his first year:
Arvind’s year-over-year records at the end of 2020 were as follows: (1) revenue was down 4.6% and profit was down 41%; (2) revenue growth was down 5% and profit growth was down 41%, (3) sales productivity was down 3.6% and profit productivity was down 40%; (4) the company’s market value was down by 5.5%; (5) employment was down 2.2%; and (6) shareholder returns were down 1.2% while shareholder risk was flat.

So, at the end of Arvind Krishna’s first fiscal year as chief executive officer his performance markers were nine downers and a flat note. Not a very impressive start. Let’s graph Krishna’s 2020 performance, and then put that performance within the context of the corporation’s 21st Century results.
High quality image of all IBM's Chief Executive Officers since 1914 with the time frame and length of time as CEO.
​Would Tom Watson Sr. approve of the 2020 performance of Krishna; the nine-year, 2012–20 performance of team Krishna and Rometty—Team K&R; or the twenty-one-year, 2000–20 performance of team Krishna, Rometty, Palmisano, and Gerstner: Team KRP&G? The abbreviations may sound like a Warren Buffett railroad conglomerate, and if they were, he would probably acknowledge that they are flying off the rails.

As you will see, Mr. Buffett made the right decision selling his IBM holdings. Now is probably not the time to be an IBM stakeholder: shareholder, customer, employee or supportive society. IBM hasn’t been a battleship turning; it has been a battleship taking on water faster than the crew can pump it out. The men and women in the pilot house have ignored and abused those manning the boiler room for more than two decades.

The company is approaching a point at which it will be powerless to control its fate.
​
Soon, it may find itself dead in the water.
Details of Arvind's First-Year Key Performance Indicators
Select any of the buttons below to read the evaluation of Arvind Krishna's performance in that particular area.

Revenue and Profit
Corporations, within a capitalist economy, become worthless as they fail in their main purpose: moving products of competitively higher value off the showroom floor into a customer’s hands while generating enough profits to ensure a self-sustaining stakeholder ecosystem.
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
A corporation needs to generate enough money (revenue and profits) to invest equitably to attract and hold customers, employees, shareholders and their supportive societies.

Revenue and Profit Growth
​These charts show revenue growth is a serious problem, and that profit growth has been propped up with some serious financial engineering—following short-term, financially expedient paths at the expense of the long-term health of the business.
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
​These charts challenge the perspective that IBM has been divesting and investing to move into higher-value markets with higher profit margins.

Revenue and Profit Productivity
​​In a corporation of 400,000 individuals, if each individual employee loses $10 a day in productivity, the corporation loses a billion dollars in a year.

​Of course, gain $10 a day and a billion dollars is sent to the corporate bottom line.
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
Even a small change of productivity in a large corporation is impactful. Shareholders should understand how productivity is affecting IBM's bottom line. Employees should understand where their benefits and raises originate.

ibm Market Value
Lou Gerstner often used market value as a key business metric to evaluate his business success. He touted his success to his shareholders in annual reports.

​He called it “the most important measure of progress to investors.”
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
​What would IBM's share price be today if the executives had continued to focus on increasing market value instead of on earnings-per-share roadmaps?

Shareholder Returns and Risk
Since 1999, IBM has spent $176 billion on share buybacks. Since 1995, the corporation has spent $201 billion on share buybacks. Of course, the shareholders are happy with this reduction in the number of shares, right? Why would they be upset?
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
How about losing money on the returns on an investment of one-fifth of a trillion dollars and two chief executive officers who buried their results on the last page of the annual reports: Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty and - now - Arvind Krishna.

Share Buybacks
​No, Arvind Krishna hasn't spent any money on share buybacks . . . yet, but he might consider it. Share buybacks compete with other possible investments and directly affect the bottom line. Visualizing share buybacks as profits dramatically highlights the corporation’s myopic focus on investing in paper.
Slide image of gambling table with tagline:
​Therefore, these charts document the complete picture of IBM's falling profitability and visualize its overriding failed strategy of investing in paper instead of in the business: its people, processes and products. Arvind, don't do it!

P.S.: He still as $2,000,000,000 authorized to spend.


This Author's Thoughts on Arvind Krishna's First Year as CEO
Falling revenue exposes that customers aren’t enthusiastic about the corporation’s product strategies. Falling returns demonstrate that shareholders aren’t impressed by the size of share buybacks, and they aren’t myopically focused on the consistency of dividends—or monikers like Dividend Aristocrats, and they definitely aren’t trusting earnings-per-share metrics. Falling productivity reveals the employees’ lack of engagement, enthusiasm and passion.

IBM has been getting more opaque with critical numbers, such as employee engagement and customer satisfaction. These should be made available to shareholders—the owners. Even several once-reputable, business-focused, magazines that lighted the way forward for American Capitalism, are failing at their fourth-estate duties. They are merely regurgitating overly rosy executive outlooks, and monitoring and rewriting corporate press releases. Are these journalists paid by the worthy insight or the word count?

Ida M. Tarbell wrote an expose on John D. Rockefeller Sr. and the Standard Oil Corporation. It was a turning point in our corporate history. No, she did not halt the consolidation of small businesses into large corporations—nor did she think that necessary, but she and her fellow muckrakers inspired a public belief that ethical standards should be applied to a corporation as well as to an individual.

Men and women like Dorothy Shaver of Lord & Taylor, Elbert H. Gary of U.S. Steel, Thomas J. Watson Sr. of IBM, George F. Johnson of Endicott-Johnson Corporation, George Eastman of Kodak, Owen D. Young and Gerard Swope of General Electric, J. C. Penney of J. C. Penney Company, B. C. Forbes of Forbes, George M. Verity of Armco, William Cooper Procter of Procter and Gamble, and John H. Patterson of NCR to name a few, stepped in to fill these new roles. Granted that they were tough, but they generally fair individuals who attempted to treat their stakeholders equitably, and they demanded that their organizations serve their four major stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders and society. As is necessary within any ecosystem, they had to fight for a balance in the distribution of profits to make their individual ecosystems … self-sustaining.


John D. Rockefeller Jr., the son of the target of Ida M. Tarbell’s early articles, evidently took to heart what she and others wrote. He expressed his obligation to one of his stakeholders: his community.
Were it not for the community’s contribution, in maintaining law and order, in providing agencies of transportation and communication, in furnishing systems of money and credit, and in rendering other services — all involving continuous outlays — the operation of capital, management, and labor would be enormously hampered, if not rendered well-nigh impossible. … The recognition of the social aspect of industry is of vital importance to its successful operation.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., "The Biggest Thing in Business," The Book of Business, 1920 
​There is a corporate obligation to maintain a functioning, self-sustaining stakeholder ecosystem. IBM’s leadership has lost track of this concept that at one time was imbedded in the very fabric of its institutional memory, but no longer. As I wrote in THINK Again! The Rometty Edition, “Shareholders need engaged employees. Shareholders need satisfied customers. Shareholders need supportive societies. Shareholders need a sustainable stakeholder ecosystem.”
The path to maximizing shareholder value is found in an equitable distribution of profits between the four major corporate stakeholders: customers, employees, shareholders and their shared societies. And yes, you should ask, “What is equitable?” The answer is always, “It depends.”

And a chief executive that can articulate and justify those yearly decisions to the satisfaction of all his or her stakeholders … is worth big bucks.


Peace brother …

      … and cheers,
​
- Pete
Return to Arvind Krishna's Overview Home Page
© 2025 Peter E. Greulich. All Rights Reserved
Information posted on this site recognizes the legal right of copyrighted material. The following material is considered in the public domain effective January 1, 2025: (1) Works published in the United States prior to January 1, 1929, (2) All unpublished works created over 120 years ago, (3) Works published in the United States before 1978 that have no © copyright notice, and (4) Works published in the United States after 1929 but before 1964 with a proper © copyright notice that were not renewed in their 28th year. Some information is used here that does not fit this criteria. This type of material has been purposely minimized, and it is used in good faith, usually with an attribution, and in the belief that such usage would withstand a test of fair use. This site also utilizes images from Pixabay that are "free to use under the Pixabay license" and "do not require attribution." Any concerns with the public domain, fair usage, or attribution of material utilized on this site will be removed until a discussion can resolve the matter with its permanent removal or republication. To reach us, use the "Contact" menu item above or this hyperlink: [Contact Us]
  • Home
  • About
  • Books / Bibliography
    • Keys to Success >
      • Preface
      • Introduction
      • Appendix
      • You: The First Key
    • THINK Again! Series >
      • Ideas and High Ideals >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Prologue
        • Insights into Tom Watson >
          • Tom Watson's Character
          • A Wartime Humanitarian
          • Democracy's Man O' War
          • An Exemplary Man
          • On Youth & Education
        • A Successful Rebranding
      • The Rometty Edition >
        • Preface
        • Foreword
        • Introduction
        • Business Talk Interview
        • Book Trailers and Videos
      • The World's Greatest Salesman >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Workplace Safety
        • Images and Quotes
        • Book Trailers / Videos
    • A View from Beneath >
      • Preface
      • Resource Actions >
        • Two R.A. Days Hit Home
        • R.A. Day Kills Productivity
      • Business Talk Interview
      • Book Trailers and Videos
    • Essays on Leadership >
      • Democracy in Business
      • We Are All Assistants >
        • Frank Venner: We Are All Assistants
      • We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes
    • Bibliography Overview >
      • Authors and Writers >
        • Garland, Hamlin
        • Wise, John S. >
          • Slave Auction
          • Tribute to Robert E. Lee
          • On Lincoln's Assassination
      • Capitalists >
        • Baruch, Bernard M. >
          • My Own Story
          • The Public Years >
            • A Review
            • Second Thoughts
        • Davison, Henry P.
        • Schiff, Jacob H.
      • Educators >
        • Washington, Booker T >
          • Up From Slavery
          • My Life and Work
          • Character Building
          • My Larger Education
          • The Man Farthest Down >
            • Booker T. Washington and John Burns
          • Future of American Negro >
            • Future of the Negro
      • IBM >
        • IBM Books >
          • IBM Classics
          • IBM Executives' Books
          • IBM Employees' Books
          • IBM Outsiders' Books
        • IBM Publications >
          • THINK Magazine
          • Business Machines
          • IBM Heart and Soul >
            • Endicott Memorial Day
            • Poughkeepsie Memorial Day
          • IBM Art Books
        • IBM Situational
      • Industrialists >
        • Anthologies >
          • The Book of Business
          • New Ideals in Business
          • Master Workers' Library
          • The Age of Big Business
          • Famous Leaders Series Home Page >
            • Leaders of Character
            • Leaders of Industry: 1st Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 2nd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 3rd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 6th Series
          • Forbes' Anthologies
        • Armour, J. Ogden >
          • The Packers
          • The Packers: Second Look
        • Baldwin, William H.
        • Beatty, Edward
        • Bell, Alexander Graham
        • Carnegie, Andrew >
          • Carnegie Quotes
          • Carnegie Autobiography
          • Carnegie Biography by B. J. Hendrick
          • Round the World
          • The Empire of Business
          • An American Four-in-Hand
        • Eastman, George
        • Edison, Thomas A. >
          • Edison: His Life and Inventions
          • Edison: My Friend
        • Farquhar, A. B.
        • Filene, Edward A. >
          • The Way Out >
            • Captains of Industry vs. Captains of Finance
          • Successful Living >
            • Rules of Success
        • Firestone, Harvey S. >
          • Men and Rubber
          • Making an Organization
        • Flint, Charles R.
        • Ford, Henry >
          • Books by Henry Ford
          • The Last Billionaire
          • My Forty Years with Ford
        • Gary, Elbert H.
        • Guggenheim, William
        • Hill, James J.
        • Hollerith, Herman
        • Johnson, George F.
        • Patterson, John H.
        • Penney, James C. >
          • Fifty Years With the Golden Rule
        • Procter, William C.
        • Rockefeller Jr.
        • Rockefeller Sr.
        • Rosenwald, Julius
        • Sloan Jr., Alfred P.
        • Swope, Gerard >
          • Swope of G.E.
          • The Swope Plan
          • Selected Addresses
        • Verity, George M. >
          • True Steel
          • Character & Success
        • Wanamaker, John >
          • A Business Biography
          • Retail Firsts
        • Watson Jr., Thomas J. >
          • A Business and Its Beliefs
          • Management Briefings
          • Father, Son & Company
        • Watson Sr., Thomas J. >
          • Human Relations
          • Men-Minutes-Money
          • The Lengthening Shadow
        • Young, Owen D. >
          • Selected Addresses
          • New Industrial Leader
      • Inventors & Innovators >
        • Fulton, Robert
        • Goodyear, Charles
      • Journalists >
        • Baker, Ray Stannard >
          • Autobiography
          • The Color Line
          • Woodrow Wilson
        • Crowther, Samuel >
          • Articles >
            • Bantam Ball Bearing
          • Biographies
          • Industrialist Anthology
          • "Why Men Strike" Review
        • Gunther, John >
          • Eisenhower
        • Steffens, Lincoln
        • Sullivan, Mark >
          • Our Times
          • The Education of an American
        • Tarbell, Ida M. >
          • Overview
          • Lincoln Centennial
          • Lincoln Publications
          • Corporate Publications
          • Fiction Publications
          • Other Publications >
            • Mme. (Madame) Roland
          • Magazine Articles >
            • Disbanding the Confederate Army
            • Disbanding the Union Army
        • White, William Allen >
          • Woodrow Wilson, The Man
      • Military Leaders >
        • Lee, General Robert E.
      • Pioneers / Explorers >
        • Byrd, Richard E. >
          • Alone
          • Discovery
          • Little America
        • Columbus, Christopher
        • Lindbergh, Charles
      • Politicians >
        • Eisenhower, Dwight D.
        • Hoover, Herbert >
          • American Individualism Book >
            • American Individualism Article
          • Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Problems of Lasting Peace
        • Lincoln, Abraham >
          • Lincoln in the Telegraph Office
          • Abraham Lincoln Books By Ida M. Tarbell
        • Mesta, Perle
        • O'Connor, Basil and FDR >
          • Friends and Partners (Against Polio)
        • Roosevelt, Theodore >
          • Roosevelt: A Story of Friendship
        • Roper, Daniel C. >
          • Fifty Years of Public Life
        • Taft, William H.
        • Wilson, Woodrow >
          • The New Freedom
          • The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Wilson's Last Words
          • Wilson's Tasks and Life
          • Wilson's Life and Letters >
            • Volume IV: President
            • Volume V: Neutrality
            • Volume VI: Facing War
      • Preachers >
        • Fosdick, Harry Emerson >
          • The Meaning of Prayer
          • The Meaning of Faith
          • The Meaning of Service
          • Power to See It Through
      • Publishers >
        • Forbes, B. C. >
          • Men Who Are Making America
          • Men Who Are Making the West
          • Automotive Giants of America
          • Little Bits about Big Men
          • America's 50 Foremost Business Leaders
          • America's Twelve Master Salesmen
          • Scrapbook of Thoughts on Business of Life
          • 101 Unusual Experiences
          • Keys to Success
          • Teamwork
        • Fortune Magazine >
          • USA: The Permanent Revolution
        • Shaw, A. W. >
          • Handling Men >
            • Why We Are Hiring Women
            • The Dream Behind the Business
          • The Companion Series
    • Research Sites
    • Acknowledgements
  • 21st Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • Comparing KPIs
      • Brand Performance >
        • Forbes' Best Employer
      • Patent Performance >
        • 2021 Patent Performance
        • 2020 Patent Performance
        • 2019 Patent Performance
        • 2018 Patent Performance
      • Revenue Performance
    • Corporate Practices >
      • Acquisitions >
        • Acquisition: Red Hat >
          • A $35 Billion Gamble
          • IBM + Red Hat 2019 Results
        • Acquisitions: Goodwill
        • Acquisitions: Since 2001
      • Centralization >
        • A Lost Federation
        • The Need to Decentralize
      • Divestitures >
        • Kyndryl Analysis
        • Kyndryl Top Questions
        • Martin Schroeter
      • Employees >
        • Resource Actions
        • Age Discrimination >
          • Cutting Old Heads
        • Employee Engagement
        • Aren't Buying Into IBM
        • Massive Work Slowdown
        • Failure of Work at Home
      • Financial Engineering >
        • Workforce Rebalancing
        • Aggressive Bookkeeping
      • Shareholders >
        • Share Buybacks
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Overall Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Employment Security
        • Employee Engagement
        • Warren Buffett's Mistake
        • Do Share Buybacks Work?
    • CEO Performance >
      • Arvind Krishna Overview >
        • First Year Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Share Buybacks
        • The First 100 Days
      • Ginni Rometty Overview >
        • Shareholder Value
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Share Buybacks
        • Dividend Strategy
        • Acquisition Strategy
        • Revenue & Profit Productivity
        • Revenue & Profit Growth
        • Revenue & Profit
  • 20th Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • IBM's Greatest CEO >
        • Shareholder Returns
        • Revenue Growth
        • Revenue Per Employee
        • Profit Growth
        • Profit Per Employee
        • Market Value
        • Goodwill
        • Economic Contractions
        • Economic Expansions
        • Stock Market Headwinds
        • CEO Historic Footnotes >
          • IBM's Founding Team
          • Financial Engineering
          • The Greatest Gamble
    • Corporate Practices >
      • IBM Anniversaries
      • IBM Benefits
      • IBM Creativity >
        • IBM Cartoons
        • IBM Song Books
        • IBM UK Dictionary
        • IBM Computing Dictionary
      • IBM Wild Ducks >
        • The Wild Goose
        • Royal Dissenters
        • Corporate Constitution
        • Respect for the Individual
        • Service to the Customer
        • Pursuit of Excellence
    • Corporate Products >
      • 1890: U.S. Census
      • Dayton Scales in 1920
      • 1940: The Electromatic
    • Thomas J. Watson Sr. >
      • Quotes By Watson
      • Quotes About Watson
      • Articles By Watson >
        • On World Peace
        • On the Cost of War
        • On Public Education
        • On Thomas Jefferson
        • On Thoughtful Mistakes
        • On Stakeholder Relations
      • Articles About Watson >
        • A Gift of Retirement
        • A Gift of Home Ownership >
          • Construction Timeline
        • The $1,000-A-Day Chief Executive Officer
        • Employees are Valued
        • Democracy's Man o' War
        • Human Relations in 1956
        • A CEO Who Earned His Pay
        • The Story of "THINK" >
          • Two Journalists "THINK"
          • A Buddy Davis Interview
        • Learning from Crises
        • Tom Watson's Wild Ducks
        • The Lengthening Shadow
      • Slice of Life Stories >
        • Dali, Salvador
        • Drucker, Peter F. >
          • Authority and Power
          • Short-Term Thinking
          • A Corporate Culture
          • Raising Business Issues
          • Focus on Principles
          • Character and Manners
          • Knowledge Workers
          • Recognizing Ability
          • Individual Respect
          • Employee Paternalism
        • Eastman, George
        • Penney, J. C. (James Cash) >
          • Watson Homestead
          • Golden Rule Businesses
        • A 1943 Tax Problem
        • Fighting Discrimination
        • A Pajama Party
      • Pre-World War II >
        • Women in the Workplace
        • A Lost Dream of Peace
        • USO Camp Show Founder
      • World War II Effort >
        • Selling War Bonds
        • Production Awards
        • Controlling Profits
        • Machine Records Units
        • Wartime Contributions
        • Widows & Orphans Fund
        • Declaring Human Rights
        • Supporting Home Morale
        • Employee Military Service
        • War's End & Reconversion
      • Post-World War II >
        • Endicott Memorial
        • Poughkeepsie Memorial
        • Rehiring WWII Veterans
  • Articles
    • Corporate Articles >
      • High-Performance Corporations
      • The Art of the Restart
      • Crises, Recoveries & Lessons Learned
      • Strategy Should Create Human Relationships
      • A Time-Tested Corporate Constitution
      • IBM, JC Penney and The Golden Rule
      • How IBM Created its 20th Century Brand
      • The Greatest Business Risk of the 20th Century
      • How to Grow a Business
      • The Importance of Sales Productivity
      • How Much Is a Great CEO Worth
      • Let Your Guard Down
    • Business Articles >
      • Business Witticism
      • The Golden Rule and Productivity in Business
      • Who and What Built Early American Capitalism
      • Capitalism Needs Industrialist Minded CEOs
      • Producing Corporate True Steel
      • CEO Perspectives >
        • Rules of Success
        • Top Employee Qualities
        • Industrialist vs. Capitalist
      • An Open Letter to the World's CEOs
      • Henry Ford Takes Control
      • The Razor Blade Business Model
      • Two Successful 20th Century Businesswomen
      • Sears: A Dead Franchise Walking
      • A LinkedIn Incognito Mode
      • Value a College Education
    • Political Articles >
      • Political Witticisms
      • Meritocracy and Teachable Humility
      • What Is Patriotism?
      • Presidents' Day 2024-25
      • Memorial Day 2025
      • Pursuing The "American Way"
      • America: Home of the Brave
      • Securing the Borders of the Americas
      • General Grant's Stand for Justice
      • America's Heartland Stands Strong
      • The New Freedom
      • Teddy Roosevelt on Socialism & Individualism
      • Women as Citizens
      • Mary Slessor of Calabar
      • Walt Rostow Speaks to Congress
    • Spiritual Articles >
      • Inauguration Day Prayer
      • Reincarnated Thoughts >
        • Why Lies Should Never Be Glorified
        • Are You More Than A Wise Entrepreneur?
        • A World of Peace or Turbulence?
      • Wilson's Last Words
      • Spiritual Songs
    • Fiction Articles >
      • A Father's Love
      • Introducing a Friend to God
      • Hyphenated Relationships
  • Contact
  • Blog