I learned from this experience to be careful referencing “authoritative sources.” I believe that all men are human, and that Baruch either never read, failed to read, or for some other (so far) undiscovered reason failed to consider the additional published works that discussed Judge Gary.
Cheers,
- Pete
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"If I were to attempt to describe Andrew Carnegie in one comprehensive sentence I would say:
B. C. Forbes, Men Who Are Making America [This sentence was reordered and bulletized without changing the substance or meaning of the sentence.] Yes, it was a rather long, comprehensive sentence, wasn't it? Then again, from what I have read, Mr. Forbes hit the Andrew Carnegie personality-nails on their heads. Too many fail to convey the complexity of the man—even in whole books about him. They are failed attempts. This, though, is a nice piece of prose about a complex, yet great individual. Peter E. Greulich
Virginia M. (Ginni) Rometty never understood that the individuals in her sales force who gave their customers one hundred percent could carry only twenty-five percent of the burden.
She disregarded all the warning signs of imminent disaster—more comparable to a destroyer’s commander who maintains course and speed while headed towards an iceberg. There will be little doubt after reviewing the data in these coming articles that Ginni Rometty’s tenure is not that of a chief executive presiding over a difficult transition—some have compared her to a captain turning a battleship.
F. G. (Buck) Rodgers: "Mr. IBM" A Realistic Perspective in a Distributed, Decentralized, Decision Making Organization "We live in a changing world and the future cannot be predicted with certainty. That's an obvious statement, but how we deal with change and the future is not so obvious. "To the fearful, change is threatening. They know that things will somehow get worse. The hopeful have faith that change will make things better. But to those special people who love a challenge and are "light on their feet," change is stimulating and exciting. They are the people who can make a difference. They can make a company. "The people who make things happen are in demand and should be guarded jealously. Those who watch things happen and those who aren't sure what's happening are left behind." Buck Rodgers, The IBM Way Louis V. (Lou) Gerstner An Myopic Perspective in a Centralized, Controlling, Hierarchical Organization
Louis V. Gerstner, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? This Author's Perspective and Thoughts Put these two insights together you come up with this: Evidently, Gerstner surrounded himself with fearful people--who saw change as threatening. So, he had to motivate them and everything depended on him to end a crisis. Buck Rodgers surrounding himself with "special people," who loved a challenge and were "light on their feet." Surrounded by these individuals, he had antennae reaching in all directions to see change coming and exploit it.
You decide which of these executives created a work environment that was stimulating and exciting. Which executive would you want to work for? The announcement of the breakup of IBM will only exacerbate the company’s current most-pressing problem, not cure it.
IBM employees are closer to reality at IBM than any of its other main-street stakeholders—even customers, and this announcement will have negative effects that will play out over the next few years. This move will affect employee engagement, and employee sales productivity, in all probability, will continue its two-decades-long decline.
Unfortunately, looking back on recent IBM chief executive officer history, Arvind Krishna is more of the same. He, like his 21st Century predecessors, is selling to Wall Street not his long-term stakeholders. |
Peter E. GreulichPete has been studying IBM and early American corporate history since his retirement in 2011. These are his thoughts and musings, and of those whose biographies he has read with links to articles and book reviews on this website. Categories
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