THINK Again!: The Rometty Edition Foreword |
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Published June 4, 2021
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Updated June 15, 2021
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A foreword is a brief introductory piece in a book that is usually written by someone other than the author. It provides an insight into the book, either through the foreword writer’s personal or professional relationship with the author; or, through the writer’s connection to the topic or field. By writing a foreword, a person gives their endorsement, or support, of the book and its author.
So, when choosing the writer for a foreword, an author tries to get the “best” person he or she can to introduce their work.
D. Quinn Mills has studied and written about IBM. He did a fabulous job capturing the essence of THINK Again!.
This is the Foreword for THINK Again!: The Rometty Edition.
So, when choosing the writer for a foreword, an author tries to get the “best” person he or she can to introduce their work.
D. Quinn Mills has studied and written about IBM. He did a fabulous job capturing the essence of THINK Again!.
This is the Foreword for THINK Again!: The Rometty Edition.
Foreword to "The Rometty Edition" of THINK Again!
Foreword to THINK Again!: The Rometty Edition
- The Audience
- Building a Sustainable Stakeholder Community
- A Century of Experimentation
by Daniel Quinn Mills, Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School
The Audience
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There is something for everyone in this book
For those who love stories of business there is the story of IBM’s long journey in the American and world economies. For those who are interested in abstract concepts, there is a discussion of the essential elements of American capitalism. For those who are interested in personalities, there are corporate chief executives with very different leadership styles. There is also a study in leadership. |
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In the pages of this book one meets the nine CEOs who have steered IBM through almost one hundred years. They are a varied group with different leadership styles. Some were successful; some were not.
Each, though, is an instructive example.
Each, though, is an instructive example.
Building a Sustainable Stakeholder Community
Back cover of THINK Again!
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There is much in this story for today’s business executives. Ignorance of the history of IBM is ignorance of the most important example of American corporate experimentation and performance. This book will be of great interest to IBMers and investors in the company, as well as those in the investment and academic communities who study American capitalism, because this book is more than the story of IBM. It also addresses the most important issue in American capitalism: for whose benefit is a corporation run?
For several decades, the answer to this question has been given by a simple rule: for the benefit of shareholders. The primary objective of corporate management is said to be the maximization of shareholder wealth. The principle alternative offered to shareholder primacy is the proposition that corporations should be managed for the benefit of stakeholders—customers, employees, investors (shareholders) and society. One of the most interesting examples of the interplay of these two different concepts of corporate purpose involves the IBM Corporation. |
For many years, it was the most admired company in the world, dominant in the computer industry and creator of enormous wealth for its investors. In more recent years, though, it has stumbled with respect to each. How this happened, why it occurred, and what it says about why and how a company should be managed is a fascinating story.
The author tells us that shareholder wealth can only be maximized in the long term by balancing the interests of the major stakeholders of a firm. Thus, what is generally treated as an either/or choice—shareholder or stakeholder value maximization—is, in reality, a necessary combination in which both objectives are achieved and complement one another.
This is a striking conclusion.
The author tells us that shareholder wealth can only be maximized in the long term by balancing the interests of the major stakeholders of a firm. Thus, what is generally treated as an either/or choice—shareholder or stakeholder value maximization—is, in reality, a necessary combination in which both objectives are achieved and complement one another.
This is a striking conclusion.
A Century of Experimentation
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This is a book about IBM, a fascinating story which will appeal to the many thousands of people who have worked at that great corporation.
At the core of the story of IBM’s emergence into one of the great private corporations of the world is the effort of its founding dynasty (the Watsons) to build an exemplary human organization—a company is, after all, its people. |
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More than a century ago, Tom Watson Sr. took lessons from NCR Corporation and fashioned the three principles of the IBM company: respect for the individual, the best service, and the pursuit of excellence. For generations, IBM employees could recite these three principles, and more importantly, knew that each had a real significance in the company. In particular, respect for the individual was embodied in the full employment practice by which IBM did not lay off people due to changing business conditions. To avoid layoffs, IBM held to the doctrine that any business problem could be solved by training and education—meaning that as technology and business conditions changed, IBM would retrain its people, not fire them and hire new ones with the requisite skills. If a company was ever really a family, IBM was.
There was a period in the middle of the twentieth century when IBM dominated the world’s computer business. The industry was commonly described as “IBM and the seven dwarfs”—the dwarfs being IBM’s competitors. At that time, former IBMers were the lead IT executives for many of IBM’s customers. This was a period when it was universally said that a customer could never go wrong buying IBM. Then, in the mid-1980s, the company’s top executives made a major strategic error when the first major technology-driven disruption to hit an industry hit the computer industry.
Today IBM has morphed into a company that has lost its domination of its industry but continues as a large firm searching for a new path to major success. The full employment policy is gone. The three principles no longer mean what they once did, and IBM no longer creates shareholder wealth in the same magnitude.
There was a period in the middle of the twentieth century when IBM dominated the world’s computer business. The industry was commonly described as “IBM and the seven dwarfs”—the dwarfs being IBM’s competitors. At that time, former IBMers were the lead IT executives for many of IBM’s customers. This was a period when it was universally said that a customer could never go wrong buying IBM. Then, in the mid-1980s, the company’s top executives made a major strategic error when the first major technology-driven disruption to hit an industry hit the computer industry.
Today IBM has morphed into a company that has lost its domination of its industry but continues as a large firm searching for a new path to major success. The full employment policy is gone. The three principles no longer mean what they once did, and IBM no longer creates shareholder wealth in the same magnitude.
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Books on Amazon by D. Quinn Mills
Mills and Friesen examine what caused IBM to experience major financial losses and the need to reduce its staff by half. ... This book [Broken Promises] describes how the company's violation of two well-established contracts led to its most serious problems.
The first issue was its long-standing relationship with customers, and the second was between IBM and its employees, with the implicit commitment to employee security. |
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