Who Were IBM's Greatest Chief Executives?
IBM's Greatest Chief Executive Officers
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Date Published: August 5, 2021
Date Modified: June 29, 2024 |
Watson Sr. in his old fashion way used to tell IBMers that they needed to "read, listen, discuss, observe, and then take the time to sit down and think" about what they had learned to arrive at a proper conclusion that was their own. He believed that anything that was made personal "is strong to you."
May you come to an opinion based on reading, listening, discussing, observing, and then thinking. Then it will be strong to you. You will find that discovering the differences between the 20th Century and 21st Century IBMs can be informative and fun and, at times, heartbreaking.
Without holding us hostage, the past can teach us much.
May you come to an opinion based on reading, listening, discussing, observing, and then thinking. Then it will be strong to you. You will find that discovering the differences between the 20th Century and 21st Century IBMs can be informative and fun and, at times, heartbreaking.
Without holding us hostage, the past can teach us much.
IBM's Greatest Chief Executive Officers by the Numbers
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In late 2011 IBMers on LinkedIn's "The Greater IBM Connection," which no longer exists, discussed "Who was the Greatest Chief Executive of the last century?" It was the end-of-year's hottest topic. Through this discussion, I came to realize that there were generational differences between IBMers. I identified them in my second book, A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant as the elder, transition, and younger generations.
It was a discussion between those with an experiential knowledge of IBM history, those with little knowledge of IBM history, and those who had experienced the transition between the 20th and 21st Century IBMs. Almost down to every comment, I could tell if an IBMer had retired before the mid-90s, had experienced the transition of the '90s, or was hired after the mid-90s. The ones that threw me for a loop were those from two or three generations of IBM families. Even though they were hired after the '90s, their families made them fully aware of IBM's past, its culture, and the basic beliefs. This is not to say that there was agreement within the generations, just that there were similarities of thought. |
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So I started gathering information and trying to figure out how to present this information graphically, so everyone could first of all visually see the information and hopefully consume the details accurately and quickly.
Much of this information (with data through 2013) was in the Appendices of the 2014 A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant. It was significantly enhanced and incorporated into the text of the 2017 publication of THINK Again!. More detailed information was added through the end of 2019 with the THINK Again! refresh in May, 2020: The Rometty Edition.
Below are individual topic headings with links to the web page that documents the applicable key performance indicator (KPI). Each site is being updated with key performance metrics for all of IBM's chief executive officers. We are always willing to discuss the information or reformat the information for press, analysts and consultants.
A contact form is provided above as a menu and and below in the footer information.
Below are individual topic headings with links to the web page that documents the applicable key performance indicator (KPI). Each site is being updated with key performance metrics for all of IBM's chief executive officers. We are always willing to discuss the information or reformat the information for press, analysts and consultants.
A contact form is provided above as a menu and and below in the footer information.
IBM CEO Historical Key Performance Indicators
It takes a holistic perspective and this is just a starting point.
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Let's chart the U. S. Business Cycle Contractions against these executives.
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Let's discover whose economic ships were lifted as the "rising tide lifted all boats."
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Let's map the largest declines in U. S. Stock Market history against each IBM CEO.
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These charts map some of these critical historical events that are economically significant against revenue growth numbers.
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How well did each of these chief executives put people, processes and products in place to make sales "productive."
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How does the performance of IBM's twenty-first century leadership stack up against their twentieth century counterparts?
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Let's chart out each chief executive and their productivity performance and also map out some of the aggressive bookkeeping and financial engineering games.
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The Board of Directors might consider going back to a market share metric.
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