Who Were IBM's Greatest Chief Executives?

IBM's Greatest Chief Executive Officers

Published August 5, 2021

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.

 IBM's Greatest Chief Executive Officers by the Numbers

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.

​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.

 IBM CEO Historical Key Performance Indicators

Shareholder Returns

Today, there is a raging debate among corporate stakeholders as to the wisdom of Wall Street's shareholder-first and -foremost fanaticism.

​Let's start this evaluation of IBM's Chief Executive Officers with their historical shareholder returns.

It takes a holistic perspective and this is just a starting point.

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Shareholder Risk
(Goodwill & Intangible Assets)

The game of hot potato is similar to the game of musical chairs. In IBM’s game of "goodwill" hot potato, the winners keep exiting the game leaving a potential loser behind. ​There is a goodwill reckoning coming at IBM.

The questions are: who will get caught, with how much, and when?

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Economic Headwinds

An economic downturn tests a Chief Executive Officer's mettle. Capitalist economies weed out the mediocre during tough economic times, leaving only the most fit. Economic downturns are, if anything, a capitalistic certainty.

Let's chart the U. S. Business Cycle Contractions against these executives.

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Economic Tailwinds

As we say in sales, "Right time, right place sure goes a long way to making quota." Good timing can be mistaken for great salesmanship or even superb leadership. In some of these cases, IBM's Chief Executive Officers rarely saw cloudy skies, much less stormy weather.​

Let's discover whose economic ships were lifted as the "rising tide lifted all boats."

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Stock Market Headwinds

Bear markets are no fun. As the quote on the chart reflects, Tom Watson Sr. reminded his salesmen in the trough of the Great Depression (1933) of what was at stake. It wasn't the stock price, but the very survival of many who depended on the corporate dividend to pay bills, eat, and keep a roof over their heads.

Let's map the largest declines in U. S. Stock Market history against each IBM CEO.

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Revenue Growth

When revenue drops, it is a "canary in the coal mine." As Teddy Roosevelt would say, "A chief executive needs to speak softly but carry a big stick to find and fix the cause." In the past century there have been wars, recessions and depressions, all of which affected revenue growth.

These charts map some of these critical historical events that are economically significant against revenue growth numbers.

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Revenue Per Employee

Sales productivity, when it drops, is a symptom of bigger problems than a lazy sales force, especially during a time frame like "The Great Expansion" of the '90s. Revenue per employee is a common productivity metric that determines how effectively a corporation is supporting its sales organization.

How well did each of these chief executives put people, processes and products in place to make sales "productive."

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Profit Growth

Profit is necessary to keep a business functioning. But long-term increasing profitability must come from higher productivity, not short-term aggressive booking or financial engineering projects like raiding pension plans, right-sizing, resource actions, or workforce rebalancing.

How does the performance of IBM's twenty-first century leadership stack up against their twentieth century counterparts?

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Profit Per Employee

Net income per employee is a common productivity metric that determines how effectively a corporation is managing its bottom line. It is an effective method to visualize management effectiveness over time, but unlike revenue per employee, profit per employee can be easily manipulated.

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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Market Valuation

Until 1999, market value was “the most important measure of progress to investors.” Since shareholders' quit inspecting this metric, guess what happened?

​One chief executive through some pretty amazing slight of hand changed the focus to earnings per share.

The Board of Directors might consider going back to a market share metric.

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