IBM Redux: Lou Gerstner and the Business Turnaround of the Decade

by Doug Garr

Book Overview

Can one man change the course of business history? When Lou Gerstner, a high-tech neophyte, took the helm at IBM in 1993, the company was in a death spiral. Big Blue lost $8 billion that year, capping a three-year loss of nearly $16 billion. One of the nation's premiere industrial giants seemed destined to wither away and die in bankruptcy. The world of high technology changed and IBM failed to adapt, drowning in its own bureaucracy and its insular...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887309437
• ISBN13: 9780887309434
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Harper Business
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

I got caught up right from the beginning and it never let go

Intelligently written in a style not usually achieved so comfortably by writers of business or biographies. I was drawn in by the first paragraph and never disappointed. It's not often you find a page-turner on the business shelves. It should be moved to the front of the store.

I'm a confirmed Mac-azoid, but Garr's IBM take interests me

I'm a confirmed Mac-azoid, but Garr's IBM take fascinates me. As an editor of an entertainment world journal, I'm more interested in the movie business than the computer business, even business in general. Garr's work, however, is an attempt to get inside the mind of a mogul -- the same kind of driven individual who can move big things ... corporations, aircraft carriers, movie studios. How do their accomplishments track in their bowels and bellies, and how will they show up in the entrails of history. Garr is an able paleontologist who took me on a trip.

Excellent Read

This book is an excellent piece of work. The author's skill as a novelist is evidenced by the ease by which it is read while his skill as a reporter is evidenced by the book's very existence. It is remarkable that this story was told without IBM's blessing, yet that makes it that much more meaningful. Garr presents an obejective view of Gerstner which is not always flattering, but positive in the end. A thoroughly enjoyable, well written book. I look forward to Garr's next effort.

brilliant work; fair treatment; well written

this book reads like a novel, but has plenty of business punch. subject individual and corp really come to life here. author seems to understand the corp mind and structure as well as the high-tech world and writes at a level that the low-tech reader can understand. book will probably become a b-school staple!

A Juicy Read into IBM, Gerstner, & IBM Executives

As both an IBM employee & one very interested in the workings of this unique company, I enjoyed reading 2 just-released books in the past 2 weeks, Robert Slater's Saving IBM and Garr's. Slater's was the business case version of IBM. Garr's was the real scoop behind the workings of not just Gerstner but his many lieutenants, both long-time IBM employees and outsiders. Although I was somewhat embarrassed by some of the stories, including the FUMU's, I still enjoyed the book. I was disappointed in the lack of coverage with IBM Global Services.