Lou Gerstner
Lou Gerstner
Louis Vincent Gerstner Jr.is an American businessman, best known for his tenure as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of IBM from April 1993 until 2002 when he retired as CEO in March and chairman in December. He is largely credited with turning around IBM's fortunes...
Lou Gerstner quotes about
- behind
- businesses
- continued
- hurt
- putting
- roots
- want
- ibm
- technology
- accomplish
- limitation
- issues
- promise
- great-customer-service
- customer-experience
- customers
- chinese
- goes-on
- looks
- spain
- problem
- commitment
- hard-work
- play
- issue
- morality
- solutions
- inspirational-customer-service
- inspirational-service
- complaints
cynical promise vision
What I'm trying to do is deliver results, not promises; results, not vision; results, not concepts. The world is cynical about IBM's promises.
teacher bridges world
I initially wanted to be a teacher, and then I was going to become an engineer and build bridges and highways, but pretty soon I went into the business world. I never did get to be a teacher except in a different way.
responsibility usa agency
Visit USA.gov and you'll find thousands of directorates, agencies, boards, offices, and services replete with overlapping responsibilities, ancient priorities, and divided accountability.
enormous ibm needed
IBM needed - an enormous sense of urgency.
chinese goes-on want
I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.
technology issues promise
The networked world offers the promise that maybe the information technology industry will start to, for the first time in a decade or so, address CEO-level issues.
listening months firsts
For the first month, I listened, and I tried very hard not to draw conclusions
positive technology opportunity
This really is a merger of equals. I wouldn't have come back to work for anything less than this fantastic opportunity. This lets me combine my two great loves - technology and biscuits.
games culture aspect
I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game; it is the game
business successful past
The more successful enterprises are the more they try to replicate, duplicate, codify what makes us great. And suddenly they're inward thinking. They're thinking how can we continue to do what we've done in the past without understanding that what made them successful is to take risks, to change and to adapt and to be responsive. And so in a sense success breeds its own failure. And I think it's true of a lot of successful businesses.
military land air
Our military should be trained and structured around missions, not the elements of air, water, and land.
inspirational-customer-service inspirational-service complaints
Customer complaints are the schoolbooks from which we learn.
results activity
Never confuse activity with results.
leadership next ibm
The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.