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.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

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.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

I think that my leadership style is to get people to fear staying in place, to fear not changing.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

It's about communication. It's about honesty. It's about treating people in the organization as deserving to know the facts. You don't try to give them half the story. You don't try to hide the story. You treat them as - as true equals, and you communicate and you communicate and communicate.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

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.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

The world is full of CEOs that think that just because they write a memo or they write a letter inside an annual report or they give a little video speech that gets sent around the company, they think that's what's really going to affect employees.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Reorganization to me is shuffling boxes, moving boxes around. Transformation means that you're really fundamentally changing the way the organization thinks, the way it responds, the way it leads. It's a lot more than just playing with boxes.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

The real mechanism for corporate governance is the active involvement of the owners.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

You know, you don't need a leader to sort of administer something that's going very well. In fact, in one sense, an overly ambitious person in that circumstance can probably screw it up.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

I've been accepted at Cambridge University. I want to study Chinese history and archaeology. I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

What we believe is going to be very important is the delivery of traditional software and services and hardware over the Net. That's a form of electronic marketplace.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

You can never be comfortable with your success, you've got to be paranoid you're going to lose it.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Successful enterprises are built from the ground up. You can't assemble them with a bunch of acquisitions.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

The value that some analysts put on revenue vs. what they put on profit is out of whack. If you can grow real cash earnings, that's 80% of what you ought to do, and the revenue component is 20%.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Compensation needs to be predominately performance-driven. If CEO compensation was performance-driven, which I believe it was in IBM's case, nobody would ever argue. If the shareholders didn't make billions and billions of dollars, I wouldn't make millions of dollars.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. Quotes

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.

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.

Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.

I think that my leadership style is to get people to fear staying in place, to fear not changing.

The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.

Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.

It's about communication. It's about honesty. It's about treating people in the organization as deserving to know the facts. You don't try to give them half the story. You don't try to hide the story. You treat them as - as true equals, and you communicate and you communicate and communicate.

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.

The world is full of CEOs that think that just because they write a memo or they write a letter inside an annual report or they give a little video speech that gets sent around the company, they think that's what's really going to affect employees.

Reorganization to me is shuffling boxes, moving boxes around. Transformation means that you're really fundamentally changing the way the organization thinks, the way it responds, the way it leads. It's a lot more than just playing with boxes.

The real mechanism for corporate governance is the active involvement of the owners.

You know, you don't need a leader to sort of administer something that's going very well. In fact, in one sense, an overly ambitious person in that circumstance can probably screw it up.

I've been accepted at Cambridge University. I want to study Chinese history and archaeology. I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.

What we believe is going to be very important is the delivery of traditional software and services and hardware over the Net. That's a form of electronic marketplace.

If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world.

I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.

You can never be comfortable with your success, you've got to be paranoid you're going to lose it.

Successful enterprises are built from the ground up. You can't assemble them with a bunch of acquisitions.

The value that some analysts put on revenue vs. what they put on profit is out of whack. If you can grow real cash earnings, that's 80% of what you ought to do, and the revenue component is 20%.

Compensation needs to be predominately performance-driven. If CEO compensation was performance-driven, which I believe it was in IBM's case, nobody would ever argue. If the shareholders didn't make billions and billions of dollars, I wouldn't make millions of dollars.