Citation
Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround
TL;DR
IBM lost $8 billion in 1993 - largest corporate loss in history
First-person account of IBM's near-extinction (1993, $8 billion loss - largest in corporate history) and turnaround through pivot from hardware to services. Documents the leadership decisions that enabled survival of a 'dinosaur' company.
Gerstner's account demonstrates that established organizations can escape extinction if they have transferable assets (customer relationships, brand, talent) and leadership willing to abandon dying businesses. IBM's serial exits from PCs and semiconductors while pivoting to services and cloud illustrate strategic pruning as extinction avoidance.
Key Findings from Jr. (2002)
- IBM lost $8 billion in 1993 - largest corporate loss in history
- Turnaround required abandoning mainframe obsession
- Existing customer relationships enabled pivot to services
- Outside leadership challenged internal dogma