[Info-vax] Steve Jobes [was: Apple says ...]

[JF Mezei]

Michael Kraemer wrote:

> There wasn't much Palmer could have done to save DEC
> from the mess Olsen had left.
> Almost everything was too little too late.

IBM was weeks away from breaking itself up and entering bankrupcy
protection when Gerstner took over. And he not only prevented that, but
returned IBM to success and profitability and most importantly, managed
to change internal corporate social values to make IBM staff more
competitive with the rest of the IT industry.

The 1980s IBM was still very monopolistic and ignored competitors and
would tell their customers that only IBM was able to do (name of any task).

Gertner killed that menatlity, and wanted to know why IBM lost
customers. In the past, IBM staffers woudl only report success stories
to high management (for fear of being fired if they reported bad news).
But Gerstner said to his troups that ou can't fix problems if you don't
know what they are.


It is trye to say that Palmer couldn't fix DEC. He wasn't of calibre to
do it. But a real CEO could have fixed DEC.