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Ibm Case Study Essay

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1. What factors led to IBM’s success during the 1960s and 1970s and its problems during the late 1980s and early 1990s? 3 pts. 2. Q: What did Gerstner do when he assumed the role of CEO in April 1993?
A: Gerstner realized that rather than break up the company, he could turn it around by going to market as “one IBM.” To prevent customers from leaving in droves before he completed the turnaround, Gerstner called on each senior executive to go out to a group of customers and “bearhug” them. He made the executives personally responsible for their assigned customer accounts and accountable for any problems that arose. At the same time, he asked each of the executives to write two papers, one on the executive’s business and the other on …show more content…

Q: What challenges did he face as he attempted to position the company for growth? 5 pts.
A: The changes Gerstner proposed was met by some or much opposition. Many that had been around the company for quite some time, felt as though the changes that Gerster was implementing meant the demise of the company that they knew. The methods of which Gerstner was using from a manager’s standpoint seemed a bit unorthodox and didn’t fit well with the IBM culture and business model. Here is what was mentioned as a challenge Gerstner faced:

“One group of managers—those who ran IBM’s country organizations—found the move to “One IBM” especially difficult. They believed global managers could not be relied upon to make the right choices for local markets and that initiatives and instructions from IBM corporate needed to be “customized” for particular countries. The differences came to a head when Gerstner found out that his notes to employees were being rewritten by country managers to “better fit their environment.” The senior executive responsible for the country managers was fired, and many country managers resigned. Those who stayed were rapidly elevated to key positions. Despite pockets of resistance, Gerstner was impressed by employees’ capacity to absorb change:”

So based off the

3. Why do large established companies, like IBM, find it so difficult to build successful and sustainable new

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