In the end an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value. — Lou Gerstner

I just think we should look at this as a chess match,’ he said, ‘between the world’s greatest chess player and Garry Kasparov. — Lou Gerstner

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

If life was so easy that you could just go buy success, there would be a lot more successful companies in the world. Successful enterprises are built from the ground up. — Lou Gerstner

The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision. — Lou Gerstner

We built this company from the customer back, not from the company out. — Lou Gerstner

We do not need Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education; we need a single Department of Skills that will promote an integrated approach to global competitiveness. — Lou Gerstner

I’m leery of legislative solutions to what is morality. — Lou Gerstner

You can never be comfortable with your success, you’ve got to be paranoid you’re going to lose it. — Lou Gerstner

I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game; it is the game. — Lou Gerstner

The rewards system is a powerful driver of behavior and therefore culture. — Lou Gerstner

No institution will go through fundamental change unless it believes it is in deep trouble and needs to do something different to survive. — Lou Gerstner

When I arrived at IBM, there were ‘Team’ signs all around. I asked, ‘How do people get paid?’ They told me, ‘We pay people based on individual performance.’ — Louis V. Gerstner

Lou Gerstner knows how to do a deal, and George Bush Sr., less so. — Lou Gerstner

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

Everything starts with the customer. — Lou Gerstner

I want to take IBM back to its roots. — Lou Gerstner

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

The Internet is ultimately about innovation and integration, but you don’t get the innovation unless you integrate Web technology into the processes by which you run your business. — Lou Gerstner

Never confuse activity with results. — Lou Gerstner

Fixing culture is the most critical − and the most difficult − part of a corporate transformation… In the end, management doesn’t change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture. — Lou Gerstner

Visit USA.gov and you’ll find thousands of directorates, agencies, boards, offices, and services replete with overlapping responsibilities, ancient priorities, and divided accountability. — Lou Gerstner

My parents worked enormously hard to put four children through college. We didn’t have a lot of money. — Lou Gerstner

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

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

You don’t get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks. — Lou Gerstner

Customer complaints are the schoolbooks from which we learn. — Lou Gerstner

People don’t do what you expect but what you inspect. — Lou Gerstner

I have always believed you cannot run a successful enterprise from behind a desk. — Lou Gerstner

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. — Lou Gerstner

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

The thing I have learned at IBM is that culture is everything. — Lou Gerstner

Our military should be trained and structured around missions, not the elements of air, water, and land. — Lou Gerstner

I firmly believe that IBM’s size can be used to its advantage. — Lou Gerstner

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. — Lou Gerstner

A lot of people saved IBM. Yes, I was the leader of that team but I could never have done it without a group of IBMers helping me. — Lou Gerstner

When a manufacturing company in Spain looks to IBM for a solution to a problem, they expect us to bring the best of IBM worldwide to it, not just the experience of IBM Spain. — Lou Gerstner

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

Successful enterprises are built from the ground up. You can’t assemble them with a bunch of acquisitions. — Louis V. Gerstner

Technology has limitations on what it can accomplish. You do not. — Lou Gerstner

Whether the task is fixing health care, upgrading K–12 education, bolstering national security, or a host of other missions, the U.S. is better at patching problems than fixing them. — Louis V. Gerstner

I look for people who work to solve problems and help colleagues, I sack politicians. — Lou Gerstner