When Sam Palmisano retired as CEO of IBM on Dec. 31, it marked the end of one of the most remarkable tenures in corporate history. Over his decade as IBM's leader, he made a number of moves, each instructive, but their power came from their cumulative effect in the transformation of a good company back into a great one.
Palmisano became leader of a great company that had stumbled badly in the 1980s and had been returned to health in the 1990's by Lou Gerstner. When Palmisano took over in early 2002, IBM had four main businesses each organized on a global basis: hardware, software, services (such as back-office outsourcing), and personal computers (PCs). The company was led — as it had been for decades — by a corporate executive committee (CEC) of the top 11 officers of....read more here Sam Palmisano's Transformation of IBM
