Gerstner has attracted considerable negative comment over the years, not only from magazines such as 'Fortune' and 'The Economist', but also from many IT industry observers and, not least, former employees of IBM and RJR Nabisco. He returned IBM to profitability after a couple of years of losses, but the strategic criticisms of LVG constitute a much longer list: he was lousy at increasing revenues (under his watch, IBM had to rely on acquisitions for growth); he effectively withdrew IBM from the consumer space (which has since seen far higher growth than commercial IT); he left his successor with an IBM that was far less feared and far less significant in the IT industry than when he joined in 1993; and that he was no entrepreneur (Gerstner has never built a business).
However none of that is here today, although revisions added (and taken away) since I started watching the page, have referred to some or all of these aspects. The most recent cleansing is the removal of the sentence that The citation astonished many. referring to Blair's award of a knighthood to Gerstner. That removal is on the grounds that this is Personal opinion. It is not. It certainly reflects the views of several journalists who have watched the Blair-Gerstner relationship. (Many expect this relationship to return to public view on Blair's retirement later this year.)
What I don't understand is why astonishment is regarded as personal opinion, whereas a word such as remarkable (used to describe the claimed perception of IBM's turnaround) is presumably regarded as not opinion, given that this word remains in the article. Or is it simply the case that positive personal opinion is allowed, but negative opinion, even if expressed in many referenceable books and articles, is not? Thegn 06:11, 12 March 2007 (UTC)
I agree. Whilst many believe that LVG was tremendously good for IBM, others disagree. None of that is reflected here. The profits increased during the Internet bubble, but afterwards the product-focused IBM had become services-focused and much more vulnerable in a harsher economic climate. Now many people would no-doubt disagree with that, but I think more balance is required in this article. 81.151.118.204 ( talk) 18:19, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
IBM lost from Microsoft because its culture was unfit for the consumer market, and IBM lost from Google for many more reasons. Rbakels ( talk) 10:02, 30 January 2021 (UTC)
I've read the text and found no reason for the two subtitles that compose this article (Gerstner at American Express and Gerstner at IBM) not to be in chronological order. For that reason I took the liberty of reversing it. If that was wrong please reverse it back.
Hi, I'm copyediting this article and I have a few suggestions re the content of the article:
Apart from that, well done on this article! I've finished my copy-edit. If you feel I have missed something, you can be bold and edit it, or remind me that I've missed it.
Thanks, Littleteddy ( talk) 11:33, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
Reading through the article I learn that Gerstner was born in 1942, went to school, and was then immediately hired as an executive vice president for American Express. I know Harvard opens doors, but that's quite a leap. What did he do after graduating? 87.114.185.180 ( talk) 19:27, 16 October 2012 (UTC)
How come there is nothing in here about his role in imposing a narrative of market efficiency, and the benefits of technology in international education, specifically at UNESCO? http://educationalchemy.com/2014/10/18/unesco-and-the-education-technology-industry-a-recipe-for-making-public-education-a-profiteering-enterprise-part-iii/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Vhfs ( talk • contribs) 07:30, 18 October 2014 (UTC)
How long has that whopper been in here? Unless I hear an objection I'm going to change that sentence to "IBM has been credited with making the personal computer a mainstream product". Caissanist ( talk) 06:18, 21 October 2014 (UTC)
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The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Lou Gerstner/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.
Citing a person's autobiography, almost exclusively, is a very unbalanced portrayal. It reads like an advertisement rather than an objective article and as such should be revised or stricken. Tsbrownie ( talk) 08:31, 15 October 2009 (UTC) |
Substituted at 18:28, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
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The article completely lacks "NPOV". It seems to be written by Gerstner himself (or a ghostwriter). Gerstner increased profits by buying IBMs own shares, and by acquisitions. He offends employees by pretending that he "learned the elephant to dance again". He failed to stop the decline of IBM, because he failed to adapt IBM to the new reality of a "democratized" IT industry. He failed to exploit the potential of a very loyal, highly educated IBM workforce with worldwide presence. He failed to turn around IBM managers who were taught to minimize risks - which ended in minimizing profits. Steve Jobs reinvented Apple. Philips electronics divested many of its divisions, to concentrate on health products. Reinventing IBM required more than fighting bureaucracy, but Gerstner had no vision to restore IBM profitability. Rbakels ( talk) 07:59, 6 December 2022 (UTC)