TITLE : IBM WAY: INSIGHTS INTO THE WORLD'S MOST SUCCESSFUL MARKETING ORGANIZATION, THE.

PREFACE

There really is an IBM way of marketing and managing. Like the title of this book, IBM's approach to business, technology and people has nothing clever or slick about it. How it functions, and why, have more to do with IBM's success than what it does. Because that's true, all of the traits and characteristics that make IBM great can be emulated by any company of any size. I don't think a company or a business person anywhere can fail to learn something worthwhile from IBM.

Since we in the United States became self conscious about the downward trend of productivity in our country, and the need to improve quality, scores of business books have been written. Some have been scholarly examinations of what's wrong with American companies and what's right with their Japanese competitors. They analyze and dissect, turn us inside out and leave us bloody on the operating table. Some show us how easy it is to climb the corporate ladder. Others reveal how to become rich and powerful, with the emphasis on looking out for number one. Still others concentrate on management theory and a fast paced approach to becoming a more effective manager.

Every now and then about as often as Halley's Comet streaks across the sky a book like In Search of Excellence comes along and gets right to the heart of things. Without award winning prose or mind dulling jargon, it deals with failure by elucidating success, simply but not simplistically.

So why a book about IBM? For one thing, this $50 billion American company, which now employs 400,000 people and is the most profitable business in the world, is poised to double its revenues by the end of the decade. What makes this phenomenal growth possible, and what forces drive the company, are important, because what IBM does and how it does it have a tremendous impact on the business community and on society at large. Millions of people are directly affected by this company's activities.

To understand IBM's success and its unshakable optimism, one needs some insights into its marketing systems and philosophy, and its unique relationship with employees and customers. That's where I can be helpful. I know IBM from the inside out. For the past dozen or so years, I've been invited to speak with representatives of every type of business imaginable; and since my early retirement, I've not only increased my speaking engagements but also acted as consultant for some of the world's finest companies. They want to know how IBM does it. They're as fascinated by this company's amazing ability to roll with the punches, to change and adjust, as they are by its spectacular growth. I'm in demand because I know why IBM has the most highly motivated and productive marketing organization anywhere. Even the most successful companies want to know how an organization of such high achievers was put together and managed. They want to know how it's possible to sustain its level of excellence, year after year.

Among other things, The IBM Way will explain what it means to be a customer driven organization; how IBM's marketing and sales orientation permeates every aspect of its operation; how its profound concern for the customer goes far beyond guaranteeing satisfaction; how the IBM "personality" is shaped by the company's insatiable quest for excellence. This is the first book ever written about IBM by an IBM officer. A quick sketch of my IBM career will give you an idea of the depth of my involvement with the company, especially my connection with their sales and marketing operations:

Like almost everyone who ever held a managerial or an executive position at IBM, I started as a trainee and moved up through the ranks. I was a marketing rep who sold everything from electric typewriters to stored program systems; a special rep responsible for installing one of the very first large scale computer systems; an administrative assistant to the executive vice president, who was responsible for all IBM engineering, manufacturing, marketing and financial functions; a branch manager;the head of IBM's banking, finance, and brokerage business; Eastern Regional Sales Manager, responsible for more than a hundred branch offices; general manager for the Western Region; and president of the Data Processing Division, the U.S. marketing operation for all IBM computer products. Then, finally, I became the company's chief marketing strategist, vice president of marketing, with worldwide responsibility. That was my job for the past ten years. I now serve on five corporate boards of directors and four university advisory councils, and I lecture on eight university campuses each year. Activities such as these provide insight into the world outside IBM, as they broaden personal perspectives.

I'm a marketing person. A salesman. I've been referred to as a "salesman's salesman," and I consider that the greatest compliment. Marketing and sales are so tightly woven into IBM's past, present, and future successes that they are inseparable.

Although I was part of the IBM marketing operation for thirty four years, and responsible for that function for ten years, this is not going to be a book on management theory. Nor will it be a company history, and it sure won't be a kissand tell book. Even if I hadn't been a satisfied employee and an admirer of this awesome giant, I wouldn't write a book to satisfy the gossip collector's appetite. It's not my style.

I have made two absolutely right decisions in my life: the first was to marry Helen; the second, to join IBM in 1950. While at IBM, I was offered the opportunity of becoming CEO of a variety of companies, including many in the computer industry. Though the offers were attractive, I was always challenged by my IBM assignments and remained a born and bred, dyed in the wool IBMer.

The IBM Way will expose the heart and soul of IBM: how it thinks and behaves behind closed doors; what goes into its decision making; what it deems important and how it stacks its priorities; why the great majority of its employees, recruited right out of college, never leave the company; why IBM's hundreds of thousands of employees never had a union; what kind of people become members of our army of blue suiters; what's the truth about the much talked about dress code and relocation policy. Mostly, you'll get a good look into IBM's sales and marketing operation. I'll talk about everything that makes IBM IBM.

If because of this book other companies increase their level of productivity and profit, we all will benefit. And if competitors improve their operation and make an effort to close the gap, IBM will feel the heat and enjoy the challenge.