Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Apr 2026

: Early in his tenure, Gerstner famously stated, "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision," emphasizing that the company needed to fix its fundamental operations before dreaming of the future.

: He restructured the company to listen to what customers actually needed, rather than what IBM's engineers wanted to build. Critical Reception Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic T… Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?

When Lou Gerstner took over as CEO in 1993, IBM was a "corporate dinosaur" on the verge of being broken up after losing $16 billion in just three years. The book chronicles how Gerstner rejected the popular "vision" of dismantling the company and instead focused on execution, customer-centricity, and a radical cultural overhaul to save the American icon. : Early in his tenure, Gerstner famously stated,