by Jonathan Gifford | Mar 20, 2014 | Leadership Ideas
Teams become emotionally attached to major projects in which they have invested their creative energies. It is difficult for organisations to write off large investments in time and money. Leaders need to abandon failed projects, whatever their merits. IBM...
by Jonathan Gifford | Feb 7, 2011 | Business & Leadership
In my blog ‘Gerstner and the IBM turnaround: vision or execution’, I wrote about the life-threatening hole that IBM had got itself into by the early 1990s, before Louis Gerstner was persuaded to take up one of the most challenging Chief Executive roles in the...
by Jonathan Gifford | Dec 14, 2010 | Leadership Ideas
Everyone wants to please the boss. Few of us are immune to the joys of hearing what we want to hear. Bad news, on the other hand, is never welcome. Leaders need to separate the message from the messenger: not knowing about bad news is the most dangerous thing...
by Jonathan Gifford | Nov 14, 2009 | Business & Leadership
In his book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance, Louis V Gerstner, Jr. says a rather moving and also very insightful thing about the psychology of being a Chief Executive Officer. Gerstner’s book includes his farewell letter to all staff, confirming his retirement. In it,...
