The metamorphosis of IBM

• Gérard DRÉAN
  ancien dirigeant d'IBM et de SYNTEC-Informatique
  
• Gérard DUWAT
  Former training director, IBM Europe
  

Summary

What happens to the Titanic when it hits an iceberg? It sinks. What does IBM do when the company is losing money, one hundred and sixty-five thousand of its employees are made redundant, its share price drops by 40% and its debt is growing ? A new company emerges. In listening to Gérard Dréan's description of the functioning of the company during its glory years, and that of Gérard Duwat who outlines the traumatic time which IBM endured and the subsequent recovery initiated by Lou Gerstner, its new president, we can see the metamorphosis of a company where everything has changed except its soul.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Christophe RAFFALLI.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference VA070598).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 14.