I look for people who work to solve problems and help colleagues, I sack politicians.

I have always believed you cannot run a successful enterprise from behind a desk.

You don't get points for predicting rain. You get points for building arks.

In the end an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

The next thing is: we can make IBM even better. We brought IBM back but we're gunning for leadership.

Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization's makeup and success - along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like... I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn't just one aspect of the game, it is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.

Lou Gerstner knows how to do a deal, and George Bush Sr., less so.