Inside IBM: Lessons of a Corporate Culture in Action

"On August 19, 2019, the Business Roundtable released a statement signed by 181 CEOs announcing that they would lead their companies for the benefit of customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and shareholders. To many current corporate employees and their management this was a revelation, because during their time shareholder values dominated the priorities of senior corporate executives. As readers will learn, American corporations-many members of the Business Roundtable-decades ago had functionedprofitably, operating with a larger variety of stakeholders in mind. IBM was one such company. Yet as successful as this company was in serving multiple stakeholders, it was unable to sustain that way of managing. It too faltered, tempted into the world of financial acrobatics and interested only in prioritizing the interests of stockholders. This book provides a bottom-up look at IBM's corporate and material cultures and how they shifted from older stakeholder models to modern shareholder priorities, and how the company thrived in some ways and declined in others. Drawing on stories and case studies from employees, their families, and the communities they served, Cortada aims to show how IBM's organizational culture evolved, and decayed, and provide lessons companies can use to rebuild that older stakeholder capitalist model"--
What made IBM so successful for such a long time, and what lessons can this iconic corporation teach present-day enterprises? James W. Cortada—a business historian who worked at IBM for many years—pinpoints the crucial role of corporate culture.
IBM was the world’s leading provider of information technologies for much of the twentieth century. What made it so successful for such a long time, and what lessons can this iconic corporation teach present-day enterprises?James W. Cortada—a business historian who worked at IBM for many years—pinpoints the crucial role of IBM’s corporate culture. He provides an inside look at how this culture emerged and evolved over the course of nearly a century, bringing together the perspectives of employees, executives, and customers around the world. Through a series of case studies, Inside IBM explores the practices that built and reinforced organizational culture, including training of managers, employee benefits, company rituals, and the role of humor. It also considers the importance of material culture, such as coffee mugs and lapel pins.Cortada argues that IBM’s corporate culture aligned with its business imperatives for most of its history, allowing it to operate with a variety of stakeholders in mind and not simply prioritize stockholders. He identifies key lessons that managers can learn from IBM’s experience and apply in their own organizations today. This engaging and deeply researched book holds many insights for business historians, executives and managers concerned with stakeholder relations, professionals interested in corporate culture, and IBMers.