Many IBMers see Louis V. Gerstner as the savior of their company-indeed, Gerstner sees himself that way. Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? expresses this perspective quite well. What Gerstner never realized is that much of his success came from accidentally tapping into an eighty-year-old culture that he never understood. IBM's founders, the Watsons, created this culture in the 1910s, and then codified it in the 1950s with the creation of three Basic Beliefs: Respect, Service and Excellence. But today's IBM has lost its culture, its constitution and its way. Surely a century-old corporation is more than its founding words; but great leaders do not seek to abolish a people's constitution, rather they seek a return to its original intent. This book captures how that change occurred-a view from beneath the dancing elephant.

The New York Times and Time Magazine called Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, the "World's Greatest Salesman." Newsweek wrote that he was a philanthropist, where "none gained more from his beneficence than his own employees." President Eisenhower said he was a man "marked by a deep-seated concern for people." The World's Greatest Salesman is an IBM employee's perspective of Tom Watson Sr.'s leadership during the Great Depression, starting the day after Black Tuesday and ending three days before Christmas 1933, soon after the Depression's trough. In the midst of today's current economic turmoil, it is time to reexamine the thoughts, words and actions of IBM's founder. He set an example of great leadership during one of the darkest economic times in world history and led a good company to greatness in the 20th century.