Louis V. Gerstner

“I'm leery of legislative solutions to what is morality.”

“The value that some analysts put on revenue vs. what they put on profit is out of whack. If you can grow real cash earnings, that's 80% of what you ought to do, and the revenue component is 20%.”

“I initially wanted to be a teacher, and then I was going to become an engineer and build bridges and highways, but pretty soon I went into the business world. I never did get to be a teacher except in a different way.”

“Whether the task is fixing health care, upgrading K-12 education, bolstering national security, or a host of other missions, the U.S. is better at patching problems than fixing them.”

“I firmly believe that IBM's size can be used to its advantage.”

“The real mechanism for corporate governance is the active involvement of the owners.”

“The world is full of CEOs that think that just because they write a memo or they write a letter inside an annual report or they give a little video speech that gets sent around the company, they think that's what's really going to affect employees.”

“I think that my leadership style is to get people to fear staying in place, to fear not changing.”

“People don't do what you expect but what you inspect.”

“It's about communication. It's about honesty. It's about treating people in the organization as deserving to know the facts. You don't try to give them half the story. You don't try to hide the story. You treat them as - as true equals, and you communicate and you communicate and communicate.”

“I've been accepted at Cambridge University. I want to study Chinese history and archaeology. I want to become a student. I want to read Chinese history and go on a dig.”

“Visit USA.gov and you'll find thousands of directorates, agencies, boards, offices, and services replete with overlapping responsibilities, ancient priorities, and divided accountability.”

“What I'm trying to do is deliver results, not promises; results, not vision; results, not concepts. The world is cynical about IBM's promises.”

“This really is a merger of equals. I wouldn't have come back to work for anything less than this fantastic opportunity. This lets me combine my two great loves - technology and biscuits.”

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

“Computers are magnificent tools for the realization of our dreams, but no machine can replace the human spark of spirit, compassion, love, and understanding.”

“Watch the turtle. He only moves forward by sticking his neck out.”

“The networked world offers the promise that maybe the information technology industry will start to, for the first time in a decade or so, address CEO-level issues.”

“A lot of people saved IBM. Yes, I was the leader of that team, but I could never have done it without a group of IBMers helping me.”

“Our military should be trained and structured around missions, not the elements of air, water, and land.”