From modest background, Arvind Krishna is the kind of immigrant success story people should actually talk about more. He came to the U.S., built his career through skill and discipline, and rose to become CEO of one of the most important technology companies in the world. No shortcuts, no noise—just execution. At a time when leadership gets questioned constantly, he’s focused on long-term strategy, AI innovation, and keeping IBM steady. That’s what real success looks like: earn it, build it, and lead with substance.
33 replies (most recent on top)
@mj Comrade Troll ChatGPT. It is clear you cannot read and are just inputting people's posts into ChatGPT and copying in the output here. These posts about King Louie who you adore and never met or talked with (I did and that is no anecdote Comrad) are all true real things vs the fantasy would you live in doing Think400000 hours of nonsensical reading of IBM propaganda and cheer leading slogans thinking you are producing something of value. How many customer meetings do you run a week? Thats right zero. How many customer CIO's do you know or have cell phone numbers for? Oh thats right zero. If you actually "work" for IBM which is highly doubtful, any monies IBM gives you would be better spent helping a homeless veteran or helping a warrior who has come home from protecting us overseas with an IED brain injury. Get over yourself and get some self awareness. Your posts get 99% down votes. You must be a really mis guided passive aggressive person who cannot read a room.
@mb
Quit with the AI
You’re throwing out insults and secondhand anecdotes, but none of that changes what actually happened. When Lou Gerstner stepped in, IBM was losing billions, fragmented internally, and on the verge of being broken apart.
“The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision” wasn’t incompetence—it was a rejection of empty slogans in favor of execution. He stabilized the business, unified the company, and built the services model that drove IBM’s recovery.
You can quote roadshows and stories all day, but results matter. IBM didn’t collapse—it turned around. That’s not mythology, that’s history.
@m8 get out of the library comrade. You were not there just like you are not an asset at IBM. You are a troll living in your grandmother's basement. Go feed the elephants at Barnum and Bailey. Here is something NOT in Lou's elephant dance book you keep having ChatGPT baby feed you; Lou and his A-^&( CFO Jerome York did a roadshow in 93 (again you were not there but will of course refer to the elephant book) to IBM sales branch offices (when IBM mattered and had offices vs bedrooms). He got sla-ghtered with his famous line "...the last thing IBM needs right now is a vision...". D-mb A&. Worse A-^&( York tells a story about being at an executive event seated next to an HP exec and told us he regretted not putting something in the food of the HP exec when he was not looking. Put that in your ChatGPT elephant book and take a long walk off a short pier. That tells you all you need to know about your idol Louie and his A-&() CFO York.
If you’re going to throw around buzzwords like “Manifesto,” at least understand the situation you’re commenting on. When Lou Gerstner took over IBM, it wasn’t some abstract debate—it was a company hemorrhaging billions, with internal divisions competing against each other and no coherent strategy.
Gerstner didn’t “cheerlead” he executed. He rejected the breakup plan, unified the business, and pivoted IBM into services, which is exactly what saved it. That’s not ideology, that’s results.
If you actually read Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?, you’d realize this wasn’t about theory—it was about fixing a failing enterprise in real time.
Read Mr Gersteners book. I highly recommend it.
IBM Was in Serious Trouble
Losing billions
Internal chaos (different divisions fighting each other)
Missed the shift to modern computing
They wanted him to break apart IBM. He said no ans saved the company
@gx TROLL ChatGPT. You are falling behind on your useless THINK40 "training" that is Cheer Leading 101. Are you able to post a video of you in cheer leading practice? You are using AI to scrape the internet and post fake nes about IBM missing payroll. I was there; you were not. Go back and Cheer yay! That is urban legend to shine the all might Gerstner legacy. BS. If needed IBM always had a huge credit limit to tap into. It did not because it was FAKE NEWS to create the Gerstner BS legacy.
@gx Venom spewed here at this site is venom you earned.
Get over it, IBM India HR garbage collector.
Why are you still here? You’re just wasting everybody’s time, you’re not going to convince anybody. To IBM, every employee is an irrelevant number. When the CEO is also considered an irrelevant number, it’s not upsetting. Read the room and go away.
No Chat GPT needed. Why are you all so mad that Mr Gerstner saved IBM. He needed to make tough decisions and it weighed down heavily on him. IBM was in danger of not making payroll before he joined. IBM needed an outsider and Mr Gerstners track record at AMEX and RJR Nabisco proved he was the right choice
Gerstner was an arrogant S-B. Take your paper you wrote about him with ChatGPT and FLUSH. If you were not there you do not know. People truned around and walked away when they saw him coming. No one wanted to have him meet customers. Robbed IBM for over $400,000,000. laid off well over 100,000 over 18 mos. Bully. Pompous. Greedy. Troll you sure have a lot of time on your hands while you do THINK 40+ than NO ONE cares about and means nothing outside the 3 walls (IBM sold 1 of the walls) of IBM.
@gf yes IBM is a power house up sh*t creek thanks to Gerstner (who can't defend himself since he's dead and pushing up the daisies) and Alvind (who can defend himself but who is a total sh1thead and doesn't care do).
Now you’re trashing a man who can’t defend himself ?
Mr Gerstner saved IBM
His tough decisions are why it’s the powerhouse it is today
I did a college term paper on how his leadership rescued a company I fro. Extinction
@fn who gives a flying f$$k what you think or believe you are reading ? Alvind is nothing more than a piece of rotten camel dung. You can see what people thought of Gerstner on this site. Well, if Alvind were dead today, I am pretty sure there would a long line waiting to sp-t on his corpse at his funeral pyre....and me too. Maybe there will be tickets for the event selling online like hot cakes at Ticketmaster.
Let the incompetent imbecile CEO dwell on that too.
Arvind has a responsibility that none of us will ever know. Tell me, have you ever led a fortune 500 company with 290,000 Employees?
@f7 the venom is earned. Arvind is a horrible human being whose practices have dehumanized over 40k folks worldwide, with 30k in the US alone. When you cause harm people expect people to push back. That is human nature.
Could care less that he is Indian. What a lame deflection. I despised Sam Palmisano almost as much as this arsehat.
But immigrants that show only loyalty to their home country, that consistently betray his adopted countrymen, are not to be applauded like the OP insists - who is clearly an Indian apologist gleeful that he has a job that once was once held by an American. He is no friend of Americans anymore more than that walking POS known as Arvind Krishna.
@ew this! I tell everyone how much Ibm has ripped me off. Taking my pension. Taking my medical retiree benefits. Laying off my entire team. Replacing everyone with unqualified Indians.
I tell it to the folks at Fidelity; I tell it o the people at my investment broker; I tell it to my barber; I tell it to the checkout clerk at the grocery store; I mention it at international conferences to large crowds when I present which is quite often. I remind everybody I know what Ibm has done to Americans and the American dream. I will never stop.
After they say "IBM who?" I explain how Arvind and his cronies are like serial rapists. Maybe Arvind really believes that all press is good press; trust me, he's gonna get a lot of it.
The word H A T E doesn't do justice to what I now feel. What comes around goes around b i t c h e s.
@OP dude, you don't get it - actions have consequences. Arvind has laid off tens of thousands of high achievers since '22 - and now we all hate his fu--ing guts. And he dumped us into the worst job market of the generation.
This isn't going to end well for IBM. You laid us off because we earned too much because of the promotions you gave us because we were the best of the best - and now are we-ponized against you. This is the first time in history that there are more former IBMers all of whom hate IBM then there are current IBMers (80% of those are all in India) - and without good jobs we have nothing but time.
@ee you are too much, little Indian troll man. I am sure you are delighted that Arvind has handed the keys of this once great company to you and your countrymen. Sure.
But you get what you pay for. Blind obedience is not the same as insight; the execs do not really need people like you who just parrot back what they already believe. What they need are real experts willing to stand up and speak truth. This is not you. These are the people he liquidated.
Arvind did not make "hard choices" - he sold out IBM and America. He made a quick buck but made IBM a qualitatively worse place than before he started. You cannot cut to success; you must invest. Arvind has liquidated top talent to temporarily boost the stock price. It is falling like a brick because IBM doesn't do much anymore - Arvind made sure of that. You can fool some of the investors some of the time but not all of the time.
The correction has already started. I will laugh at the grave of Big Blue and maybe leave something behind so that some flowers will bloom. As to Arvind, he is a monster and I hope he burns forever in he-l and anyone who supports him.
@dz Why so much hate for 1 person? What did he do to you? He is a man that makes tough decisions every day to bring value to the company, shareholders, and to employees.
I do not understand how hate for 1 man is at this level
@cd and who exactly is gonna stop the hate and vitriol towards Alvind and his Pipmunks ? You and which army of losers ? Alvind gets everything he has been responsible for and maybe more for the layoffs he has orchestrated in the US.
A miserable punk from IBM HR like you ain't gonna stop anything that this creep has released into the world.
@cd
when you obtain some integrity only then will you be treated with respect
he did squat, the engineers did the work
he just took most of the profits
which sounds remarkably like a parasite
@c7 The hate and vitriol towards Arvind needs to stop. He is responsible for a company with a Market cap of over 250 billion dollars and over 280,000 employees all over the world. He has to make tough decisions. Have some decency
@a9
he is a hack
i am pretty sure real engineers don't respect him
he is good at ja--ing up a share price while hollowing out a once innovative company
the engineering and science in the US has turned to cr-p
it used to be cool and interesting
I’m still trying to figure out what the point of these posts is. Is it a bot? Is it a pathetic human thinking Arvind will come su-k his c**k?
@ak you have skillset in what ? Bull$hitting !!! Wonderful !!
Can you please show us your relevant IBM badge in this subject too ?? It should not be too hard for an IBM HR troll.
@OP yes it's called executions of US citizen's jobs by transferring them by mostly unfair means (read layoffs) to Alvind's home country, India.
Isn't that the truth ? Because Alvind is the perfect example of a corrupt CEO mothertrucker.
@ak
your language gives you away
it is called knowledge and it used to be a beautiful thing
@ag
Don't get mad at me because I want to increase my skillset. Why are people so negative here?
This poster is a troll and just posts things in this forum for attention. Brags about being band 6 on the way to 7 woohoo. Brags about taking classes for useless badges. Get a life.
Arvind Krishna is a reminder that real success isn’t loud—it’s built. Immigrant, engineer, now CEO of IBM. While others chase headlines, he’s focused on execution, AI, and long-term growth. Respect where it’s due.
He's actually focused on taking hundreds of millions of dollars from IBM for "services rendered." I am all in favor of execution.