I had learned a hard lesson at RJR Nabisco: A company facing too many challenges can run out of cash very quickly.

We got there in stages because, while you can force anything down the throat of an organization, if people don’t buy into the logic, the change won’t stick.

I have worked in services companies (McKinsey and American Express) and product companies (RJR Nabisco and IBM). I will state unequivocally that services businesses are much more difficult to manage.

This kind of wrenching cultural change doesn’t happen by executive fiat. As I found, I couldn’t flip a switch and alter behaviors. It was, by any measure, the hardest part of IBM’s transformation, and at times I thought it couldn’t be done.

Some executives were beginning to exhibit the sort of personal leadership and commitment to change that I sought.

I needed, though, to provide support and encouragement for these risk takers. They were still surrounded by a lot of Bolsheviks who longed for the old system.