I have always believed a successful company must have a customer/marketplace orientation and a strong marketing organization. That’s why my second step in creating a global enterprise had to be to fix and focus IBM’s marketing efforts.

I can understand the joke that was going around IBM in the early 1990s: “Products aren’t launched at IBM. They escape.

If a management team doesn’t believe that it has identified and is seriously funding new growth opportunities, then it is likely to wander off and drink the heady brew of acquisitions and diversification—and ultimately fail.

Thus, it is very hard to develop a unique strategy, and even harder, should you develop one, to keep it proprietary.

Great companies cannot be built on processes alone. But believe me, if your company has antiquated, disconnected, slow-moving processes—particularly those that drive success in your industry—you will end up a loser.