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.

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.

Perhaps the greatest mistake I’ve seen executives make is to confuse expectations with inspection.

If a CEO thinks he or she is redirecting or reintegrating an enterprise but doesn’t distribute the basic levels of power (in effect, redefining who “calls the shots”), the CEO is trying to push string up a hill.

Continuing to drive change while building on the best (and only the best) of the past is the ultimate description of the job of Chief Executive Officer, International Business Machines Corporation.