Author: admin

The following is the text of an email sent today to all IBM employees by Chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna:

IBMers, 

I am saddened to share that Lou Gerstner, IBM’s Chairman and CEO from 1993 to 2002, passed away yesterday.

Lou arrived at IBM at a moment when the company’s future was genuinely uncertain. The industry was changing rapidly, our business was under pressure, and there was serious debate about whether IBM should even remain whole. His leadership during that period reshaped the company. Not by looking backward, but by focusing relentlessly on what our clients would need next. 

One of Lou’s earliest signals as CEO has become part of IBM lore. Early on, he stopped a long internal presentation and said, simply, “Let’s just talk.” The message was clear: less inward focus, more real discussion, and much closer attention to customers. That mindset would define his tenure. 

Lou believed one of IBM’s central problems was that we had become optimized around our own processes, debates, and structures rather than around client outcomes. As he later put it, the company had lost sight of a basic truth of business: understanding the customer and delivering what the customer actually values. 

That insight drove real change. Meetings became more direct. Decisions were grounded more in facts and client impact than in hierarchy or tradition. Innovation mattered if it could translate into something clients would come to rely on. Execution in the quarter and the year mattered, but always in service of longer-term relevance. 

Lou made what may have been the most consequential decision in IBM’s modern history: to keep IBM together. At the time, the company was organized into many separate businesses, each pursuing its own path. Lou understood that clients didn’t want fragmented technology—they wanted integrated solutions. That conviction shaped IBM’s evolution and reestablished our relevance for many of the world’s largest enterprises. 

Lou also understood that strategy alone would not be enough. He believed lasting change required a shift in culture—in how people behave when no one is watching. What mattered was what IBMers valued, how honestly they confronted reality, and how willing they were to challenge themselves and each other. Rather than discard IBM’s long-standing values, he pushed the company to renew them to meet the demands of a very different era. 

I have my own memory of Lou from the mid-1990s, at a small town hall with a few hundred people. What stood out was his intensity and focus. He had an ability to hold the short term and the long term in his head at the same time. He pushed hard on delivery, but he was equally focused on innovation: doing work that clients would remember, not just consume. 

Lou stayed engaged with IBM long after his tenure ended. From my first days as CEO, he was generous with advice—but always careful in how he gave it. He would offer perspective, then say, “I’ve been gone a long time—I’m here if you need me.” He listened closely to what others were saying about IBM and reflected it back candidly.  

That neutral, experienced voice mattered to me, and I was fortunate to learn from Lou on a regular basis. 

Lou was direct. He expected preparation. He challenged assumptions. But he was deeply committed to building a company that could adapt—culturally as much as strategically—without losing its core values. 

Lou’s impact extended well beyond IBM. Before joining the company, he had already built an extraordinary career—becoming one of the youngest partners at McKinsey & Company, later serving as president of American Express and CEO of RJR Nabisco. After IBM, he went on to chair The Carlyle Group and devoted significant time and resources to philanthropy, particularly in education and biomedical research. A native of Long Island, NY, Lou earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard, and he remained deeply devoted to his family throughout his life. Lou was preceded in death by his son Louis Gerstner III. 

We will hold a celebration in the new year to reflect on Lou’s legacy and what his leadership enabled at IBM. 

My thoughts are with Lou’s wife Robin, his daughter Elizabeth, his grandchildren and extended family, as well as his many friends, colleagues, and people around the world who were shaped by his leadership and his work.

Media contact:

IBM Press Room

​ibmpress@us.ibm.com 

While standing on the sideline watching a high school soccer game, my friend, who owned a small and successful construction company, complained that his son – a senior – was starting at a respected local university that fall, which would cost roughly $200,000 over the next four years.

“I could take the same money and set him up in a contracting business,” he said. “It would be a much better investment.”

That was in 2010. The kid did go to that college and graduated four years later with a degree in history. Where do you think he is now? Working in the construction business.

Ask anyone in the construction business and they’ll complain about the lack of skilled workers in their trade. The numbers support these concerns. The Associated General Contractors of America reported this past year that 92% of firms have had a hard time filling positions and 45% delayed at least one project due to labor shortages. A worker shortage model from the Associated Builders and Contractors estimates that the industry must attract 499,000 workers in 2026 to meet demand. The National Association of Homebuilders estimates the number to be as high as 723,000 annually.

Why the shortage? Among the reasons is that younger workers have gravitated away from working with their hands over the past few decades in lieu of office jobs. Older workers are getting older – the National Center for Construction Education and Research estimates that about 41% of the current construction workforce will retire by 2031. And the current administration’s immigration policy has not only dried up the flow of potential overseas workers but have driven many construction workers – even those with proper documentation – underground.

The building of datacenters has surged over the past few years and construction workers on those projects are in such high in demand they’re seeing pay jumps of 25% to 30% compared to their previous jobs – and in some cases, much more. Good for them, but that’s not going to last forever.

What will happen very soon is – as interest rates continue to fall and new tax incentives begin to take hold – a new demand from both homebuyers and businesses looking to build and buy properties will – after more than five years – return and return strong. This is a cyclical industry. Things have been in the trough. But when the recovery happens, the peak will be high. Which means there will be an enormous need for new constructions workers.

For many in the industry facing such labor shortages, that scenario is daunting. I think the opposite.

Thanks to AI, there will be an obliteration of entry-level jobs and the meaningless white-collar work. Where will they go? There will be other opportunities – startups and new jobs we’ve never heard of (20% of today’s jobs didn’t even exist in 2000). But many will gravitate towards the trades – a place where AI can’t replace them.

We’re already seeing this trend develop. Trade school enrollment is up significantly since the pandemic and is expected to increase as much as 7% annually through 2030, a rate significantly higher than other forms of higher education. The ranks of students studying construction trades alone rose 23% over the past year, according to another report. Young people are not stupid. They’re following the money.