Warren Buffett has amassed $10 billion of IBM stock with their market cap four times that of HP and being the second best performing stock this past decade. What’s going on? It started when Sam Palmisano chose greatness for IBM. Palmisano stepped down as CEO of IBM last year. In an interview with the New York Time’s he outlines the four questions he posed to the top 300 managers at IBM back in 2003. “The hardest thing is answering those four questions,” Mr. Palmisano says. “You’ve got to answer all four and work at answering all four to really execute with excellence.”
The four questions:
“Why would someone spend their money with you – so what is unique about you?”
“Why would somebody work for you?”
“Why would society allow you to operate in their defined geography – their country?”
“And why would somebody invest their money with you?”
Interestingly, it was question 3 that led IBM to sell their PC business to Lenovo vs. Dell or HP. It secured their relationship with the Chinese!
Great questions to ask your managers today…..
