Lou Gerstner, Jr., served as chairman and chief executive officer of IBM from April 1993 until March 2002, when he retired as CEO. He remained chairman of the board through the end of 2002. Before joining IBM, Mr. Gerstner served for four years as chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco, Inc. This was preceded by an eleven-year career at the American Express Company, where he was president of the parent company and chairman and CEO of its largest subsidiary. Prior to that, Mr. Gerstner was a director of the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Co., Inc. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Who says elephants can't dance?: how i turned around ibm is the story of a turnaround of ibm, after it was close to shutting down in 1993. Close to its extinction, louis gerstner, the author of the book, was brought in. When people inside and outside the organization kept making assumptions of what would be the role of lou, he revived the entire firm with a new way of working. This book tells the story about the strong decisions he took and the strategies he followed to get ibm at the top-list again. Lou brought a realistic strategy to forget about the literary vision statements ibm was started with, as a quick healing policy was the need of the hour facing corporate fall. Ibm underwent transformation in its competitive strategy as well as overall culture after lou took on the management. He refreshed the leadership team and gave them a purpose. The book has content that serves as a rich material for case-study and leadership principles. He has shared his journey with a message to the readers about what he feels is important to achieve success. There have been facts in the history telling stories of companies that faced fall and extinction but ibm had been among the very few listed ones that managed to stand as market leaders all over again. This book is a motivational and narrative text by lou telling about what ibm was when he joined and how he took each step towards recreating it. Harpercollins published who says elephants can't dance?: how i turned around ibm in 2008 in paperback.