Society
Where There Is No Vision, People Perish
By Priscah Motogwa
The good book says that where there is no vision, people perish. And while the first thought that would come to mind when one reads the word perish is death, to perish also means to decay. Decaying denotes not taking proper care of an asset or a skill that you possess, so much so that it rots away and is therefore wasted.
Decaying happens over a period of time. It is one of those things that start off gradually, then suddenly you realise you cannot make use of a resource that you had. Decay happens when we neglect what we have in our possession.
I would now like to make this a bit personal, draw it closer to us as individuals. Michael E. Gerber in his book,‘ The E-Myth Revisited’ writes,“ I believe it’ s true that the difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next.” He has many stories in the book about how you ought to be the first order of business in your agenda, basically do not neglect yourself. However, one of the stories he shared in the book, which is actually a well-known story, has stayed with me since I first read the book in 2021. It is the story of Tom Watson Sr., the founder of what is popularly known today as IBM.
Now, we all know IBM has had a chequered history. The company developed mainframe computers in the 1950s to transform business operations. It turned out to be an excellent business choice, seeing as IBM mainframes were used by all major entities in the 1960s and 1970s for processing data. The 1980s brought the personal computer and while IBM played in this space as well, there were many other players in the hardware space at this point, which led to IBM’ s loss of market share.
The 1990s brought even harder times for IBM, with increased competition and rapid technological change. In 1993, the company reported a loss of nearly $ 8 billion, one of the largest corporate losses in US history at the time. It looked like IBM was tittering towards its death bed. But it managed to record an amazing turnaround under the leadership of Louis V. Gerstner, who took over as CEO in 1993.
Gerstner moved the company’ s focus from hardware manufacturing to services and software- basically responding to what businesses in the 20th century needed. Getting into the 21st Century, IBM continued its focus on being a solution to the complex challenges that businesses face by providing cloud computing and artificial intelligence solutions. Today, IBM leverages on technology and expertise, providing not only infrastructure and software but also consulting services to its clients.
Going back to Tom Watson Sr. He was the IBM CEO between 1914 and 1956. You recall that it was a raging success with its mainframe computers at that time. And when he was asked how IBM came to be so successful, here-under was his answer:
The good book says that where there is no vision, people perish. And while the first thought that would come to mind when one reads the word perish is death, to perish also means to decay. Decaying denotes not taking proper care of an asset or a skill that you possess, so much so that it rots away and is therefore wasted.
“ IBM is what it is today for three special reasons. The first reason is that, at the very beginning, I had a very clear picture of what the company would look like when it was finally done. You might say I had a model in my mind of what it would look like when the dream- my vision- was in place.
The second reason was that once I had that picture, I then asked myself how a company which looked like that would have to act. I then created a picture of how IBM would act when it was finally done.
The third reason IBM has been so
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