Regular readers know I'm a big fan of Lou Gerstner, former IBM CEO and engineer of Big Blue's turnaround from technology has-been to e-business leader in the '90s. He's got great common sense and wonderful perspective because he approaches the computer industry as an outsider (he worked at McKinsey, Nabisco and American Express before joining IBM). In his book about the IBM turnaround ― Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? ― Gerstner says: "What I was totally unprepared for were the characters and bizarre practices of the computer industry." Characters? That would be Larry Ellison, Bill Gates, Scott McNealy Steve Jobs. Yeah, "characters" is a diplomatic way of describing that crew.
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