Elephants Can Dance
by Carmen P. Hidalgo

Life has truly come full circle for John Clements President and CEO Carol Dominguez. On Friday, April 22, 2005, Ms. Dominguez spoke to managers at IBM Philippines on the topic of leadership.

Ms. Dominguez’ presentation, which was titled “Elephants Can Dance: A Few Lessons on Leadership Inspired by Lou Gerstner,” was meant to motivate IBM employees through Ms. Dominguez’ own story of taking the helm at John Clements. Interestingly enough, Ms. Dominguez actually derived inspiration during her early days as President and CEO of John Clements from Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM in the US.

“Let me tell you a little secret,” Ms. Dominguez began, “everything I learned about being a leader, I learned from you.” Attendees were enthralled as Ms. Dominguez went on to share a story of incredible coincidence. She recounted how, when her father suddenly passed away and she was left with an entire company to run, she picked up the book Who Says Elephants Can Dance? by former IBM CEO Lou Gerstner. Lou Gerstner was enlisted to draw IBM out of its financial crisis in the mid-1980s, and he is credited with the complete turnaround of what is now considered an IT giant.

From Lou Gerstner, Ms. Dominguez learned some valuable lessons which she then applied in her own life as new leader of a faltering company. On Friday, she shared some of these lessons with IBM through a moving PowerPoint presentation. Some of the key points of her discussion were that leaders should: never think they can do it alone, listen to their employees, talk to their clients, develop people, make it personal, but be fair, and—above all—remember the lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Ms. Dominguez’ technique of presenting actual quotes from Lou Gerstner’s book, complemented by concrete examples of how she put these words into practice, was a powerful one that created a distinct impression on her audience. In the end, she left the attendees with a powerful message of what she had learned in her amazing story of being a woman CEO in an entirely new industry:
1. The way to remain a leader is to keep learning.
2. Once you’ve figured something out, there will always be something else to figure out. So stay positive and keep your energy up.
3. Challenge the norms. There is always a faster, cheaper, more effective way to do it.

Through Ms. Dominguez’ speech, the IBM personnel learned not only from her story of the impossible being possible, but from their own history as a company as well. As Ms. Dominguez said in her introductory speech, the funny thing about leadership is that there are no set rules. The little people learn from the big people and the big people, in turn, learn from the little people.

Yet, what was perhaps the most powerful lesson came at the end of her presentation, in one simple sentence. “Remember…” Ms. Dominguez stressed, “ELEPHANTS CAN DANCE!”

To view the materials, click on the link "ELEPHANTS CAN DANCE!"