THE EXECUTION DIFFERENCE
clients, and other service providers as if they were one inte grated business. Keeping abreast of the changes was a big challenge for even the best corporate IT department and a serious problem for companies with limited resources. Brown saw that EDS had the core competencies to serve these markets. These resources ranged from expertise in providing the most routine operational services at low cost to strategic consulting at the highest levels through its consulting firm, A.T. Kearney, acquired in 1995. Its people’s breadth and depth of technical expertise and experi ence in solving clients’ problems was a vast reserve of intellectual capital. One good thing about the EDS culture was a powerful can-do spirit. What one executive called “a belief we could do things for clients that seemed impos sible” was the legacy of founder Ross Perot. But EDS was trapped in its old structure and culture. Its forty-odd strategic business units (SBUs) were organized along industry lines, such as communications, consumer goods, and state health care. They divided the company into a confederation of fiefdoms, each with its own lead ers, agenda, staffs, and sometimes policies. These fief doms rarely worked together, and the new marketplace opportunities were falling between the stools. How would Brown apply the company’s intellectual capital to the new environment? EDS would need a new organizational structure, but first Brown had to change the culture to one of accountability and collaboration. Brown jumped out onto the playing field. First, he got to know the company intimately, traveling around the globe for three months, meeting people at all levels for mally and informally to talk and listen. In weekly e-mails that he sent to the whole organization, he not only told employees what he was thinking but also asked them to respond and make suggestions. 47