The Agenda - Fast Change

So Moss told her that he wanted a demo of a new product that would bridge mainframe and desktop environments. Then he gave her five days to complete it. She says that her jaw dropped. If working at IBM had often seemed like running an obstacle course -- trudging through bureaucracy, hopping over corporate initiatives -- then working at Tivoli would be a flat-out sprint. The demo ended up taking 10 days to complete. But only six months later, the product shipped. "That's what I mean when I tell people that Tivoli is focused," says Wilczak.

But life at Tivoli has represented more than a change of pace for most IBMers. Indeed, it has represented a whole new way of working. Leo Cole, 41, director of network management, knew about Tivoli before it joined IBM. He had been watching the company since 1992, and he couldn't help being impressed by -- and a little envious of -- its speed and innovation. Now he understands the roots of both. In his 16 years at IBM, Cole had worked with dozens of developers and executives, but he had rarely socialized with them. They knew one another as coworkers only, not as friends, and that unfamiliarity bred a certain formality. Cole just didn't feel comfortable speaking with honesty and candor. IBM resembled a big family that couldn't communicate; Tivoli, he discovered, is like one of those families that just let it all hang out.

"At Tivoli, you have a more open relationship with your peers -- even with the top executive team -- because you know them," says Cole. "If I feel that a Tivoli executive is wrong, I can say so. I probably had that freedom before, but because I didn't know that person, I didn't feel that I could say anything. Here, we're not only coworkers -- we're friends. It's very powerful when everybody has the same goal, when you really know your teammates, and when you trust them. We know who the real opponent is: It's the competition; it's not each other."

To IBM veteran (and headball champ) Mitch Medford, working for Tivoli means working for a software company instead of a hardware company. "IBM is one of the biggest software companies in the world," he says. "But we didn't know how to develop software in the same way that everyone else does." After the acquisition, he and his fellow IBMers received a crash course in that skill. Tivoli's leaders gave him a product, a budget, a deadline -- and total control. They also gave him the chance to develop software that involved fewer documents and more code than what he was used to. Typically, IBM developers had to go through a long review process before coding could begin. Medford prefers an approach called "iterative prototyping": Code a prototype, allow other programmers to "touch" it and critique it, and then revise, revise, revise. "It allows for a more natural evolution of software," he says.

Last year, Medford's team worked as many as 90 hours a week to get a new product out the door. Instinctively, Medford adopted what Tivolians call a "rock-star management" style: He bought his programmers dinner and brought in cots during late-night testing sessions. He gave each of their spouses a dozen red roses and a $200 gift certificate redeemable at a local mall. Sensing that his team members needed a break, he rented a theater and treated them to a private screening of Star Wars. And, of course, he not only let them play headball -- he learned how to play the game himself.

Another brainstorm of Medford's was to let members of his development team decide who should be awarded bonuses. He gave each of them money to distribute among his or her peers. In that way, the members were able to recognize the unsung heroes and to show their appreciation for one another. "A lot of my programmers say that they couldn't go back to traditional IBM practices," says Medford. He couldn't either. "Before Tivoli, I spent a lot of time navigating internal processes, fighting political conflicts, trying to get resources, playing games -- just to get the job done," he recalls. "It probably took 20 people's signatures to launch a product. When we launched Tivoli IT Director, two people signed off on it. That was all it took."

At the time of the acquisition, a lot of IBMers in Raleigh were a bit uneasy about their new colleagues. Tivoli's confidence came across as arrogance, and because Tivoli was in charge of the systems-management business, some IBMers feared layoffs. Ken Edwards, 42, then a product manager in Raleigh, was one such skeptic. Unlike Cole and Wilczak, he was surprised by the deal, and like other longtime IBMers, Edwards, a 19-year employee, wasn't sure where -- or whether -- he would fit in. "I'm the kind of person who tends to get into a regimented pattern and to stay there," he admits. "And IBM is the kind of place where you can easily get a little brainwashed about how you should act."