Moffat's managers have not only a strategy, but also what Moffat calls a "playbook" -- a binder that details the steps for executing the strategy. Of a recent meeting that he called to review progress on outside partnerships, Moffat said, "Did I need to listen to what was said at the meeting? Not really. I was forcing people to do what they promised."

At the same time, Moffat strongly believes in thinking beyond the horizon to what might happen next. And he also believes that kind of thinking is everyone's job, not just his. Hence the brainstorming session on what to do if the PC business consolidates in a particular direction. Moffat's group designs and sells personal computers -- just like Dell, the market leader, does. But Moffat says that it is critical to his success to understand the differences there too. "Michael Dell and I look at the business differently," he says. "Dell is in the PC business. IBM is not in the PC business. We must fit the PC business into the strategy of the larger IBM."

PCs are something that IBM must offer business customers who are buying a full suite of services and who don't want, in the end, to have to shop elsewhere for hardware. In developing markets -- China, India -- the IBM nameplate is a way of establishing credibility until the markets mature in the direction of IBM's more-profitable services.

Moffat appreciates the depth and gravity of IBM's experience -- he has put 23 years in, and he's only 45 -- but he also appreciates just as vividly the limits and pitfalls of the established IBM worldview. When he took over as head of the PC division in July 2000, Moffat quickly formed a team to answer the question, Why is IBM in the PC business? That was the Blue Team -- it had upwards of 20 people with decades of experience in the PC business.

Then, inspired by his reverse mentor, Inhi Cho, who had just graduated from Duke University in 1997, Moffat secretly formed a second team -- the Red Team -- to tackle the same question. The Red Team had only five members, none of whom had been at IBM for more than five years. Blue produced pragmatic but predictable results. Red produced two intriguing ideas that Moffat has quietly seeded back into the organization.

Finally, Moffat sees IBM's century of history not as an exercise in the company's inevitability, but as a continuing lesson in humility. On the unadorned walls of his office hang two laminated stories from the Wall Street Journal. One, from last winter, celebrates Moffat's first six months in charge: "IBM Turns Around Its PC Unit, Though Skeptics Still Call It a Drag." The other is from exactly three years earlier, just before the division commenced to lose $1.5 billion: "How IBM Turned Around Its Ailing PC Division."

"Before I took this job," says Moffat, "both Sam and Lou said to me, 'Look at the tombstones of your predecessors. Visit the graveyard.' "

Moffat is not afraid to visit -- but he is never whistling when he does.

Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com) is a Fast Company senior editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Contact Bob Moffat by email (moffat@us.ibm.com).

Sidebar: What's Fast

What does it take to help a sprawling company such as IBM step lively in the fast-moving, take-no-prisoners world of personal computing? Here are some Bob Moffat principles.

There's nothing wrong with a pinch of micromanagement. Moffat is a big-picture guy with a mastery of the details. He doesn't tell his subordinates how to do their jobs -- but he's never afraid to show how well he knows what's going on. Being able to ask pointed questions from deep inside someone's area builds accountability and reduces bluffing.

What do you think? "As smart as Bob is," says Ralph Martino, the personal-computing division's vice president of global marketing and strategy, "what I like is that he recognizes his weaknesses. Rather than being too proud to ask for help, he's the opposite. He's confident enough to augment his skills with those of others."

Morale Matters. Goals, milestones, and metrics are all vital. But nothing gets done with enthusiasm if people are dour about the future. When Moffat took over the PC division, he publicly promised his bosses profits. But he promised staff members in Raleigh, North Carolina something else: a beer party for all 5,000 of them. "People kept telling me that we couldn't have a beer party at IBM," Moffat says. "I just kept asking, Why can't we?" The result: a beer party in the quadrangle behind Moffat's building -- and a symbol of the boss's determination to change things in a way that everyone remembers.