On the road in Westchester County, New York...

IBM

Back in 1987, when I tried to visit IBM, the company told me NOT to come by its headquarters in Armonk, New York. This was back in the old BIG BLUE days. When I showed up anyway, unfriendly security guards turned me away but not before I was verbally chewed out for daring to visit in spite of the company’s non-welcome.

How the mighty have softened...it’s now late April, 1993. The company’s recent troubles have included huge losses, and thousands of laid-off employees. Louis Gerstner, an IBM outsider, was named CEO last month.

Armonk, in Westchester County, is a heavily-wooded area of rolling hills, lakes and large estates. IBM’s street address is simply: Old Orchard Road. I stop at a convenience store several miles from IBM’s headquarters and ask the two store clerks (both in their 20’s) to please give me directions to IBM. I’m out of luck. Neither one of them knows where it is! Consider how unbelievable this is. Armonk is a small town—about 5,000 people—and it’s home to one of the world’s largest corporations (1992 revenues $65 billion; net income $-5 billion.) The company’s been here for over 30 years and these two clerks have lived in the area several years. Yet they still have no clue where IBM is located?! Talk about keeping a low profile.

I do manage to find headquarters. I ride my bike up a long steep hill to IBM’s guard shack. It’s about a quarter of a mile from the main road. From the guard shack, you can’t even see IBM’s headquarters. I explain to the guard who I am and ask him to call CEO Gerstner’s secretary for the name of my contact person. No dice. He tells me I have to find a pay phone and do my own calling.

"Where’s the nearest pay phone?" I ask, already suspecting the answer. "Follow this hill down into town and you’ll see a Texaco station," the guard answers. Sigh.

From the Texaco gas station I call IBM and so begins my TWO HOUR vigil at the Texaco pay phone. Yes, Gerstner’s office received my advance materials but, no, I can’t step on IBM’s grounds until I get clearance from IBM security.

Now it gets pretty comical. For the next two hours, at approximately 15 minute intervals, the phone rings at the gas station for me. Each time it’s a different person from IBM’s security department. Each one of them explains how my clearance has to be approved from someone higher up.

I’ve read stories about IBM’s layers upon layers of management; now I know what that means. These guys probably have meetings to decide about meetings.

Finally the call approving my visit comes through. It instructs me to proceed up the steep hill to the guard gate, again. Of course no one has bothered to tell the guard at the guard gate of my new approved status so I have to wait again for the guard and security to exchange a flurry of phone calls. I’m beginning to wonder how anything gets done at this company.

My ride past the gate, up the driveway to IBM headquarters is very scenic. The hilly 434-acre site used to be an apple and cherry orchard—hence the name Old Orchard Road.

As I pass a big parking lot, I notice a yellow sign which reads: "Rental Car Returns." Wow, IBM has its own on-site rental car return area, just like an airport.

Janet Carnegie, Manager: International Media Relations, gives me a warm reception when she meets me in IBM’s new atrium reception area. This atrium connects to the 417,000 square-foot main building, built in 1962 and designed by architect I.M. Pei.

Carnegie walks me around the place, and the more I see, the more I’m disappointed. First of all, I just wasn’t expecting to see orange carpeting everywhere. Also, all the escalators give the place an anachronistic, out-of-date look.

The well-kept grounds, however, are beautiful. They contain jogging trails, four tennis courts, softball fields and a helipad. Employees frequently see deer and coyotes wandering about.

I don’t get to see Gerstner’s corner office but that doesn’t surprise me. After all, he’s been on the job less than a month.

Oh, and one more thing. IBM has always been famous for its staid dress code. And it’s true—all the men look alike in their suits with white shirts. Then there’s me. I’m wearing bike shorts, my Bloomberg T-shirt and loafers without socks. I volunteer to change into long pants before my tour but Carnegie tells me it isn’t necessary. As I walked down IBM’s hallways, everyone stares at me. Maybe I will play a small part in Gerstner’s plans to change

things at IBM. (For more information: IBM)

NYNEX Corporation

About 10 minutes from downtown White Plains, population 50,000, I find the corporate offices of NYNEX—a former Bell phone company (revenues in 1992 $13.2 billion)

My first impression of NYNEX is security guards, lots and lots of security guards. There are guards in the lobby, guards in the parking lot, guards near the front doors, guards next to the elevators, and probably others I missed.

Maureen Flanagan, Director: National Media Relations, meets me in the lobby. Before we leave for a tour, I check the pay phones off to the side to see if they’re NYNEX phones. Yep.

About 800 employees work here. The company has a cafeteria but no executive dining rooms. Next to the cafeteria the company provides a state-of-the-art fitness center called the "Shape Shop."

NYNEX has an extensive art collection scattered throughout the building. Painted aluminum screens of people’s faces by Kathleen McCarthy is the most unusual. The boardroom contains several cast bronze sculptures including "Orator" by Byran Hunt and "Where Clouds Are Born" by Jeffrey Maron. (For more information: NYN).

International Paper Company

I visited International Paper Company (1992 revenues $13.6 billion) back in 1987 and got the brush-off. Well, since IBM and NYNEX treated me much more graciously this year than six years ago, I’m hoping International Paper has mellowed too.

Corporate offices are in a four-story, blue glass building in an office park in Purchase, New York. The unfriendly receptionist tells me everyone’s out to lunch. I tell her it’s no problem, I don’t mind waiting, and I take a seat in the lobby.

Well after I wait an hour and a half I start to get restless. I mean how many times can you thumb through "Pulp & Paper" and "Paper Age," the only two publications on the coffee table? The receptionist tells me to come back another time. I explain that a guy on a bike can’t just come back "some other time" but she’s not sympathetic.

Finally, a man walks in, doesn’t introduce himself, hands me a card with a name and number on it, and tells me: "Call this person for an appointment, he’s not available today." As he turns to walk away, I ask him his name and, without even turning his head around, he tells me "John Flynn." Then he walks out the door. Later I look up his name in the company’s annual report: John Flynn, Staff Vice President & Director of Human Resources. Inhuman resources more like. (For more information: IP )

Westchester County Airport

A few miles from White Plains I ride by a small regional airport. For such a small airport it has surprisingly extensive passenger jet service to far away places. The terminal’s pretty unique. It consists of two 50 year-old quonset huts stuck together.

Some very big corporate names have hangers and corporate jets based here. Here’s just a partial list: Champion International, Olin, General Signal, Xerox, IBM, Reader’s Digest, Amax, Unilever, Cheesebrough-Pond’s, PepsiCo, Phillip Morris, Union Carbide, Loral and Texaco.