真正优秀的首席执行官少之又少，因为很少有人能够充分调动左右脑不同的智慧。大多数人都没有做到这一点。我们要么是大量运用左脑，遵循理智行事，富有逻辑性和分析性；要么高度依赖右脑，富于想象力、凭借情感和直觉，不愿和数字打交道。后者在当今社会更加少见。很明显，运营一家规模庞大的公司需要左右脑同时开动。最出色的商业领袖在这两方面都极为擅长，其中就包括IBM公司高管彭明盛。他担任了近十年的首席执行官，即将在今年年底引退。彭明顺堪称比商界的米奇•曼托（美国职业棒球球员明星，特点是左右手都能击球——译注）。沃伦•巴菲特最近宣布他买入了价值107亿美元的IBM股票，无异于商界对彭明顺的业绩终极认可。他说，彭明盛“贡献巨大”。

    涉及到管理，大脑的两个半球分别代表着财务和人员两方面的智慧。大多数经理人能在其中一方面表现出色就已经相当难得了。

    然而，彭明盛在两方面的表现都极为出色。在财务这方面，他深刻理解到底是什么因素能让一家公司真正具有价值。关于这一点，我很遗憾地说，相当多首席执行官都不懂。愚蠢的人会做一些无知的事情，比如为了增加每股收益而在收购方面耗费过多。彭明盛却知道这一切都与资本有关。他将资本从低收益业务中撤出，转投到高收益业务中。举例而言，他将IBM公司的硬盘驱动器业务剥离给日立公司（Hitachi），并签订了购买日立驱动器的五年协议。意识到驱动器逐渐成为有用的商品后，他决定买入这种商品而非卖出。他还收购了约100家公司，大多数都是拥有很高的资本回报率的小型软件及服务公司。此外，他还压缩了营运资本，这种策略看似平常，却能得到丰厚的回报。

    IBM公司的资本收益率从彭明盛刚刚任职时的4.7%上升到了如今的15.1%，这对于IBM这种大规模企业（2011年预期收益1,070亿美元）来说是一个惊人的成果。利率下降的同时，公司实力不断壮大，资金成本也有所下降，因此资本收益和成本之间的差距也进一步扩大（数据来源于EVA Dimensions咨询顾问公司）。IBM公司股价比2002年彭明盛刚刚就任时上涨了82%，甚至高于它在互联网泡沫最高峰时期的股价。

    Really good CEOs are rare partly because they use all of their brains. Most people don't. We carry around either massive left brains -- logical, analytical, not very touchy-feely -- or, more rarely in today's world, we rely on big right brains -- imaginative, feeling, intuitive, uncomfortable with algebra. Running a giant company obviously demands both, and the best business leaders can bat from either side of the plate. That group includes IBM chief Sam Palmisano who's stepping down at year-end after nearly a decade as CEO, looking like a business Mickey Mantle. The business world's ultimate endorser, Warren Buffett, announced recently he'd bought $10.7 billion of IBM stock, saying Palmisano has "delivered bigtime."

    In management the brain's two halves are the financial side and the human side. Most managers, if they're lucky, are really good with one or the other.

    Palmisano was excellent with both. On the financial side, he understood what actually makes a company valuable, which I regret to report many CEOs do not. The clueless ones do dumb things like pay too much for acquisitions in an effort to plump earnings per share. Palmisano understood that it's all about capital. He took capital out of businesses with poor returns and put it into businesses with high returns. For example, he offloaded IBM's disk drive business to Hitachi (HIT) and then made a five-year deal to buy Hitachi drives; realizing that drives were becoming a commodity, he decided he'd rather be buying them than selling them. He also bought about 100 companies, mostly small ones in the high-return-on-capital businesses of software and services. He squeezed working capital, an unglamorous tactic that pays handsomely.

    As a result, IBM's return on capital has increased from 4.7% when Palmisano got the job to 15.1% today, a tremendous achievement for a company of IBM's size (estimated 2011 revenue: $107 billion). And as the company grew stronger while interest rates declined, IBM's cost of capital fell, so the all-important spread between capital's return and cost widened (data from EVA Dimensions). That's a big reason IBM's (IBM) stock is 82% higher than it was when Palmisano took over in 2002 -- higher even than its bubble-market peak.