Linda S. Sanford

Former senior vice president, Enterprise Transformation, IBM

• Born: 1953
• Place of Birth: Laurel, New York

Primary Company/Organization: IBM

Introduction

Linda Szabat Sanford was a senior vice president at IBM until her retirement in 2014, making her one of the highest-ranking women in the company. She spent her entire professional career at IBM and led the company's internal transformation to becoming a globally integrated enterprise organized around the on-demand principle. As an extremely visible and successful woman who achieved success at the highest levels of technology and business management, she has received many honors and has served on numerous boards, including the board of directors of the Partnership for New York City, a membership organization of top corporate leadership dedicated to enhancing the city's position as a center of finance, commerce, and innovation.

Early Life

Linda Sanford grew up the oldest of five girls on her family's potato farm on New York's Long Island. She credits her early experience growing and marketing produce with fostering her interest in math and science, as well as her taste for hard work. Sanford has said that her daily chores and the example set by her parents helped her acquire the self-discipline and problem-solving skills on which she relied throughout her career. All five girls did well in science and mathematics and later chose to pursue those fields; Sanford says that her parents encouraged their children to pursue higher education. Initially she intended to teach mathematics after obtaining her degree, but after reading a book on the application of operations research in the business world, she knew that field would be a great fit for her background. Sanford earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics from St. John's University in Queens, New York City, and in 1975 a master's in operations research from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Life's Work

Linda S. Sanford began working for IBM in 1975 as an engineer in the typewriter division. The job was in Lexington, Kentucky, where she did simulation modeling of the work performed by typists and used that information to develop new features for IBM typewriters. After about one year, she moved on to her next position, working in development for copiers and printers, at the company branch in Boulder, Colorado. She remained in Boulder for ten years before moving to New York, where she became an executive assistant to company chairman John Akers.

In 1998, Sanford became chief of IBM's sales force, a change from her previous work in product development, and also a groundbreaking role because sales was then considered primarily a male domain. The sales force at that time generated about 70 percent of IBM's annual revenue and included about seventeen thousand employees. In 2000, she became a Senior vice president of “enterprise transformation,” and in January 2003 became senior vice president of “enterprise on-demand transformation”; in the latter position, she led the effort to change the way the company was organized, moving from a vertical structure to one connected horizontally and to a customer-driven company that can respond quickly to changes in consumer demand. In 2006, Sanford, along with entrepreneur Dave Taylor, coauthored Let Go to Grow: Escaping the Commodity Trap, a book detailing IBM's transformation to an on-demand culture with suggestions for how other businesses could help their companies adjust to the modern world of commerce.

Sanford described IBM's transition to an on-demand organization as a gradual process involving all aspects of the company's functioning; the transformation was estimated to require ten years and cost about $10 billion. She noted that the transformation would save IBM money in terms of greater productivity and efficiency and said that the company saved about $5.6 billion in one year alone (2002) through implementation of an integrated supply chain system. She also noted that the on-demand structure was intended to serve IBM's customers better, in particular that increased collaboration within the company would help to produce a more integrated line of products that could deliver the service a customer required without the customer's having to be particularly knowledgeable about computers and technology or even about the specific IBM products—customers wanted solutions, and they wanted IBM to provide them with a system so the customer could concentrate on their core business.

While at IBM, Sanford proved that she could function in both technical and sales environments. She was also an active participant in IBM's extensive mentoring program and notes that her career benefited from her work with powerful mentors when she was coming up in the company. Sanford was an executive assistant for former IBM president Jack Kuehler early in her career and credits him with encouraging her to develop her skills. She also worked with senior vice president Nick Donofrio and former chief executive officer Louis V. Gerstner Jr., both of whom she credits with helping develop her career. She also served as a mentor to younger employees within the company, including Martha Morris, Charles Lickel, and Joan Buzzallino. Sanford has been a strong proponent of encouraging girls and women to study mathematics and pursue technical professions. In December 2014, she retired from her position as a senior vice president at IBM.

Sanford has received many honors for her work at IBM. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a member of the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. Fortune magazine named her one of the 50 Most Influential Women in Business, Working Woman magazine named her one of the 10 Most Influential Women in Technology, Pink magazine named her one of the Top 15 Women in Business, and Information Week magazine named her one of the Top Ten Innovators in the technology industry. Sanford has served on the board of trustees for the State University of New York and the boards of directors for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, St. John's University, and the Partnership for New York City. She was named a nonexecutive member of the supervisory board of Reed Elsevier NV in July 2012. Sanford began serving on the board of directors of the advertising company Interpublic Group in 2019.

Personal Life

Sanford is divorced from James L. Sanford, a retired IBM engineer; they have two adult children, Cathi and William. When her children were younger, Sanford coached basketball and organized games. Today she mentors young women who seek careers in science and mathematics.

Bibliography

Ensher, Ellen A., and Susan Elaine Murphy. Power Mentoring: How Successful Mentors and Protégés Get the Most Out of Their Relationships. Hoboken: Jossey-Bass, 2005. Print.

"Linda Sanford." Interpublic Group, 2024, www.interpublic.com/leadership/linda-sanford/. Accessed 8 Mar. 2024.

Mohr, Jakki J., Sanjit Sengupta, and Stanley Slater. Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 2009. Print.

Sanford, Linda S., and Dave Taylor. Let Go to Grow: Escaping the Commodity Trap. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2006. Print.

Schermerhorn, John R. Jr. Exploring Management. 2nd ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010. Print.

Taft, Darryl K. “Reinventing a Company.” eWeek 21.13 (2004): 20. Print.