If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes: The Nick Donofrio Story

by Nick Donofrio, Michael DeMarco

Guiseppe D’Onofrio emigrated to America in 1904, becoming a hatmaker in Beacon, New York’s Italian ghetto. His third son, Nicholas Joseph Donofrio, served as an aircraft mechanic in World War II, returning home to become a guard at a hospital for the criminally insane.

Nicholas’s son, Nick Donofrio , grew up to lead IBM as Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology.

If Nothing Changes, Nothing Changes is a powerful testimony to our ability as human beings to drive transformation, not just within the realm of technology but across generations. With both heart and candor, Donofrio explains how he led IBM’s global technical team to embrace a market-centric focus—redefining innovation and sparking worldwide collaboration for a new Big Blue.

Featuring cameo interviews with luminaries like Sam Palmisano, Jon Rubinstein, Lisa Su, Bernard Charles, Linda Sanford, Vic Reis, and Paul Horn, this one-of-a-kind autobiography will change everything you think you know about what it means to forge the cutting edge of technology.

Genres: Business

498 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 31, 2022

About the author

I joined IBM just as it ascended to market leadership with its iconic System/360 Mainframe. I would go on to lead IBM's technical community into the twenty-first century and be named one of Business Week's 25 Top Innovation Champions. Sharing my life story along with the lessons that shaped my career, I offer a shining message of hope from a life well lived—that every day brings new opportunities to change our path for the better.

Reviews

[Jose E. Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book!

Nick takes his readers through many personal examples supporting his view that technical leaders must think broadly as well as technically to be catalysts for innovation that benefits not only corporations, but society as well. This book is a great read of both historical significance as well as forward thinking ideas. I consider myself blessed to have had the opportunity to know and work with Nick at IBM.

[Bill Bitner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me like even more the things that I liked about Nick Donofrio. But it also made me dislike the things he did that upset me even more. So maybe it's a wash. I greatly enjoyed some of the history and behind the scenes discussions, but was hoping for more self-awareness. For example, he throws in how he made lots of mistakes, but then really only describes the one from his early tenure while in Burlington.
While during the time I found it horrific that he got death threats for the massive layoffs he helped push, his description of that period seemed harsh and in later sections he seemed to heap praise on how it was so much better for people (ignoring that it was only better for the people who didn't feel betrayed by a company that many had poured their lives into).
This would be a fantastic book for Blinkist as 444 pages was at least 100 pages more than it needed to be.

[Mike Steinharter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun romp through aspects of IBM history for those interested and many lessons on technology and life from one of my favorites at IBM.

[Madalene · Rating 3 out of 5]

My guess is it’s a story more enjoyed by someone more interested in IBM.