Influential People: Virg Meredith

Within IBM, if you've been involved with VM performance in any way, you probably have worked with Virg Meredith. He was one of the technical leaders when I started in 1985. His office is where anyone who got stuck on a problem usually ended up going. The bonus was that almost every answer came with a story. "Well, let me tell you...", he would often start out.

Besides understanding performance, I learned a number of other things from Virg, some of them associated with interesting quips:

• Something always changes. Virg tells of a group that came to him claiming that they ran a program and it ran very fast. They did not change anything, and ran it a second time. This time performance was poor. Virg asked them, "If you didn't change anything, why did you run it again?"
• "The right answer to the wrong question, is still the wrong answer."
• I'm not sure if it's because Virg is from the 'show me' state or not, but he prefers real data over hearing what people think the numbers were. Getting real data is worth dozens of conference calls.
• When there were meetings with executives, Virg always invited the team that helped collect the data and set up the environment. He knew it was a team.
• He spent as much time helping others with their careers as he did with his own.

There are a ton of Virgisms. One of the current team members is collecting them.

A fellow performance team member would refer to Virg as the Velvet Steamroller. Virg never hurt anyone, didn't raise his voice; but he was going to let you know where things stood. He'd leave an impression on you, but not leave any marks. Virg is very soft spoken, so much that on conference calls, we sometimes give him a mic of his own. In ways, its interesting. People will be talking over one another, but then Virg will start talking. Everyone has to quiet down in order to hear.

Now, the quiet doesn't mean Virg doesn't have some competitive spirit in him. I played softball with him for a couple of years, so I know. I remember one game where he had a very nice hit. The kind that makes you think right away, easy double, maybe a triple. There had been a man on first who watched a little too long before running. As the base runner passed second, Virg was right on his heels, urging him onwards, knowing he couldn't pass him. I honestly don't remember how the play ended, but I remember laughing at the scene.

The Tree

When I turned 25, Virg informed me that he owned a softball glove older than me. He still plays, but I've long since stopped. That same year Virg was added to the IBM Quarter Century Club. As is the custom, many of us wrote congratulatory letters. I can't find my copy of the letter I wrote him now, but I remember writing in it about how having him around gave me great confidence and assurance. I told him of a large evergreen tree next to my parents house. You could see the tree from up the street. I knew whenever I saw the tree, that I was home; and it would be ok.

That tree is still there, and Virg still sits down the hall, doing VM performance. And when we go to work and see the light on in his office, we know everything will be ok.