(FORTUNE Magazine) – BIG BLUE LANGUAGE Maybe Lou Gerstner of IBM has watched too many sneaker ads: The theme of his current stump speech echoes Nike's ''Just do it'' theme. Says Gerstner, 51: < ''IBM's problems are about a failure to out-implement our competitors. We've allowed them to get to the market ahead of us with technology and services that we either invented or conceived earlier than those competitors!'' A copy of the CEO's remarks has appeared in Think, an IBM internal magazine. They're followed by a plea for ''dreams with deadlines!'' And, one hopes, cash flow. Jazziness spreads as the company mag celebrates the rise of striped shirts. Further, IBM recently moved to name divisions after what they actually do. (''Enterprise'' is now called ''Large Scale Processors,'' which at least implies it sells computers instead of starships.) Now rumor has it that a logo change is in the hopper. Not so, says IBM. Shareholders may hope not. Replacing the current version, designed in 1962, on everything from signs to shipping cartons would cost millions.

. . . STILL CRUSTY While the Department of Transportation reviews Frank Lorenzo's bid to run an airline again, some of the ex-Continental chief's dough is tied up elsewhere. The fitness fanatic (who once made our Toughest Bosses list) has invested in a New York bread biz. ''The Nineties is the decade of bread,'' he was quoted as saying.

. . . CHEERIOS WAS TAKEN You have probably seen ads for Fingos, a new General Mills product. Since you're supposed to eat the cereal manually, the company probably thought the name was a cute play on fingers. Just as well there are no European export plans. In Hungarian, the name sounds like ''fart'' -- or worse.

. . .BIOTECH GOES BROKE Most companies in the industry -- 58% -- are holding less than two years' worth of cash. That's serious, because these ventures tend to burn money, and windows of equity financing open only every couple of years. The results, says a new Ernst & Young report, will be a continuing scramble for alliances, private placements, and arcane financing.