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The Maverick and His Machine
At age 40, Watson was thrown a curve ball that, like that first sentence says, nearly ruined him. In fact, it sent him so low that this shaped his character more than anything that had happened to him earlier in his lifetime. It sent him to the lower depths and resulted in him being given the reigns of an equally down-in-the dumps loser business just to get rid of him. He was banished to a corporate Siberia. He was considered a loser, and given a loser's position in a loser's business.
It's at this point that he reshaped and remade that company into what is today known as IBM. The blue suits and white shirts that were the uniform of IBM men became so because he wore one every day. There was no written rule that employees had to wear them; they did it because he did it. That says something: he led by example and his employees admired him.
Just as an aside, it seems that Watson's big thing was that things didn't happen (or went wrong) because people didn't think hard enough. To encourage employees to think he had big "THINK" signs put all over the company. This evolved into "Think" buttons, and employees were even allowed and encouraged to kick back and think. Eventually, small notepads were emblazoned with "Think" and they were called "Thinkpads." Hence, the name of the laptop.
THINK, by the way, is the reason that the company created so many technological innovations.
Now, just because Watson started IBM and largely shaped it into one of the most successful companies in the world doesn't mean he was a saint. Some of the most interesting parts of the book have to do with his home life and how he treated his wife and kids. It seems that he was somewhat of a manipulator who knew how to shape people by breaking them and remaking them.
One story about his son (who would later become CEO of the company) shows Watson's mean streak. It seems that, early in the younger Watson's career, after dinner together at home, the elder asked him what his impression was of one of his executives.
The younger Watson dutifully answered, seeking to impress his father with his skill at observing people. The elder paused and then berated the young man for daring to form an opinion about a seasoned executive who had years of experience behind him. Who did the young man think he was to judge someone who had been in the business since before he was born?
While this isn't the stuff of Ward Cleaver, Watson was, all the same, a courageous and enterprising individual who took risks and (most of the time) succeeded. Especially engrossing is the episode during the depression when IBM was in danger of bankruptcy and shutting its doors. Watson, contrary to what most intelligent people would do, gave a rousing talk to his top executives, telling them that instead of cutting back on manufacturing and personnel, they should increase both.
Luckily (for Watson), a few months later, Pearl Harbor happened and, with the sharp increase in troops, materials and logistics, the U.S. government needed "calculating machines" and needed them fast. While major competitors like NCR and Burroughs had to ramp up production to meet demand, IBM, with its ready stockpile of machines won the contract and delivered, saving them from possible bankruptcy.
There is a lot more I could say about the book but because I don't want to spoil anything, I won't go into it here. However, if you're a Big Blue fan (and I am), you might want to follow up this read with Lou Gerstner, Jr.'s book, Who Says Elephants Can't Dance. It's a great read about how, for the second time in its history, the company was saved from becoming history.
You can purchase The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The grandfather of 'business with a baseball bat' was NCR. IBM was the best practitioner of this until Microsoft took over the crown in the 1990's.
IIRC Thomas Watson learnt his art at NCR, where the ability to smash a rival's machines was one of the job requirements for an ambitious cash register salesman. These days, I'd guess that translates into being able to produce VR TCO studies proving that Windows is cheaper.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
I find it very funny that slashdotters are so in love with the company that only 20 years ago was the evil empire. If in 10 years Microsoft does a turn around and starts supporting Linux will we all forget the evils of the past? But then again I am sure many slashdotters are smokers and there is no more evil empire then Big Tobacco.
Why would a geek care? Because IBM, its technological breakthroughs and Watson are very much the foundation of commercial technology as we know it today.
A true geek doesn't necessarily care much about IBM. IBM is a lot more relevant to suits. In fact, IBM redefines the concept of "corporate culture" and "standardized outfit". They also embody the culture of centralized computing (or at least used to) and the company used to be seen as a "benevolent dictator", with its policy of renting computers instead of selling them.
All these things are quite opposite to the world of geeks. Of course, curious and open-minded geeks read about everything, and therefore should read this book as well.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Because heaven knows one could never have an interesting book about a "dead white man".
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
I get the impression White is included because it supports being boring.
I fail to see how the White race is somehow inherently boring. If you consider conquering 80% of the planet and creating the greatest technological creations the human race has ever seen boring. I guess living in corrugated metal shacks in mexico, india, africa and china is exciting.
Poor boring dead White man, never knew what he was missing.
For another take on the origins of IBM, read IBM And The Holocaust by Edwin Black. While I think it's true that any company could have been in IBM's place in WWII, I don't think we should ignore the fact that IBM played both sides.
yeah take out the two words that makes your comment rediculous and stupid. the real quote reads:
"Luckily (for Watson), a few months later, Pearl Harbor happened..."
now its not anti american, its just cashing in on the american love of war. which anyone who is anyone is doing these days.
also you'll note i know how to close my italics tags.
While a "true geek" may not care about the history of IBM management, there are many interesting things that have been produced by IBM's scientists and engineers. Many of the neat features in today's microprocessors can be seen in IBM 360/370 series mainframes from the 1960s and 1970s. Today's microprocessors have yet to catch up with the reliability, availability and maintenance features of IBM's large systems. Anyone who is interested in computer architecture can learn a lot from studying the technical history of IBM.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
If Microsoft did a turnaround and started supporting Linux, becoming part of the solution rather than the 800 pound gorilla of a problem then you're damned right I'd do business with them. You're a fool if you refuse to do business with a company because of what it did 20 years ago, provided that company has changed.
Especially engrossing is the episode during the depression when IBM was in danger of bankruptcy and shutting its doors. Watson, contrary to what most intelligent people would do, gave a rousing talk to his top executives, telling them that instead of cutting back on manufacturing and personnel, they should increase both.
Interesting. Even more interesting is this quote:
"No matter what the provocation, I never fire a man who is honestly trying to deliver a job. Few workers who become established at the Disney Studio ever leave voluntarily or otherwise, and many have been on the payroll all their working lives."
Guess who? Walt Disney.
These men built two of the most enduring companies in history, and neither of them endorsed mass layoffs. Coincidence? Guess not.
Will current middle management learn from this? Probably not. They're too "sophisticated" for that.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
It doesn't take a long memory to recall the days when Apple went head-to-head with IBM for the desktop marketplace.
Just 20 years after the Superbowl ad where Big Blue was smashed by the Apple girl, the top-of-the-line PowerMac G5 sports an IBM-manufactured 64-bit processor.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The WW II connection is that IBM turned over its manufacturing plants to the government to make war materiel at a 1% profit. Carbines, gun sights, small cannons, other things, were all made in IBM's plants in Poughkeepsie, Endicott, and elsehwere.
Not just IBM, either. You'll find M1s made by fGM and Rockola, as well.
Mechanical computers (which is what much of the mechanism of a gun, distributor, carburator, or jukebox of the era actually is), and the products that make them, are also very flexible - even if the actual products aren't easily field-reprogrammable.
GM, for instance, made M1s at Saginaw Steering Gear. (Seems the machine for drilling a hole down the center of the steering shaft for the horn wire is REALLY good at making rifle barrels. B-) )
The same tools that beat swords into plowshares can beat plowshares into swords.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
While that may be grammatically correct, if you tell someone that you're going to "Pearl Harbor" them, the sneakiness of the attack is thus voided, so your sentence is not a semantically correct English sentence.
Oh, and Perl Harbor was a joke. Perhaps IHBT? Either way, I plan to HAND.
True story.
In desperation, the board brought in Lou G., who had no previous experience in IT, to take the helm. Lou remade the company, in particular, making it more customer focused. Employees were so scared of the company dying, that they pretty much went along with his plans. The IBM of today really is a transformed company from the IBM prior to Lou's remake.