Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM
Praise for THE MAVERICK AND HIS MACHINE\ "Like all great biographers, Kevin Maney gives us an engaging story and so much more. His fascinating and definitive book about IBM’s founder is replete with amazing revelations and character lessons that resonate today. Among the gems: how a demanding curmudgeon managed to shape a collaborative corporate cultureand create a legacy that changed the world."\ Rosabeth Moss Kanter Harvard Business School, bestselling author of Evolve!\ and When Giants...
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"At just the right moment when we most need it, Maney brings us a penetrating picture of one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, a man whose life teaches us about resiliency–individual and institutional–and much about what we need to recreate greatness in our own future."–From the Foreword by Jim CollinsIBM is one of the most successful companies in American history; it ushered in the Information Age and dominated the information industry for more than seventy years. Yet the builder of IBM has never been thoroughly examined and brought to life. Now, award-winning journalist Kevin Maney, using thousands of documents never before made public, reveals the lasting achievement of the man who forever changed the world of business.Watson was the rare businessman who transcended business. His fame and power echoes that of Microsoft’s Bill Gates today and Standard Oil’s John D. Rockefeller in an earlier age. Watson, in fact, created the role of the celebrity CEO. On a grander scale, Watson invented the modern concept of the corporate culture, and proved its power to make a company great.Watson’s story plays out on a global stage, intersecting with the major events and people of his time. A business failure as a young man, he rocketed to the top levels of National Cash Register before a federal antitrust trial nearly brought down NCR and seemingly crushed his career. The moment forever shaped Watson’s business sensibilities and drove him to reinvent the American corporation. In 1914, he took charge of a struggling little entity called the Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company, infused it with his values, his competitive drive, and his personality quirks, and transformed it into International Business Machines–IBM.Over and over, Watson made daring bets and won, each time vaulting IBM to a new level of size and power. In the 1920s, when information wasn’t obviously going to become a big industry, he bet IBM’s future on tabulating machines–the mechanical forerunners to computers. In the Depression of the 1930s, Watson pumped money into R&D and kept factories running while most companies slashed budgets and jobs. When Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal created massive information demands, IBM was ready to fill them. The company’s growth exploded, and Watson became the highest-paid American.In his later years, Watson’s life took a Shakespearean turn. He struggled with his son for power, and stayed on at IBM into his eighties, endangering the empire he’d built. He became entangled in controversy by accepting a medal from Nazi Germany, a mistake that haunts his legacy today. In the late 1940s, Watson and Thomas Watson, Jr. guided IBM through the torturous transition from mechanical technology to electronic computers.With exceptional detail that takes the reader inside business meetings in Watson’s office and into his relationships with presidents, business leaders, employees, and family members, Maney tracks Watson’s rise from obscure cash register salesman to household name. Maney examines the profound impact Watson had on modern companies, the business lessons learned, and the personal motivations that spurred Watson’s frantic energy and inexhaustible drive for success. The Maverick and His Machine for the first time reveals the true character of the man whose visionary leadership laid the foundation for the computer revolution. Publishers Weekly The story of Watson's transformation of the disorganized, amorphous Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company into streamlined, world-famous IBM receives a spirited telling by Maney, a USA Today technology columnist. Access to previously unexplored records has provided juicy raw material, including letters and internal memos, to bring America's first celebrity CEO to life in this warts-and-all biography. Watson (1874- 1956) saw the strategic value of corporate culture early and was protective of what he built; Maney argues that the strength of that culture later allowed IBM to survive the potentially devastating effects of Watson's personality flaws. Charismatic, optimistic and generous, Watson was also self-absorbed and psychologically ruthless in getting things done his way. Hard to work for and unable to distinguish between the company and himself, he also behaved like a dictatorial CEO and wreaked havoc with his family. Watson's mania for overreaching peaked when he accepted a decoration from Hitler in 1937 under the deluded impression that Hitler would follow Watson's campaign for world peace through world trade; according to Maney, that episode illustrates how out-of-control Watson's ego had grown. Yet, as Maney makes clear in this timely tale of the man who made information into an industry and discovered the power of corporate culture, Watson wasn't just the best business story at the end of the 1930s; he had become a great American success story that captured the popular imagination. Agent, Sandy Dijkstra. (May)Forecast: Maney's book should hold great appeal not only for avid business readers but also for devotees of the vicissitudes of financial dynasties. That appeal will be supported by a 75,000-copy first printing and a $100,000 ad/promo budget. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
ForewordxiiiIntroductionxviiProloguexxiChapter 1Maverick Kindling1Chapter 2Lit by Flint37Chapter 3A Mess Spelled C-T-R59Chapter 4Bringing Up Baby IBM91Chapter 5Daring and Luck127Chapter 6Friends, Heroes, Sycophants161Chapter 7Enemies and Delusions199Chapter 8King and Castle225Chapter 9Watson the Second259Chapter 10Watson's War291Chapter 11Old Man, New Electronic Age327Chapter 12World Conquest367Chapter 13The Maverick and His Humanity405Chapter 14Generations After433Selected Bibliography447Notes449Index469
\ Publishers WeeklyThe story of Watson's transformation of the disorganized, amorphous Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company into streamlined, world-famous IBM receives a spirited telling by Maney, a USA Today technology columnist. Access to previously unexplored records has provided juicy raw material, including letters and internal memos, to bring America's first celebrity CEO to life in this warts-and-all biography. Watson (1874- 1956) saw the strategic value of corporate culture early and was protective of what he built; Maney argues that the strength of that culture later allowed IBM to survive the potentially devastating effects of Watson's personality flaws. Charismatic, optimistic and generous, Watson was also self-absorbed and psychologically ruthless in getting things done his way. Hard to work for and unable to distinguish between the company and himself, he also behaved like a dictatorial CEO and wreaked havoc with his family. Watson's mania for overreaching peaked when he accepted a decoration from Hitler in 1937 under the deluded impression that Hitler would follow Watson's campaign for world peace through world trade; according to Maney, that episode illustrates how out-of-control Watson's ego had grown. Yet, as Maney makes clear in this timely tale of the man who made information into an industry and discovered the power of corporate culture, Watson wasn't just the best business story at the end of the 1930s; he had become a great American success story that captured the popular imagination. Agent, Sandy Dijkstra. (May)Forecast: Maney's book should hold great appeal not only for avid business readers but also for devotees of the vicissitudes of financial dynasties. That appeal will be supported by a 75,000-copy first printing and a $100,000 ad/promo budget. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalManey, a USA Today technology columnist, has written a superb biography of Thomas Watson Sr., who took over the small Computer-Tabulating-Recording (C-T-R) Company in 1914 and fashioned it into the giant corporation we know today as International Business Machines (IBM). Watson had come to prominence for his work at National Cash Register (NCR), but, owing to his involvement in a federal antitrust case, was forced out of his job. This might have destroyed a lesser man, but not Watson, who quickly moved on to C-T-R. A lifelong salesman, Watson always paid close attention to his company's customers, but he also felt that employees were equally important, offering high wages and good benefits. Although his management style was often regarded as imperious, he is credited with founding IBM's famous corporate culture, which enabled the company to succeed. As he aged, he became increasingly stubborn and brooked no dissent, which led to some terrible misjudgments, most notably his involvement with IBM's German subsidiary and receipt of a medal from Nazi Germany. But his successes far outweighed his failures, and Maney has done a splendid job of getting inside his subject and bringing the enigmatic Watson and his contributions richly to life. Highly recommended for biographical and business collections.-Richard Drezen, Washington Post News Research, New York Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \
