The Maverick and His Machine by Kevin Maney, Wiley, 拢20.95/$29.95, ISBN 0471414638 Reviewed by Barry Fox
WITH nice irony, Kevin Maney鈥檚 fresh look at a company that is in the business of eliminating paper comes from the discovery of 340 boxfiles of letters and meeting transcripts, all on paper. The result is an intriguing study of the man who made IBM, Thomas Watson. It also helped me to understand why I have always felt indefinably uncomfortable when putting anything less than sycophantic questions to IBM鈥檚 politely smiling closed ranks of PR people.
In the early 1900s Watson worked for the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. His job was to put NCR鈥檚 rivals, who traded in used NCR machines, out of business. Secretly backed by NCR, Watson bought used machines at high prices and sold them for less than their competitors. It could not last: Watson and 29 others were indicted in 1912 for antitrust violations. All but one were sentenced to a year in jail, and then appealed.
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By the time the appeal was heard and won in 1915, Watson had publicly arranged relief for a disastrous Ohio flood. He had also changed corporations, joining the new Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company to exploit Herman Hollerith鈥檚 punched-card census machine. He took charge. Anyone hoping to get on in C-T-R soon saw the need to dress formally, like Watson, and to abstain from drinking. Watson did not like John Mauchly, inventor of ENIAC, the University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, just because he wore 鈥渓oud socks鈥�.
In 1924, C-T-R became International Business Machines. Employees sang inspirational lyrics from a booklet of IBM songs to the tune of popular songs. To 鈥淐olumbia, the Gem of the Ocean鈥�, they carolled: 鈥淭. J. Watson, we all honour you, you鈥檙e so big and so square and so true鈥︹�� Part of an IBM manager鈥檚 job was to submit to meetings, at which Watson would spend an hour or more wrapping a little new sense in a lot of tired anecdotes.
The imperative command 鈥淭hink鈥� became the company symbol. Watson was also first to see the publicity value of corporate sponsorship. He promoted electric typewriters by hiring the world鈥檚 fastest typists to win international competitions and sponsored IBM days at the 1939 World鈥檚 Fair in New York. Today IBM pits its computers against chess champions.
Son Tom Jr took over the reins in 1952, just as the US government hit IBM with an antitrust suit for making machines that worked only with IBM punch cards. With a free hand to do what his father would never have done, Tom Jr settled by offering machines for sale as well as lease. But corporate culture kept its grip at IBM. Its infamous arrogance brought the company to its knees in the 1980s. It took an outsider from the food industry, Lou Gerstner, to turn it round.
When Watson died in June 1956, he had turned information into an industry. He had discovered the power of corporate culture 鈥� and his company was a model for post-war Japanese corporations. He had become the first celebrity CEO, decades ahead of Bill Gates.
One mystery remains unsolved, however. Watson is often quoted as saying in the 1940s that there would 鈥渙nly ever be a market for five computers鈥�. Maney has been unable to find any evidence of this in the transcripts. Someone, he now thinks, may simply have fabricated Watson鈥檚 most famous quote.