The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived

Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age

De: Ralph Watson McElvenny, Marc Wortman

Narrado por: Donald Corren

“A compelling new biography… [The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived] spins the Watsons into near-Shakespearean figures, as if ‘Succession’ were set in the era of ‘Mad Men’.”​ ―The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

The enduring story of Thomas Watson Jr.—a figure more important to the creation of the modern world than Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Morgan.

Nearly fifty years into IBM’s existence, Thomas Watson Jr. undertook the biggest gamble in business history when he “bet the farm” on the creation of the IBM System/360, the world’s first fully integrated and compatible mainframe computer. As CEO, Watson drove a revolution no other company—then or now—would dare, laying the foundation for the digital age that has transformed every society, corporation, and government.

The story of Watson being “present at the creation” of the digital age is intertwined with near-Shakespearean personal drama. While he put IBM and its employees at risk, Watson also carried out a family-shattering battle over the future of the company with his brother Dick. This titanic struggle between brothers led to Dick’s death and almost killed Watson Jr. himself.

Though he was eventually touted by Fortune magazine as “the greatest capitalist who ever lived,” Watson’s directionless, playboy early years made him an unlikely candidate for corporate titan. How he pulled his life together and, despite personal demons, paved the way for what became a global industry is an epic tale full of drama, inspiration, and valuable lessons in leadership, risk-taking, and social responsibility.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Ralph Watson McElvenny and Marc Wortman (P)2023 PublicAffairs

A Great Description of a Great Era

...the era of early business computing, which IBM dominated. I am sure through the lens of anyone much less than 50 years old, this all seems like ancient history and not very applicable to today's modern miracles of technology. Just like a modern viewer might watch "Citizen Kane" and yawn seeing what they think of as standard movie-making techniques, not realizing they're seeing a ground breaking film where those "standard" techniques were invented. IBM invented many of those standard things about computers we all take for granted today.

I admit to being biased, having been employed by IBM for nearly 40 years, and my father before me for another 30 more. I knew of many of the things this book described, and lived though some of them as well. The Watsons (father and son) were a force of nature in the industry. IBM's success never came from technical knowhow, and even today IBM is not a technology company, but a sales and service company. Its influence and revenue is a far cry from what it was in its heyday, mainly because it lost sight of the need to sell something valuable and substantive rather than the lowest value for the highest price. That's a short term (the only thing IBM concentrates on these days) winning strategy for a long term drive into irrelevance.

This book was a good overview of the Watsons and IBM, and gave some great insights into how certain things in the company came to be. If you're interested in the history of computing more than just the capabilities of today, this book is a must read.

T J Watson, his sons and family have feet of clay

I joined IBM in the Military Products Division in Kingston, NY in 1956 following Tom Watson's death in 1956. I was always amazed that the IBM Corporation seized the initiative at the time to prepare for future growth by adding a zero to my employee serial number. I really knew nothing of T J or his sons and this book really educated me on the obvious fact that they as well as all of us have clay feet and dealt with family issues and personal failings and dangerous or destructive interests. . It is informative that his advocacy of world peace through world trade fared no better than the current sanctions and tariffs!
I was impressed that the authors were impressed with the Kingston product line of the SAGE AN/FSQ-7 and 8 based on the MIT Whirlwind I that I was hired to learn in a 9-month training course at the Neighborhood Road production factory.
It is worthwhile note that SDC began as the systems engineering group for the SAGE air-defense system at the RAND Corporation. In April 1955, the government contracted with RAND to help write software for the SAGE project. (A somewhat stifling feature is that the octal program numbering system for the SAGE computer had a positive and negative zero which resulted in some confusion in programming Numerics.)
I had assignments in installations at Topsham, Maine; Madison, Wisconsin and Tacoma, Washington. In 1962 IBM support ended when USAF blue suits assumed the functions and I returned to Kingston with a hardware support assignment for final systems testing of the IBM 7040/44 production there. Upon the announcement of the IBM System/360 production switched to the 360/65 and 360/75 which now used hexadecimal support (interesting that the later personal computers used the little-endian order of computer memory storage whereas these large computers always use the big-endian arrangement.)
I achieved the 25-year Quarter Century recognition with the accompanying awards and completed 35 years with many Dallas/ Fort Worth, Texas assignments in Field Engineering support (including a time in the Johnson Space Center mission control where Federal Systems Division managed) DOS/VSE and IBM Marketing software support. Appropriate retirement in 1991 with the Voluntary Transition Program was accepted.

A superficial history

Although interesting I found the history of the “Watson years” at IBM to be quite superficial. I kept wanting more depth and insight.

Spun but Interesting IBM Story

I enjoyed learning about IBM's history. But this book, written in part by a member of the Watson family, seemed heavily spun in favor of promoting the legacy of the patriarchs.