The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age

Comprehensive and Balanced

This is a terrific book. It provides unique insights into IBM and the family dynamics that drove it for a quarter of a century. Definitely worth reading.A few thoughts, none of which take away from this excellent book.1. Thomas J. Watson was responsible for IBMs pivot from a company making electromechanical office equipment into digital computing. As the book makes clear, this wasn’t due to his technical acumen, but rather insight of where the business needed to go. He made the big business bets better than any of his competitors. All kudos and credit to him.2. The book can be read at face value as a great narrative of Watson jrs career or it can be read on another level as the story of an executive who made a series of extremely good bets and then got over his head in trying to manage a complex technology empire while treating a public company as his family’s property.3. Watsons attempt to anoint his brother Dick as his successor blinded him to Dick’s (and his own) lack of management skills and technical expertise for a project as complex as System/360. The book made it clear that Dick’s lack of engineering or manufacturing experience made him the last person you would put in charge of the development of one of the most complex projects of the 20th century. Dick got the job simply because his brother was CEO.4. One possible interpretation of the subtext and references to Dick’s drinking and outbursts (and later emotional collapse) was that Dick was an alcoholic.5. The book sets up Vincent Learson as Dick Watson’s evil adversary and Watsons barely tolerated but necessary executive. In fact, the text and footnotes can be read a very different way. Learson was not only a world-class sales executive, but the only senior executive who understood the technology and manufacturing. (Bob Evans the head of the System/360 project said of Learson, “He was an excellent “Mr. Inside.” He knew the business, had all the correct instincts, and was a driving leader who knew how to delegate. He was both feared and respected and had a basic integrity.”)6. The two brothers, neither of whom understood hardware, software or manufacturing were working through their dysfunctional family dynamics while IBM was cratering trying to manage system/360 development and deployment. It’s unfortunate (but not unexpected as it was written by a family member) that the book demonized Learson without much introspection about Dick Watson’s competence. The evidence and oral histories of others seems to point to someone who wasn’t qualified for the job.7. When the System/360 project was spiraling into the ground Watson removed his brother Dick from running engineering and manufacturing and turned to Learson to get the 360 systems delivered. Learson brought in in four senior engineering managers (Henry Cooley, Clarence Frizzell, John Gibson, and John Haanstra) and fixed the problems.8. While Learson became president in 1966, in hindsight he should have been the CEO in 1965 with Watson moved up to chairman. (With five years of less day-to-day stress Watson might have avoided his heart attack.)9. Finally, what this book and others seem to miss is that while the Watsons treated IBM like it was the family business, when in fact IBM was a public company. T.J. Watson senior never owned more than 5 percent of IBM, and his son much less. There were 10’s of thousands of shareholders and a board of directors in theory managing for their interests. While the returns were spectacular under both Watson's, CEOs of public companies are not hereditary positions.Again, this is a great book and a worthwhile read.

This is a terrific book about a complex man. I enjoyed every page.

Very interesting and well-written book about one of the most influential Americans of the 20th Century. Watson was a giant of a man (flawed, admittedly) who built a company that became a touchstone for corporate excellence. Unlike most of today's zillionaires, he also had a deep sense of duty to his country and served us in one of most important and difficult posts as Ambassador to Moscow. The book is highly recommended.

I do not order nor read books as a rule but this one got my attention. I am into page 100 and have enjoyed the detail and writing style of the author. I worked with IBM computers and IBM personnel as a manager running a large scale computer installation and now am beginning to understand what drove the early culture. Great read!

T Watson Jr, was truly a leader of a company that contributed so muchTo the technology that we take for granted today. He managed to overcome insurmountable personal and business odds to make IBM one of the greatest companies of the 20th century.