".a rich and thorough portrait that goes right back toturn-of-the-century America." ( Business Voice , March 2003) The story of Watson''s transformation of the disorganized,amorphous Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company into steamlined,world-famous IBM receives a spirited telling by Maney, a USA Todaytechnology columnist. Access to previously unexplored records hasprovided juicy raw material, including letters and internal memos,to bring America''s first celebrity CEO to life in thiswart-sand-all biography: Watson (1874-1956) saw the strategic valueof corporate culture early and was protective of what he built;Maney argues that the strength of that culture later allowed IBM tosurvive the potentially devastating effects of Watson''s personalityflaws. Charismatic, optimistic and generous, Watson was alsoself-absorbed and psychologically ruthless in getting things donehis way. Hard to work for and unable to distinguish between thecompany and himself, he also behaved like a dictatorial CEO whenwreaked havoc with his family. Watson''s mania for overreachingpeaked when he accepted a decoration from Hitler in 1937 under thedeluded impression that Hitler woul d follow Watson''s ca mpaign forworld peace through world trade; according to Maney, that episodeillustrates how out-of-control Watson''s ego had grown. Yet, asManey makes clear in this timely tale of the man who madeinformation into an industry and discovered the power of corporateculture, "Watson wasn''t just the best business story at the end ofthe 1930s; he had become a great American success story thatcaptured the popular imagination.
" Agent, Sandy Dijkstra.(May). Forecast: Maney''s book should hold great appeal not only foravid business readers but also for devotees of the vicissitudes offinancial dynasties. That appeal will be supported by a 75,000-copyfirst printing and a $100,000 ad/promo budget. ( PublishersWeekly , March 17, 2003) ".Maney has written a timely and authoritative biography.Without lapsing into hero worship, he presents a great, if flawed,man in all his humanity." ( Business Week , May 12, 2003) WHEN Thomas J.
Watson Jr., who ran the International BusinessMachines Corporation during its climb to dominance in the computerindustry, published his memoirs in 1990, he called the book"Father, Son & Co." His father - who had taken over a motleyassortment of business machine companies in 1914 while awaitingsentencing on a criminal antitrust conviction - loomed large in thestory. Indeed, one reason the book has become a business classic issurely its poignant, child''s-eye view of the flawed yet fascinatingfather who created I.B.M. and brought it to the brink of thecomputer age before passing it to his son, who died in 1993. The portrait of Thomas J.
Watson Sr. in his son''s memoirs had allof the misty myopia that accompanies any child''s perceptions of afearfully adored parent. One reviewer complained that "we hear toolittle of life within I.B.M. - and too much of Mr. Watson tellingus how awful it was being his father''s son." A much more lively and nuanced picture of the senior Watson can befound in Kevin Maney''s excellent new biography, "The Maverick andHis Machine: Thomas Watson Sr.
and the Making of I.B.M." (JohnWiley & Sons, $29.95). Enriched by access to Watson''s personalpapers from the I.B.M.
archives, the book brings this complex manto life and provides a clearer sense of how the I.B.M. culture tookshape around one man''s quirks, preferences and iron whims. The company songs, the daily white shirts, the polish and pomp ofcorporate ceremonies - all of them were manifestations of Watson''sown overcompensating insecurities. An awkward young man from afamily with little money, he started out in a career that was thepunchline of countless American jokes: the traveling salesman. Notuntil he was hired in 1896 by the National Cash Register Company inDayton, Ohio, did Watson start to acquire the poise and polish thathe would demand of his own executives decades later. But his career at "the Cash," under the tutelege of its chairman,John H.
Patterson, was very nearly his ruin. National Cash Registerhad a virtual monopoly in the manufacturing and sale of itsproduct, which was becoming increasingly popular among Americanretailers. Unfortunately, the machines were built so solidly thatthey rarely wore out. Companies selling secondhand cash registersbegan to steal business from it. So, in 1903, Patterson drafted Watson to run an elaborate scam.After ostensibly resigning from the company, Watson set up a chainof used cash register stores that was secretly backed by NationalCash Register. By paying more for secondhand machines and sellingthem for less, Watson drove virtually all of Patterson''scompetitors out of business. He seems never to have doubted thelegality of what he was doing.
But when an angry ousted executivestarted talking to the Justice Department, the scheme figured in a1912 federal grand jury indictment of Patterson and more than twodozen of his executives, including Watson. In February 1913, Watson, Patterson and all but one of the otherexecutives were convicted of criminal antitrust violations. Watson,newly married, faced up to a year in prison. Somehow, in 1914, he nevertheless persuaded an unreconstructedtrust-builder named Charles Ranlett Flint to hire him to try tosave a rickety business-machine trust that Flint had assembled in1911. The conglomerate included the Computing Scale Company ofAmerica, which made scales that calculated the price of productssold by weight; the International Time Recording Company, whichmade the time clocks on which workers punched in for the day; andthe Tabulating Machine Company, which used punched holes inrectangular cards to sort information - "the forefathers ofmainframe computers," notes Mr. Maney, a technology columnist forUSA Today. FLINT called this ailing hodgepodge theComputing-Tabulating-Recording Company. And in a remarkabledecision - one cannot imagine it being replicated in this post-Enron era - he hired the energetic and supremely confidentconvicted felon, Thomas J.
Watson, to bring the company back tolife. Watson, whose conviction was later overturned, succeededbeyond anyone''s imagination, except his own. Seeing the future inhis little tabulating-machine company, he invested lavishly inresearch and expanded wildly, even in the face of theDepression. Mr. Maney observes that "Watson borrowed a common recipe forstunning success: one part madness, one part luck, and one parthard work to be ready when luck kicked in." The book draws on extensive corporate records to capture Watson''sself-absorbed monologues to his senior executives, giving thereader an immense sympathy for the men and women who endured them.With I.B.
M.''s cooperation, Mr. Maney seems to have inspected everyletter, memorandum and index card that passed through Watson''shands. But the bulkiness of the research only occasionally breaksthrough the elegant fabric of the storytelling. Watson - a tyrant in the boardroom, a charmer on the dance floor, asponge for sycophantic flattery, a genius at selling an idea -emerges as an infuriating, sometimes pathetic but alwaysfascinating business icon. For those who loved "Father, Son &Co.," this is an essential and readable companion book. Call it"I.
B.M.: The Prequel." ( New York Times , May 12, 2003) IBM for decades had a distinct corporate personality, and theleader in driving that culture was Thomas Watson, Sr. Other bookshave described this irascible man, yet this biography by atechnology journalist uses recently discovered and wonderfullydetailed corporate log books to flesh out his contradictorypersona. Watson was a short-tempered tyrant who surrounded himselfwith yes-men and managed an increasingly complicated company byinstinct. Yet he inspired loyalty and enthusiasm through hisrelentless optimism and willingness to hire ordinary young peopleand give them a chance. He made IBM one of the first companies toaccept women in its training programs, in the1930s no less.
Andwhen managers resisted hiring the first women graduates of theprograms, he angrily fired every man who graduated the same year.Maney notes that IBM''s dominant position in a booming industry mayhave played a large part in persuading employees to tolerateWatson''s unpredictable behavior. But the author''s delightfulanecdotes showcase the quirky, human side of what became a majorknowledge-based company. ( Harvard Business Review , May2003) ".excellent use of transcripts.should be recommended readingfor anyone who seriously wants to be a business mogul."( Economist , 10 May 2003) ".formidable in its research, vivid, insightful and oftenhilarious.
" ( Management Today , June 2003) ".an intriguing study of the man who made IBM, ThomasWatson." ( New Scientist , 7 June 2003) Maney, a USA Today technology columnist, has written a superbbiography of Thomas Watson Sr., who took over the smallComputer-Tabulating-Recording (C-T-R) Company in 1914 and fashionedit into the giant corporation we know today as InternationalBusiness Machines (IBM). Watson had come to prominence for his workat National Cash Register (NCR), but owing to his involvement in afederal antitrust case, was forced out of his job. This might havedestroyed a lesser man, but not Watson, who quickly moved on toC-T-T. A lifelong salesman, Watson always paid close attention tohis company''s customers, but he also felt that employees wereequally important, offering high wages and good benefits. Althoughhis management style was often regarded as imperious, he iscredited with founding IBM''s famous corporate culture, whichenabled the company to succeed.
As he aged, be became increasinglystubborn and brooked no dissent, which led to some terriblemisjudgments, most notably his involvem.