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The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age
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About This Book
A riveting, first-ever, sweeping biography of Thomas Watson, Jr. - more important to the history and development of the modern world than Vanderbilt, Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie - who risked everything, personally and professionally, to reinvent IBM and launch the computer age that created the world we live in today Thomas Watson Jr. drove IBM to undertake the biggest gamble in business history with a revolution no other company of the age could dare– the creation in the 1960s of the IBM System/360, the world's first fully integrated and compatible mainframe computer that laid the foundation for the information technology future. Its success made IBM the most valuable company in America. Fortune magazine touted him as "the greatest capitalist who ever lived." Time named him one of the "One Hundred People of the Century." Behind closed doors, Watson was a multifaceted, complicated man. As a young man, he was a failed student and playboy, an unlikely candidate for corporate titan. He pulled his life together as a courageous World War II pilot and took over IBM after his father's death. He suffered from anxiety and depression so overwhelming that he spent days prostrate and locked in a bathroom at home while IBM faced crisis after crisis. And he carried out a family-shattering battle over the future of IBM with his brother Dick, who expected to follow him as CEO. But despite his many demons, he laid the foundation for what eventually became the global information technology industry, which dominates today's world. His story, and the industry he created, is equal to, if not more important than that of Rockefeller and Standard Oil, Vanderbilt and the railroads, and Morgan in finance.
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Reviews
"About the challenges of corporate and family succession, an essential topic given that IBM itself was the father figure to most of the computing and tech industry."
"As Watson Jr.'s grandson, McElvenny offers an insider's assessment of familial dynamics, drawn from interviews and private papers."
"The authors skillfully weave this profile of a recalcitrant heir together with a chronicle of computing in the 20th century."
"In a swift-moving narrative, the authors make clear that Watson was a man of parts, one of the prime shapers of the modern technological world."
"Although the lead author is Watson's grandson, the authors do not shy away from unflattering details about their subject's personality and private life."
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