The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM

by Kevin Maney

The first complete look at one of America's legendary business leaders

This groundbreaking biography by Kevin Maney, acclaimed technology columnist for USA Today, offers fresh insight and new information on one of the twentieth century's greatest business figures. Over the course of forty-two years, Thomas J. Watson took a failing business called The Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company and transformed it into IBM, the world's first and most famous high-tech company. The Maverick and His Machine is the first modern biography of this business titan. Maney secured exclusive access to hundreds of boxes of Watson's long-forgotten papers, and he has produced the only complete picture of Watson the man and Watson the legendary business leader. These uncovered documents reveal new information about how Watson bet the company in the 1920s on tabulating machines-the forerunners to computers-and how he daringly beat the Great Depression of the 1930s. The documents also lead to new insights concerning the controversy that has followed Watson: his suppos ed coll usion with Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.

Maney paints a vivid portrait of Watson, uncovers his motivations, and offers needed context on his mammoth role in the course of modern business history. Jim Collins, author of the bestsellers Good to Great and Built to Last, writes in the Foreword to Maney's book: "Leaders like Watson are like forces of nature-almost terrifying in their release of energy and unpredictable volatility, but underneath they still adhere to certain patterns and principles. The patterns and principles might be hard to see amidst the melee, but they are there nonetheless. It takes a gifted person of insight to highlight those patterns, and that is exactly what Kevin Maney does in this book."

The Maverick and His Machine also includes never-before-published photos of Watson from IBM's archives, showing Watson in greater detail than any book ever has before. Essential reading for every businessperson, tech junkie, and IBM follower, the book is also full of the kind of personal detail and reconstructed events that make it a page-turning story for general readers. The Maverick and the Machine is poised to be one of the most important business biographies in years.

Kevin Maney is a nationally syndicated, award-winning technology columnist at USA Today, where he has been since 1985. He is a cover story writer whose story about IBM's bet-the-company move gained him national recognition. He was voted best technology columnist by the business journalism publication TJFR. Marketing Computers magazine has four times named him one of the most influential technology columnists. He is the author of Wiley's MEGAMEDIA SHAKEOUT: The Inside Story of the Leaders and the Losers in the Exploding Communications Industry, which was a Business Week Bestseller.
Residence: Clifton, VA .
"Watson was clearly a genius with a thousand helpers, yet he managed to build an institution that could transcend the genius."-from the Foreword by Jim Collins
"Like all great biographers, Kevin Maney gives us an engaging story . . .his fascinating and definitive book about IBM's founder is replete with amazing revelations and character lessons that resonate today."-Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, bestselling author of Evolve! and When Giants Learn to Dance

Genres: Biography, Business, History, Nonfiction, Technology, Leadership, Computers

528 pages, Hardcover

First published April 3, 2003

Reviews

[Dick Krum · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book full of facts on a great man, company & business. Have reread several areas for both the enjoyment of the con stations as well as the technical history. As an example, I read about Prester Eckert, again today, to review the invention of the first computer.

[Efo Hadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much of idea...

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent research - interesting early history of C-T-R and tie-ins to Dayton, OH and Patterson's NCR company.

[Stephen Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this biography very insightful. It was interesting to learn that Thomas Watson Jr., rather than Sr. actually introduced electronics and the "computer" as we know it into IBM.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt that Maverick was well written and easy to read. Mr. Maney clearly consulted a great number of primary sources. For example: Mr. Maney periodically uses entries from Watson's schedule to give a feel for what Watson's life was like. That felt like a particularly effective device which made me feel like I was walking through Watson's busy day or calendar.

Watson managed to create a wildly successful technology company while having little to no aptitude for technology and even less management tact. However, Watson was a master of corporate culture, a true salesman who understood his customers, and a gambler willing to risk the company to make it big. These characteristics are worthy of imitation, but there were many characteristics of Watson's that weren't.

His relationship with his family was strained, not only because of his workaholism but also his explosive temper. This temper came out in dealing with his subordinates at IBM too and made challenging his opinions an extremely uncomfortable proposition. He also committed one of the greatest sins a successful celebrity can: he bought into his own hype.

Each chapter of the book had a bit of reminder information in the beginning and addressed a different topic, such as his son or his time at NCR. This meant that each chapter could be read independently without missing out on too much background. I went through it in a fairly short time, so that seemed a little unnecessary, but for someone that read it over the span of a couple of months that might be a really helpful technique.

Overall I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in corporate culture or leading a company.

[Hien Lu · Rating 5 out of 5]

the book describe the life of dedicated Watson, who leads IBM from the ashes to the top of the world. I admire most about this book is that Watson was never give up. Although he was kicked out bu his mentor at the age of 40, he still gain his first-class position as the manager of IBM. The legacy of his is the culture of IBM and the philosophy of "THINK" itself. He is the fire for younger generation to keep moving forward, a statue of personality. However, his anger management has backfired him, not as the aspect of career but of family.

[Rod Van Meter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a quick and engaging read, well written and well researched, and arguably an important piece of American history...but...

I feel like I just finished the archetypal Gilded Age industrialist biography. Thomas J. Watson, Sr., born in 1874 and reborn when he left NCR under an antitrust cloud, spanned literally the period from horse-and-buggy salesmen to the electronic age and television. He (and his son) built IBM through a combination of charisma and caring for his people (the "IBM family"), single-minded obsession, mistreatment of people, and sacrifice of family for work (hmm, that hits uncomfortably close to home as I'm taking a break from work late on a Saturday night to type this). He bet the company multiple times and won, through a combination of vision and luck: he bet he could keep sales up enough during the Depression to keep from losing industrial capacity; he bet he could ride out the post-WWII recession; he bet on the card tabulating business; he let Junior bet on electronics. He won them all, and so IBM is perhaps the single most important industrial force of the 20th century, alongside Ford and Ma Bell (curiously, the former gets several mentions in this book, but not the latter).

So...yawn. Cishet male WASP Gilded Age industrialist wins at the game of business, if not always at the game of life. I should be the target audience, and as I said I think the book is good, I just can't get beyond his role as archetype. I was considering making this one of a series of reads on the great industrialists -- Rockefeller, Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Fleming, Huntington, Stanford. But I suppose if you've read one, you've read 'em all.

[Luca Sacchetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alongside the Jim Simons autobiography (Book 4) this has been one of my favorite/most entertaining book. In a Sunday alone I have finished 260 or over half the book. The words turn into vivid imagery in my mind.

Thomas Watson was the mastermind behind one of the most revolutionary and memorable companies International Business Machines (IBM). Growing up I always heard those three letters, but never truly knew what they meant. Tom Watson is a true inspiration for how leaders should lead and treat others. A personal skill I hope to build overtime to become more like Watson.

My biggest take aways are how he channels in the strengths of all his employs through a lively work culture. He generously awarded his 100% profit club employees and constantly gave back to the community and everyone. A sort of 1900s Mr. Beast in my eyes. It truly leads me to believe that running a company is all about how much you put in and there is no doubt that Watson dedicated his ENTIRE life to IBM, which is no small task to do. On top of this the demanding time, pressure, stress, and things stealing your attention make it incredibly challenging to live the life of Watson. Overall that man has done the impossible and I hope to read more autobiographies going into depth into the lives of these generational industrial business men.

[Harry Harman]

Patterson developed a system for motivating his sales force. He set up a quota system and each year welcomed those who met their quotas into what he called the Hundred Point Club. The members would go each year to a convention, where they would be wined and pampered at NCR’s expense.

seemed incapable of tiring.

Watson tried selling shares in a building and loan company

status by association

NCR got creamed in court.

The front-page story in the Buffalo Evening News was headlined, “Millionaire Who Aided in Relief.”

liked to tell funny self-deprecating stories about himself.

[Straker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent but not outstanding. Watson really deserves a biography by a first-class financial writer like Ron Chernow or Jean Strouse.

[Hyde · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 1/2

[Rahul D'cunha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Details the evolution of IBM , the original tech darling of Wall Street, through the eyes of it's inspirational founder Thomas Watson. Armed with a number of idiosyncrasies (not least a healthy dose of arrogance and narcissism), Watson made two huge gambles that in hindsight led to IBM's rise as the world's foremost engineering company. First, he invested heavily in capacity at the peak of the Depression gobbling up talent when no one else was hiring. Second, he massively added capacity during WWII, defying economists that predicted a post-war recession would lead to a drop in industrial demand. In both cases, the anti-consensus gamble worked out with IBM turning uncertainty into a market opportunity. A key lesson for any budding entrepreneurs - Always take calculated gambles and bet the house on it when you do.

[Tirath · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written biography about someone who is not really given his due.
Reading about the dawn of the information and computing age, the patriotism of american companies, and the beauty of culture.

I loved the part where TW wasnt feeling well as he grew older but the IBM machine kept chugging along because of a great culture.
I wonder how powerful THINK was to promote innovative activities.

Loved the bits about the anti trust issues, his career at NCR and how it abruptly ended, his relation with his kids, TW Jr's strained personal life, the force with which the US could marshal resources during WW2, the era of punch cards and the innovator's dilemma - when electronics came to overshadow electromechanics.
Fascinating book.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had a lot of good information on how to build a company. It was a little hard to get through because of the author's style - he's a newspaper columnist and he struggled, at times, to put together a flowing history. If you like books about business and how to build a culture, I'd recommend it.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lesson to all present day market leaders

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A concise, well-written, depiction of the man that IBM embodied, also providing an interesting chronology of the events of which IBM & Tom Watson Sr. found themselves entangled during his tenure.