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Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond
In the course of sixty years, Thomas J. Watson Sr. and his son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., together built the colossus that is IBM, one of the largest and most profitable business enterprises on earth. This is their story: a riveting and revealing account of two men who loved each other - and fought each other - with a terrible fierceness. The father rose from penniless sewing machine salesman to confidant of presidents; one of America's greatest entrepreneurs, he was a selling genius who gave the world the motto THINK. But it was Thomas J. Watson Jr. who put IBM into computers, leading the company through the longest and most spectacular burst of growth in business history. Under Tom Watson Jr., IBM gave birth to the computer age and came to embody the very idea and ideal of the modern corporation.
Thomas J. Watson Jr. was a tall, awkward boy with no self-confidence - always in scrapes, more interested in flying airplanes than in learning from books. He had no inclination toward business, yet at age thireteen he posed at his father's side in a derby hat and a man's suit, already IBM's heir apparent. With great candor and insight, Watson writes of his "thousand-dollar-a-day" father, America's highest paid businessman, an executive so formidable and charismatic that his leadership evolved into a personality cult. Finally, World War II and a role as a military pilot setting up America's Lend-Lease program in the U.S.S.R. took the author far away from his father's overpowering influence. He emerged as his own man ... and truly his father's son.
This book is an eloquent first person account of a family drama that changed the face of American business. Here are the management insights that shaped IBM and its unique corporate culture; the quirks that made Thomas Watson Sr. one of America's most loved and feared bosses; the tough-minded decisions by Thomas Watson Jr. that completed the transformation of IBM from a manufacturer of tabulating machines and time clocks into the world's largest computing company; a $7.5 billion-a-year business. Tom Watson Jr. became a business leader, yet he frequently took positions unpopular with the business majority - denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy and condemning the Vietnam War and the arms race.
Unforgettably told by the man Fortune magazine called "the most successful capitalist in history," this book is the intimate story behind a father-son succession as turbulent as it was inspiring: a lesson for fathers who dream for their children, and for children burdened by those expectations. The book is also about power: being subject to it, striving for it, inheriting it, wielding it, and finally letting it go, as the author did when a heart attack led him to leave IBM and seek new challenges, both physical and intellectual. He has flown jets, helicopters, and stunt biplanes; taken his sailboat to the Antarctic; and in his public life served as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Moscow. The book is at once an important history of American business and a testament to American ingenuity and values.
Thomas J. Watson Jr. was a tall, awkward boy with no self-confidence - always in scrapes, more interested in flying airplanes than in learning from books. He had no inclination toward business, yet at age thireteen he posed at his father's side in a derby hat and a man's suit, already IBM's heir apparent. With great candor and insight, Watson writes of his "thousand-dollar-a-day" father, America's highest paid businessman, an executive so formidable and charismatic that his leadership evolved into a personality cult. Finally, World War II and a role as a military pilot setting up America's Lend-Lease program in the U.S.S.R. took the author far away from his father's overpowering influence. He emerged as his own man ... and truly his father's son.
This book is an eloquent first person account of a family drama that changed the face of American business. Here are the management insights that shaped IBM and its unique corporate culture; the quirks that made Thomas Watson Sr. one of America's most loved and feared bosses; the tough-minded decisions by Thomas Watson Jr. that completed the transformation of IBM from a manufacturer of tabulating machines and time clocks into the world's largest computing company; a $7.5 billion-a-year business. Tom Watson Jr. became a business leader, yet he frequently took positions unpopular with the business majority - denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy and condemning the Vietnam War and the arms race.
Unforgettably told by the man Fortune magazine called "the most successful capitalist in history," this book is the intimate story behind a father-son succession as turbulent as it was inspiring: a lesson for fathers who dream for their children, and for children burdened by those expectations. The book is also about power: being subject to it, striving for it, inheriting it, wielding it, and finally letting it go, as the author did when a heart attack led him to leave IBM and seek new challenges, both physical and intellectual. He has flown jets, helicopters, and stunt biplanes; taken his sailboat to the Antarctic; and in his public life served as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Moscow. The book is at once an important history of American business and a testament to American ingenuity and values.
512 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1990
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June 20, 2025
This is the story of Thomas J. Watson Sr., CEO of IBM, and his son Thomas J. Watson Jr., who took over from his father. Tom Sr., who never got much past eighth grade, became a salesman at National Cash Register, then a manager at a computing company which was renamed IBM in 1924. He rose through the ranks, becoming fabulously wealthy. In the early days IBM also sold meat slicers and coffee grinders before focusing almost entirely on punch card computing. Tom Jr. did terribly in school. His father met personally with the Princeton admissions director to try to get Tom accepted, which failed. A similar trip to Brown University succeeded.
The Toms Sr. and Jr. were politically liberal, which was almost unheard of in business circles. Tom Jr. once shocked a convention of the National Association of Manufacturers by calling for higher taxes. Tom Sr.'s political awakening came about in 1933:
[Tom Sr.] greeted Roosevelt and said, "Mr. President, I'm here to tell you that the people in New York think you're going too far with regulation. Business should be well regulated, but we also believe it should be well treated. If you go much further, you will decimate what little there is left of business, and we'll end up with nothing."
Roosevelt shook his head and said, "Look here, Tom. You go back and tell your banker and businessman friends that I don't have time to worry about their future. I am trying to save this great nation. I think I am going to be successful. If I am successful, I'll save them along with everyone else."
These words turned Dad around completely. He saw the monumental job Roosevelt had on his hands and wanted to help. It was the last time Dad ever spoke for the conservative side. He used to tell me: "The average businessman's opinion of what is right for the country is almost always wrong."
By sheer coincidence, I'm reading Malcolm Gladwell's book about how people can't tell liars from truth tellers. One of Gladwell's examples is Hitler and the many who believed him when he said he didn't want war and wouldn't start one. Gladwell doesn't mention Watson, but here he is: Tom Sr. met privately with Hitler in 1937 "and Hitler fooled him completely. When Dad talked to reporters afterward he praised Hitler's sincerity. According to Dad, Hitler said, "There will be no war. No country wants war, and no country can afford it."
Tom Sr. warned Tom Jr. "not to fool around with women of other nationalities, because cultural differences made it hard to distinguish between well-bred women and those less well bred."
Dad also had some advice which came from J.P. Morgan. I'm going to guess this is apocryphal:
It was 1901, right after Morgan organized U.S. Steel and talked [young Charles] Schwab into taking the top job. Schwab went to Paris to blow off steam, and stories about his hell-raising soon filtered back across the ocean. When he got back to New York, Morgan called him into his office and told him to stop acting like a fool.
Schwab said, "Mr. Morgan, you're being unfair. You know perfectly well I'm not doing anything you don't do yourself, except that you do it behind closed doors."
"Mr. Schwab, that is what doors are for," said Morgan.
Father and son were fiercely competitive with each other. When Tom Jr. was on the cover of Time magazine in 1955, his father, who hadn't been on the cover, never once mentioned it. They argued about business constantly, battles which often ended in tears (between two adult men!). Tom Jr., the eldest, was also weirdly competitive with his brother Dick, who headed an IBM international division, and his sister Jane, who didn't work at IBM. He took it personally when she sold several million dollars of IBM stock because he thought it meant she didn't believe in the company.
As a family they were strangely unhealthy: Jane died of cancer at 55, a few weeks after Tom Jr. had a heart attack that almost killed him. Dick also died at 55, after a fall which had been preceded by a heart attack a year earlier. Tom Jr.'s first child had suffocated in its perambulator a few days after birth. Weirdest of all was Tom Sr., who had suffered from painful hernias half his life but never got them treated, merely trussed them up every morning. Tom Sr. refused to be operated on for any reason. He had terrible ulcers, and by his early 80s had a buildup of scar tissue in his stomach so severe that his pyloric valve, which empties into the small intestine, was almost closed. He couldn't eat or digest any more, and essentially starved to death because he refused treatment.
Tom Jr. brought IBM into the modern age of computing; he saw, as his father wouldn't, that the future of the company lay not with punch cards but magnetic tape and magnetic disk drives. Up until 1956, IBM didn't even sell computers, but rented them. Companies rented giant computers along with service contracts, on a subscription model. (Notice how software has returned to a subscription model as a way to milk customers to death.)
After retirement, Tom Jr. served as Jimmy Carter's Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
June 7, 2021
The main purpose for reading this book when I started was to learn about the history of IBM. This book does contain a lot of information about IBM to serve this purpose but what I found more interesting was the life of Thomas J. Watson Jr. outside IBM. I loved reading his WWII experience in Soviet Union and China and his adventures to the Arctic after retirement. His short career as ambassador to Soviet Union was also pretty interesting. Overall I enjoyed reading this book much more than I expected.
March 7, 2012
This is ONE OF THE BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHIES I'VE EVER READ. Watson --- the son of "the first chairman and CEO of International Business Machines (IBM), who oversaw that company's growth into an international force from 1914 to 1956" --- speaks candidly, and at times, with deep humility, about his life, career and his relationships with his family, IBM colleagues, and friends (many of whom were numbered among the most notable or distinguished scientists, politicians, and artists of the 20th century).
Watson admits that he was a handful for his parents when he was growing up. I chuckled to myself when I read about a stink bomb he created (with the help of a fellow schoolmate) from the stink glands of a skunk, which he let loose in an assembly. As a result, the principal had to close the school for the rest of the day. (Watson subsequently, when asked, admitted -- in accordance with the school's honor code --- that he had committed the foul deed, and accepted his punishment.) He struggled to do well in school. In fact, his grades were so abysmal that his father had him accompany him to visit a friend of his, the president of Brown University in the early 1930s, to help plead his case for admission to the university. Watson continued to struggle, but managed to do well enough to graduate from Brown. Also, during that time, he discovered, upon taking flying lessons, that he was a gifted pilot. This helped to bolster his self-confidence.
Following graduation in 1937, Watson travelled through Europe and China before returning to the U.S. to begin his apprenticeship with IBM in New York City as a salesman. He struggled to learn as much as he could about IBM, but continued to live life as a playboy.
With the coming of the Second World War, Watson entered the U.S. Army Air Corps (via the National Guard), where he learned to fly many of the latest combat aircraft. The Army, Watson maintained, was the making of him. As an officer, he was free, for the first time in his life, from his father's shadow and had to learn to assume a wide range of challenging responsibilities. Watson was part of a team that helped to organize the Lend-Lease ferrying of U.S. military aircraft to the Soviet Union during 1942.
"Toward the end of his service Watson worked for Major General Follett Bradley, who suggested that he should try to follow his father at IBM." He had thought of going to work for the airlines because flying was one area in which he excelled that made him feel good about himself.
Anyway, upon his discharge from the Army with the rank of colonel, Watson went back to work at IBM, this time with a renewed sense of purpose. He spent almost 25 years there, first working with his father til his death in 1956. Thereupon Watson, as President of IBM, helped to make the organization one of the world's most reputable producers of computers, which helped revolutionize the workplace the world over during the 1960s.
Watson, following a heart attack, retired from IBM in the early 1970s and later served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union during the Carter Administration.
Before reading this book, Watson Jr. was for me merely a name I glanced at once or twice in a newspaper or magazine. But, after reading this wonderful book, he comes across as a basically decent person, who, despite his faults, always tried to do good. The enlightened, liberal capitalist.
Watson admits that he was a handful for his parents when he was growing up. I chuckled to myself when I read about a stink bomb he created (with the help of a fellow schoolmate) from the stink glands of a skunk, which he let loose in an assembly. As a result, the principal had to close the school for the rest of the day. (Watson subsequently, when asked, admitted -- in accordance with the school's honor code --- that he had committed the foul deed, and accepted his punishment.) He struggled to do well in school. In fact, his grades were so abysmal that his father had him accompany him to visit a friend of his, the president of Brown University in the early 1930s, to help plead his case for admission to the university. Watson continued to struggle, but managed to do well enough to graduate from Brown. Also, during that time, he discovered, upon taking flying lessons, that he was a gifted pilot. This helped to bolster his self-confidence.
Following graduation in 1937, Watson travelled through Europe and China before returning to the U.S. to begin his apprenticeship with IBM in New York City as a salesman. He struggled to learn as much as he could about IBM, but continued to live life as a playboy.
With the coming of the Second World War, Watson entered the U.S. Army Air Corps (via the National Guard), where he learned to fly many of the latest combat aircraft. The Army, Watson maintained, was the making of him. As an officer, he was free, for the first time in his life, from his father's shadow and had to learn to assume a wide range of challenging responsibilities. Watson was part of a team that helped to organize the Lend-Lease ferrying of U.S. military aircraft to the Soviet Union during 1942.
"Toward the end of his service Watson worked for Major General Follett Bradley, who suggested that he should try to follow his father at IBM." He had thought of going to work for the airlines because flying was one area in which he excelled that made him feel good about himself.
Anyway, upon his discharge from the Army with the rank of colonel, Watson went back to work at IBM, this time with a renewed sense of purpose. He spent almost 25 years there, first working with his father til his death in 1956. Thereupon Watson, as President of IBM, helped to make the organization one of the world's most reputable producers of computers, which helped revolutionize the workplace the world over during the 1960s.
Watson, following a heart attack, retired from IBM in the early 1970s and later served as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union during the Carter Administration.
Before reading this book, Watson Jr. was for me merely a name I glanced at once or twice in a newspaper or magazine. But, after reading this wonderful book, he comes across as a basically decent person, who, despite his faults, always tried to do good. The enlightened, liberal capitalist.
October 16, 2011
Not bad. More of one man's memoir's and his coming to terms with his relationship with his father. Still, got it for $1 at a book fair and it was a fairly interesting yarn.
A little depressing to read about the opulence that is afforded a man who heads a billion dollar company.
Though, at the cost of alienating his entire family and pushing his wife out the door.
A little depressing to read about the opulence that is afforded a man who heads a billion dollar company.
Though, at the cost of alienating his entire family and pushing his wife out the door.
September 14, 2016
The son of IBM’s founder, Thomas Watson Jr.’s “Father, Son & Co.” is many things: a collection of folksy business wisdom passed down by his father, memories and recollections of his participation as an airman in World War II and later a US diplomatic career in the USSR, a story about the challenges of growing a global business, lessons in leadership and team building, the pitfalls of transforming an business organization from small scale to large scale and, most importantly, a personal reflection on the value of family. It was most interesting and entertaining for me to read when it dealt with business and some of the personal issues of the author in trying to prove himself in the shadow of a legendary father; I found it less enjoyable and less authentic when the author dabbled in politics or retold sappy anecdotes about popular political figures of his era with whom he had had personal relationships.
The Business of IBM
The axis around which the story revolves is not Tom Watson, Jr., and it’s not Tom Watson, Sr. It’s the company which Senior grew and transformed into IBM, and which Junior effected the change over to actual computing technology in the 1960s, that the book is really about. But because Junior’s and Senior’s personalities, families, fortunes and lives were so wrapped up in the affairs of IBM, it becomes about all of those things in turn as well. That is somewhat surprising because the book is ostensibly a memoir by Junior, yet the gravity of IBM is hard to ignore in nearly every chapter of the book.
When Senior joined on with the company as general manager and, shortly thereafter, president, IBM (then Computing-Tabulating-Record Company) was an important concern but not necessarily a large one. Senior had a vision for it and something of an indomitable will, and he had experienced enough success and failure on his own in other ventures that he had an idea of what it would take to create the vision he had for the company. He built a large, organized and polished sales force, instilled high morale and unity of purpose by creating training programs, achievement awards, national sales team conventions and even company songs that everyone had to sing. He also, like many strong-willed founders, created something of a cult of personality around himself, putting his picture up at IBM offices and facilities, writing memos that were distributed widely to all staff and constantly visiting field offices and manufacturing facilities and “pressing the flesh” with company men and their wives and children, creating a kind of endearing aura of patriarchy.
In later years this intuitive, personality-driven approach was deemed problematic by Junior and other successor senior executives who believed that Senior had created a culture and cadre of Yes Men and hadn’t implemented enough standards and professional protocols that could create stability for growth. But for decades of the company’s history (essentially the first half, to date) this approach seemed to work, and fantastically so. Company publications like “Business Machines” and sales achievement distinctions like the “Hundred Percent Club” put the company’s focus on employee well-being and professionalism and incentivized outstanding achievement in the dawn of the era of lifetime commitment to big companies.
Something that shocked me as I read was how much of IBM’s growth could be attributed to solving statistical problems for the US and other national governments:
IBM more than doubled in size during the New Deal… Social Security… made Uncle Sam IBM’s biggest customer.
Wow! I suppose someone else could’ve come up with the technology as well, but it is kind of amazing to think that the evil New Deal and the disastrous Social Security pyramid scheme would have been too burdensome to administer without the existence of IBM tabulating machines which were a major time saver. It reminds me of Palantir Technologies, which helps the NSA, CIA and other foreign governments conduct surveillance work on target populations, another way to profit off of coercive interference in society’s affairs.
This trend didn’t stop with the New Deal but only started there. During WW2 the company converted many of their factories to help produce armaments (a fairly common industrial practice during the time, but still remarkable) and after the war one of the big incentives (and indeed, initial sources of research funding) for switching the company’s focus to electronic computing solutions were the ongoing “national defense” needs of the US military as the Cold War wore on.
Words of wisdom
I enjoyed the many old-timey nuggets of wisdom and rules about manners sprinkled throughout the book which were mostly remembrances of Junior of things Senior had said to him as he raised him or mentored him in the business. For example, Junior talks about the first time he road a cross-country train with his father on a business trip and the way his father taught him to clean up the wash basin in the bathroom of the railroad car to be considerate of others. “The person coming after you will judge you by how the place is left,” he tells him as he uses a towel to wipe down the basin before and after shaving in it. He talks about the importance of leaving the basin in a clean state so that the next person will have “the same chance you had”. There is a deep moral lesson here that goes well beyond the world of men shaving– this is a version of the Golden Rule, not just considering how upsetting it would be to have someone leave a place in a state of disarray for you, but then following that logic through to performing a service voluntarily for other people in trying to leave the world a little bit nicer than you found it.
In another instance, Senior lectures Junior about the practical reasons for treating even the “lowly” members of society in a kindly and generous fashion:
There is a whole class of people in the world who are in a position to poor-mouth you unless you are sensitive to them. They are the headwaiters, Pullman car conductors, porters and chauffeurs. They see you in an intimate fashion and can really knock off your reputation.
Those who enjoy shows like Downton Abbey are familiar with the idea that the “servants” of the world end up having an interesting amount of power and leverage over those they serve because they are so familiar with them they know their weaknesses, secrets and bad habits. There is something noble and self-aware in Senior’s advice here– a cultivated awareness of the reality of power and influence, mixed with a genuine empathy for treating even the relatively less fortunate with respect and concern. It might be read as “These people could really knife you if you don’t pay attention” but I think it is also honestly read as “Don’t forget these are people, too, and they want and need kindness regardless of their station in life.”
Another endearing moment comes when Senior teaches Junior about how he manages his executives:
“Well, I haven’t shaken up So-and-so for a while. So I’ll get him in and ask some questions about his department and in the process part his hair a little. He’ll get a pat on the back if I find something good or a kick in the tail if I find something bad.”
The imagery of “parting someone’s hair” says a lot about the relative authority of the two people in this “process” and while kicking someone in the tail sounds like bullying, it was clear that Senior gave quite a few pats on the back, as well, and when he dished out the ass-kickings, they might have been deserved– these were grown men dealing with a multi-million dollar business, after all, and if they weren’t bringing their problems to Senior’s attention but rather waiting for him to discover them, shame on them.
In teaching Junior about how to be an executive, Senior advised “what a chief executive does outside his business is just as important as what he does at his desk”, which was another idea I found interesting. I’ve been skeptical in the past of chief executives who seem to spend more time glad-handing than running the business. But I’ve come to appreciate that a lot of running a business simply is taking care of relationships– with customers, employees, vendors and even members of the local community. IBM’s business was dependent upon political grace, so there is perhaps a more sinister side to this advice from the standpoint of simply being a businessman but it was an interesting idea to ponder, nonetheless, that the chief executive’s identity and role extend beyond his office hours.
Senior was clearly a hard-driver and a hard-charger himself. So I was interested to hear about his daily routine:
He had his day set up so that he got up at seven, played tennis from seven-thirty to eight-thirty to stay in shape, got to work on time, did his work, went home, read great books for an hour, had dinner, listened to classical music for a while, and went to bed.
Senior ended up dying of starvation; his stomach was so scarred from stress-induced ulcers that it essentially closed up and wouldn’t let enough food in, and he didn’t want to go under the knife and so chose a fairly painful death by starvation (more on health issues in a moment). But despite this, he lived to age 82! I think that’s still considered a long time to live and I am always curious what a person’s habits were when I hear of such longevity, so it was pleasing to see that he put emphasis on daily physical activity as well as daily relaxing, contemplative activity (reading and music listening). Interestingly, breakfast didn’t seem to play a large part in his routine although Junior recounts many times when he had lunch brought in despite it being ignored in this telling.
A few other choice ideas, on restraint:
What you haven’t said, you can say anytime.
And on the value of friendship:
Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.
The son also rises
So, Senior had a knack for keen insight, but what about Junior?
While Senior was the builder, Junior was the administrator and manager. He seemed to take what he learned from Senior and build on it, so many of his notions seemed like continuations of the thoughts of Senior. For example, consider Senior’s advice about how chief executives should behave as Junior extemporizes about the relationships of businessmen:
A good businessman needs a lot of friends. Cultivating them is a laborious process, and how well you succeed is a direct result of how much effort and thoughtfulness you bring to bear.
He isn’t talking about friends in the business. He’s talking about friends outside of the business, which to me sounds like an echo of the idea that the chief executive’s job extends well beyond life in the office.
Similarly, he recounts a tale about the importance of making good introductions,
I stuck out my hand and said to him, “I’m Tom Watson Jr.”
Offering one’s name with a hand shake ensures that the other person is not put in the uncomfortable spot of being expected to remember people he’s only met once before, which engenders a sense of gratitude and respect immediately. Consider that this was the practice of an individual leading one of the largest and most well-known companies in the world and he still made the effort to be forward about his identity like this.
I also made a note of Junior’s characterization of the political structure of business:
The government has checks and balances, but a business is a dictatorship, and that is what makes it really move.
I think there is consensus building in business, too. It’s hard to keep a team cohesive and productive over a long period of time if people don’t feel like they contribute ideas and that those ideas get seriously considered. But I do understand the idea that ultimately decisions have to be made by somebody, that is, one person, and a business with a strong will behind it can make those decisions more effectively because everyone may be listened to but they don’t necessarily all get a vote. In the business world, people tend to vote by exit which is rarely an option in the world of politics.
The wealth of health
As mentioned earlier, Senior ended up choosing death by starvation when his health maladies caught up with him, though he made it to age 82. I noticed that both Junior and his younger brother (who headed up IBM’s non-US business) suffered heart attacks in their middle-age, attributed to the high stress of their positions.
Junior describes a life of almost continual travel and social functions, not just for himself but for his father and his brother. It was clear reading the book that the Watson clan and IBM executive leadership in general were part of the “global elite”, they knew dignitaries and heads of state from around the planet and were deeply connected to American political figures as well, a confusing blending of public and private prerogatives and relationships. There were many chapters where Junior described so many different locales and travels simultaneously that is almost seemed as if he was everywhere at once– at the very least he would spend long stretches of time away from home engaged in high level networking. It was a fascinating glimpse into “how the other half lives.”
But it was also terrifying from a health point of view. It is just hard to imagine this high-paced lifestyle allowing one to live with optimal health and longevity. Along with suffering a heart attack, his brother seemed to be frail enough to die from a “fall” at age 55. Junior ended up quitting his official business responsibilities following his heart attack which he reflects on with positivity in the book, saying it was a relief to have an opportunity to look critically at his life and get out while he still could. It seems to say a lot about the lifestyle he was living that he could so clearly connect his longevity to his work and chose the former over the latter.
Working with family
At the beginning of the book, Junior says that if you have the chance to go into business with your father, know that it will be difficult, but do it. I was fascinated by this strong suggestion given that he spends much of the rest of the book relating all the violent disagreements he had with his father, their latent power struggles, the continual struggles with self-esteem and even depression that he experienced living and working under the shadow of his successful father and so on.
There were many touching moments in the book where the reader is afforded a look at the parenting practices of Senior, who was truly from a pre-modern era. But there were also many that shocked my sensibilities of the proper relationship between parent and child, such as when Junior recalled how Senior handled tax documentation of his personal trust:
Each year his accountant would come around and have me sign income tax forms that were blank. He’d make an excuse that he hadn’t had time yet to fill them out. This kept up not only through college but ten years beyond, until I was a grown man with children of my own.
How would hiding this information from a child do anything but stoke their curiosity, fear and self-criticism? Why did this practice continue on even when he was a man with his own family (at which point he had long been a part of the business in a senior role)?
While the book offered many such puzzles and glimpses into family life for the accomplished Watsons, I couldn’t help but wonder how people who had achieved such greatness in so many areas had completely neglected to resolve interpersonal emotional conflicts and instead struggled with this source of unhappiness for decades. What is family for?
For me, reading about the early struggles and the early attempts at growth are always the most interesting parts of a story like Thomas Watson, Jr.’s, and IBM’s in general. I found myself less interested in what it was like being Bobby Kennedy’s friend, or getting tapped for the ambassadorship in Moscow. You can look at the history of the company and of the family and think, “It could’ve been anyone else, it’s not clear what they did that was special or unique beyond being lucky” but you can’t say they didn’t work hard, or purposefully. There’s no simple recipes or formulas for success in this book when it comes to business, family or life, but there are a number of things to think about, struggles that turn out to be common to all of us, great or small in our vision or accomplishments. I think that is where the value in this book lay for me.
3/5
The Business of IBM
The axis around which the story revolves is not Tom Watson, Jr., and it’s not Tom Watson, Sr. It’s the company which Senior grew and transformed into IBM, and which Junior effected the change over to actual computing technology in the 1960s, that the book is really about. But because Junior’s and Senior’s personalities, families, fortunes and lives were so wrapped up in the affairs of IBM, it becomes about all of those things in turn as well. That is somewhat surprising because the book is ostensibly a memoir by Junior, yet the gravity of IBM is hard to ignore in nearly every chapter of the book.
When Senior joined on with the company as general manager and, shortly thereafter, president, IBM (then Computing-Tabulating-Record Company) was an important concern but not necessarily a large one. Senior had a vision for it and something of an indomitable will, and he had experienced enough success and failure on his own in other ventures that he had an idea of what it would take to create the vision he had for the company. He built a large, organized and polished sales force, instilled high morale and unity of purpose by creating training programs, achievement awards, national sales team conventions and even company songs that everyone had to sing. He also, like many strong-willed founders, created something of a cult of personality around himself, putting his picture up at IBM offices and facilities, writing memos that were distributed widely to all staff and constantly visiting field offices and manufacturing facilities and “pressing the flesh” with company men and their wives and children, creating a kind of endearing aura of patriarchy.
In later years this intuitive, personality-driven approach was deemed problematic by Junior and other successor senior executives who believed that Senior had created a culture and cadre of Yes Men and hadn’t implemented enough standards and professional protocols that could create stability for growth. But for decades of the company’s history (essentially the first half, to date) this approach seemed to work, and fantastically so. Company publications like “Business Machines” and sales achievement distinctions like the “Hundred Percent Club” put the company’s focus on employee well-being and professionalism and incentivized outstanding achievement in the dawn of the era of lifetime commitment to big companies.
Something that shocked me as I read was how much of IBM’s growth could be attributed to solving statistical problems for the US and other national governments:
IBM more than doubled in size during the New Deal… Social Security… made Uncle Sam IBM’s biggest customer.
Wow! I suppose someone else could’ve come up with the technology as well, but it is kind of amazing to think that the evil New Deal and the disastrous Social Security pyramid scheme would have been too burdensome to administer without the existence of IBM tabulating machines which were a major time saver. It reminds me of Palantir Technologies, which helps the NSA, CIA and other foreign governments conduct surveillance work on target populations, another way to profit off of coercive interference in society’s affairs.
This trend didn’t stop with the New Deal but only started there. During WW2 the company converted many of their factories to help produce armaments (a fairly common industrial practice during the time, but still remarkable) and after the war one of the big incentives (and indeed, initial sources of research funding) for switching the company’s focus to electronic computing solutions were the ongoing “national defense” needs of the US military as the Cold War wore on.
Words of wisdom
I enjoyed the many old-timey nuggets of wisdom and rules about manners sprinkled throughout the book which were mostly remembrances of Junior of things Senior had said to him as he raised him or mentored him in the business. For example, Junior talks about the first time he road a cross-country train with his father on a business trip and the way his father taught him to clean up the wash basin in the bathroom of the railroad car to be considerate of others. “The person coming after you will judge you by how the place is left,” he tells him as he uses a towel to wipe down the basin before and after shaving in it. He talks about the importance of leaving the basin in a clean state so that the next person will have “the same chance you had”. There is a deep moral lesson here that goes well beyond the world of men shaving– this is a version of the Golden Rule, not just considering how upsetting it would be to have someone leave a place in a state of disarray for you, but then following that logic through to performing a service voluntarily for other people in trying to leave the world a little bit nicer than you found it.
In another instance, Senior lectures Junior about the practical reasons for treating even the “lowly” members of society in a kindly and generous fashion:
There is a whole class of people in the world who are in a position to poor-mouth you unless you are sensitive to them. They are the headwaiters, Pullman car conductors, porters and chauffeurs. They see you in an intimate fashion and can really knock off your reputation.
Those who enjoy shows like Downton Abbey are familiar with the idea that the “servants” of the world end up having an interesting amount of power and leverage over those they serve because they are so familiar with them they know their weaknesses, secrets and bad habits. There is something noble and self-aware in Senior’s advice here– a cultivated awareness of the reality of power and influence, mixed with a genuine empathy for treating even the relatively less fortunate with respect and concern. It might be read as “These people could really knife you if you don’t pay attention” but I think it is also honestly read as “Don’t forget these are people, too, and they want and need kindness regardless of their station in life.”
Another endearing moment comes when Senior teaches Junior about how he manages his executives:
“Well, I haven’t shaken up So-and-so for a while. So I’ll get him in and ask some questions about his department and in the process part his hair a little. He’ll get a pat on the back if I find something good or a kick in the tail if I find something bad.”
The imagery of “parting someone’s hair” says a lot about the relative authority of the two people in this “process” and while kicking someone in the tail sounds like bullying, it was clear that Senior gave quite a few pats on the back, as well, and when he dished out the ass-kickings, they might have been deserved– these were grown men dealing with a multi-million dollar business, after all, and if they weren’t bringing their problems to Senior’s attention but rather waiting for him to discover them, shame on them.
In teaching Junior about how to be an executive, Senior advised “what a chief executive does outside his business is just as important as what he does at his desk”, which was another idea I found interesting. I’ve been skeptical in the past of chief executives who seem to spend more time glad-handing than running the business. But I’ve come to appreciate that a lot of running a business simply is taking care of relationships– with customers, employees, vendors and even members of the local community. IBM’s business was dependent upon political grace, so there is perhaps a more sinister side to this advice from the standpoint of simply being a businessman but it was an interesting idea to ponder, nonetheless, that the chief executive’s identity and role extend beyond his office hours.
Senior was clearly a hard-driver and a hard-charger himself. So I was interested to hear about his daily routine:
He had his day set up so that he got up at seven, played tennis from seven-thirty to eight-thirty to stay in shape, got to work on time, did his work, went home, read great books for an hour, had dinner, listened to classical music for a while, and went to bed.
Senior ended up dying of starvation; his stomach was so scarred from stress-induced ulcers that it essentially closed up and wouldn’t let enough food in, and he didn’t want to go under the knife and so chose a fairly painful death by starvation (more on health issues in a moment). But despite this, he lived to age 82! I think that’s still considered a long time to live and I am always curious what a person’s habits were when I hear of such longevity, so it was pleasing to see that he put emphasis on daily physical activity as well as daily relaxing, contemplative activity (reading and music listening). Interestingly, breakfast didn’t seem to play a large part in his routine although Junior recounts many times when he had lunch brought in despite it being ignored in this telling.
A few other choice ideas, on restraint:
What you haven’t said, you can say anytime.
And on the value of friendship:
Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.
The son also rises
So, Senior had a knack for keen insight, but what about Junior?
While Senior was the builder, Junior was the administrator and manager. He seemed to take what he learned from Senior and build on it, so many of his notions seemed like continuations of the thoughts of Senior. For example, consider Senior’s advice about how chief executives should behave as Junior extemporizes about the relationships of businessmen:
A good businessman needs a lot of friends. Cultivating them is a laborious process, and how well you succeed is a direct result of how much effort and thoughtfulness you bring to bear.
He isn’t talking about friends in the business. He’s talking about friends outside of the business, which to me sounds like an echo of the idea that the chief executive’s job extends well beyond life in the office.
Similarly, he recounts a tale about the importance of making good introductions,
I stuck out my hand and said to him, “I’m Tom Watson Jr.”
Offering one’s name with a hand shake ensures that the other person is not put in the uncomfortable spot of being expected to remember people he’s only met once before, which engenders a sense of gratitude and respect immediately. Consider that this was the practice of an individual leading one of the largest and most well-known companies in the world and he still made the effort to be forward about his identity like this.
I also made a note of Junior’s characterization of the political structure of business:
The government has checks and balances, but a business is a dictatorship, and that is what makes it really move.
I think there is consensus building in business, too. It’s hard to keep a team cohesive and productive over a long period of time if people don’t feel like they contribute ideas and that those ideas get seriously considered. But I do understand the idea that ultimately decisions have to be made by somebody, that is, one person, and a business with a strong will behind it can make those decisions more effectively because everyone may be listened to but they don’t necessarily all get a vote. In the business world, people tend to vote by exit which is rarely an option in the world of politics.
The wealth of health
As mentioned earlier, Senior ended up choosing death by starvation when his health maladies caught up with him, though he made it to age 82. I noticed that both Junior and his younger brother (who headed up IBM’s non-US business) suffered heart attacks in their middle-age, attributed to the high stress of their positions.
Junior describes a life of almost continual travel and social functions, not just for himself but for his father and his brother. It was clear reading the book that the Watson clan and IBM executive leadership in general were part of the “global elite”, they knew dignitaries and heads of state from around the planet and were deeply connected to American political figures as well, a confusing blending of public and private prerogatives and relationships. There were many chapters where Junior described so many different locales and travels simultaneously that is almost seemed as if he was everywhere at once– at the very least he would spend long stretches of time away from home engaged in high level networking. It was a fascinating glimpse into “how the other half lives.”
But it was also terrifying from a health point of view. It is just hard to imagine this high-paced lifestyle allowing one to live with optimal health and longevity. Along with suffering a heart attack, his brother seemed to be frail enough to die from a “fall” at age 55. Junior ended up quitting his official business responsibilities following his heart attack which he reflects on with positivity in the book, saying it was a relief to have an opportunity to look critically at his life and get out while he still could. It seems to say a lot about the lifestyle he was living that he could so clearly connect his longevity to his work and chose the former over the latter.
Working with family
At the beginning of the book, Junior says that if you have the chance to go into business with your father, know that it will be difficult, but do it. I was fascinated by this strong suggestion given that he spends much of the rest of the book relating all the violent disagreements he had with his father, their latent power struggles, the continual struggles with self-esteem and even depression that he experienced living and working under the shadow of his successful father and so on.
There were many touching moments in the book where the reader is afforded a look at the parenting practices of Senior, who was truly from a pre-modern era. But there were also many that shocked my sensibilities of the proper relationship between parent and child, such as when Junior recalled how Senior handled tax documentation of his personal trust:
Each year his accountant would come around and have me sign income tax forms that were blank. He’d make an excuse that he hadn’t had time yet to fill them out. This kept up not only through college but ten years beyond, until I was a grown man with children of my own.
How would hiding this information from a child do anything but stoke their curiosity, fear and self-criticism? Why did this practice continue on even when he was a man with his own family (at which point he had long been a part of the business in a senior role)?
While the book offered many such puzzles and glimpses into family life for the accomplished Watsons, I couldn’t help but wonder how people who had achieved such greatness in so many areas had completely neglected to resolve interpersonal emotional conflicts and instead struggled with this source of unhappiness for decades. What is family for?
For me, reading about the early struggles and the early attempts at growth are always the most interesting parts of a story like Thomas Watson, Jr.’s, and IBM’s in general. I found myself less interested in what it was like being Bobby Kennedy’s friend, or getting tapped for the ambassadorship in Moscow. You can look at the history of the company and of the family and think, “It could’ve been anyone else, it’s not clear what they did that was special or unique beyond being lucky” but you can’t say they didn’t work hard, or purposefully. There’s no simple recipes or formulas for success in this book when it comes to business, family or life, but there are a number of things to think about, struggles that turn out to be common to all of us, great or small in our vision or accomplishments. I think that is where the value in this book lay for me.
3/5
December 14, 2022
When my father died in 1956—six weeks after making me head of IBM—I was the most frightened man in America.
The kind of privileged upbringing I had—private school, world travel, wealth—often leads to disaster for a son.
thanks to T. J.’s genius for selling, it was fast growing and highly profitable
I kept myself where employees could see me, out in front
personally answering an employee’s complaint, slashing the price of a new computer that failed to perform as promised
All that changed in 1970, when I had a heart attack. I was only fifty-six
Helicopters are noisy and sometimes hard to handle, but they can take you exactly where you feel like going. You can land on a at rock only ten feet by ten feet far out in the sea, or tuck into a garden behind the house of a friend.
From very early in my life I was convinced that I had something missing. I was never able to connect completely with what other people were doing.
he was the liveliest father imaginable. But for some reason his playfulness gradually diminished
Dad’s rst job, at age seventeen, was selling pianos, organs, and sewing machines to farm families o the back of a wagon. Salesmanship was his ticket into the world
My father used to say his ambition grew in stages. The more he saw of the world, the more he wanted to achieve.
My father had the ability to overcome setbacks that would have sent other young men back to the farm. Later on this optimism came out in slogans that everybody in IBM had to learn—“Make Things Happen,” “Ever Onward,” “Beat Your Best,”
He knew how to nd opportunity where none seemed to be
he used the occasion to talk his way into a job with the National Cash Register Company. That was the lucky break that made his career. The Cash, as it was called, was one of America’s best-known companies.
My father rose through the ranks at the Cash Register company, and by the time he and Mother met sixteen years later, he was Patterson’s second-in-command.
he put of getting married himself, he explained to me, because he had seen successful men who married without much thought of the future and then found themselves burdened with wives who couldn’t keep up as they rose in the world. Such men would suffer their wives or get divorced.
I’ve always been impressed with how picky he was about what he’d do next. He once explained this by saying he was sure he’d nd a job because he had a reputation for being able to sell almost anything. Quickly he rejected oers from the Electric Boat Company, a maker of submarines for the navy, and Remington Arms. With war coming in Europe these would have been very lucrative positions, but Dad gured that both rms would shrink as soon as the ghting stopped.
he wanted to be an entrepreneur like Patterson, with a share in the company’s prots, and not simply a hired manager. Yet he had no capital to buy his own rm and no promising ideas of his own to commercialize.
American industry was growing to unprecedented size, and if huge corporations were to keep from drowning in their own paperwork, they had to nd ways to automate their record keeping and accounting.
When the banker pointed out CTR already owed the Guaranty Trust four million dollars and that the condition of the business did not justify further loans, Dad said, “Balance sheets reveal the past. This loan is for the future.” It was one of his greatest sales pitches.
When I joined IBM many years later, the company was famous for high pay, generous benets, and the intense devotion of the employees to Dad. But back at the beginning, when there was hardly any money, Dad gained their loyalty with words.
Though he never owned more than about ve percent of the company, virtually his entire fortune was in IBM. If the company failed, he failed too. His only hedge was a farm in Indiana that he bought in the late 1930s when war seemed likely. He thought it was remotely possible that some unforeseen catastrophe might wreck IBM, and he told me he wanted our family to be able to return to the land.
Until I went to boarding school when I was fteen, Mother was the biggest presence in my life. She was much more accessible than Father, and always made us feel protected and loved and wanted.
Dad would make a show of admonishing us not to play hotel slot machines, lecturing about the evils of gambling—and then he’d play them himself.
The kind of privileged upbringing I had—private school, world travel, wealth—often leads to disaster for a son.
thanks to T. J.’s genius for selling, it was fast growing and highly profitable
I kept myself where employees could see me, out in front
personally answering an employee’s complaint, slashing the price of a new computer that failed to perform as promised
All that changed in 1970, when I had a heart attack. I was only fifty-six
Helicopters are noisy and sometimes hard to handle, but they can take you exactly where you feel like going. You can land on a at rock only ten feet by ten feet far out in the sea, or tuck into a garden behind the house of a friend.
From very early in my life I was convinced that I had something missing. I was never able to connect completely with what other people were doing.
he was the liveliest father imaginable. But for some reason his playfulness gradually diminished
Dad’s rst job, at age seventeen, was selling pianos, organs, and sewing machines to farm families o the back of a wagon. Salesmanship was his ticket into the world
My father used to say his ambition grew in stages. The more he saw of the world, the more he wanted to achieve.
My father had the ability to overcome setbacks that would have sent other young men back to the farm. Later on this optimism came out in slogans that everybody in IBM had to learn—“Make Things Happen,” “Ever Onward,” “Beat Your Best,”
He knew how to nd opportunity where none seemed to be
he used the occasion to talk his way into a job with the National Cash Register Company. That was the lucky break that made his career. The Cash, as it was called, was one of America’s best-known companies.
My father rose through the ranks at the Cash Register company, and by the time he and Mother met sixteen years later, he was Patterson’s second-in-command.
he put of getting married himself, he explained to me, because he had seen successful men who married without much thought of the future and then found themselves burdened with wives who couldn’t keep up as they rose in the world. Such men would suffer their wives or get divorced.
I’ve always been impressed with how picky he was about what he’d do next. He once explained this by saying he was sure he’d nd a job because he had a reputation for being able to sell almost anything. Quickly he rejected oers from the Electric Boat Company, a maker of submarines for the navy, and Remington Arms. With war coming in Europe these would have been very lucrative positions, but Dad gured that both rms would shrink as soon as the ghting stopped.
he wanted to be an entrepreneur like Patterson, with a share in the company’s prots, and not simply a hired manager. Yet he had no capital to buy his own rm and no promising ideas of his own to commercialize.
American industry was growing to unprecedented size, and if huge corporations were to keep from drowning in their own paperwork, they had to nd ways to automate their record keeping and accounting.
When the banker pointed out CTR already owed the Guaranty Trust four million dollars and that the condition of the business did not justify further loans, Dad said, “Balance sheets reveal the past. This loan is for the future.” It was one of his greatest sales pitches.
When I joined IBM many years later, the company was famous for high pay, generous benets, and the intense devotion of the employees to Dad. But back at the beginning, when there was hardly any money, Dad gained their loyalty with words.
Though he never owned more than about ve percent of the company, virtually his entire fortune was in IBM. If the company failed, he failed too. His only hedge was a farm in Indiana that he bought in the late 1930s when war seemed likely. He thought it was remotely possible that some unforeseen catastrophe might wreck IBM, and he told me he wanted our family to be able to return to the land.
Until I went to boarding school when I was fteen, Mother was the biggest presence in my life. She was much more accessible than Father, and always made us feel protected and loved and wanted.
Dad would make a show of admonishing us not to play hotel slot machines, lecturing about the evils of gambling—and then he’d play them himself.
February 7, 2025
This is one of the greatest business biographies I have ever read. It is astonishing how vividly Thomas Watson Jr. recalls his life, allowing him to write about it in such rich detail.
Although categorized as a business biography, this book goes beyond corporate achievements and focuses deeply on personal growth. Born to Thomas Watson Sr., one of the most prominent businessmen of his time, Watson Jr. struggled to find his own identity, often feeling overshadowed by his father. However, his time in the Air Force became a turning point, instilling in him a sense of confidence and leadership. Building on that experience, he joined IBM, where he and his father had a complex professional and personal relationship. Under his father’s mentorship, Watson Jr. eventually took the reins of IBM, transforming it into one of the most influential technology companies of its time and cementing his legacy as one of the best business men of his time, in his own right.
Following a health scare, he stepped away from IBM and later served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, adding yet another fascinating chapter to his life.
Although categorized as a business biography, this book goes beyond corporate achievements and focuses deeply on personal growth. Born to Thomas Watson Sr., one of the most prominent businessmen of his time, Watson Jr. struggled to find his own identity, often feeling overshadowed by his father. However, his time in the Air Force became a turning point, instilling in him a sense of confidence and leadership. Building on that experience, he joined IBM, where he and his father had a complex professional and personal relationship. Under his father’s mentorship, Watson Jr. eventually took the reins of IBM, transforming it into one of the most influential technology companies of its time and cementing his legacy as one of the best business men of his time, in his own right.
Following a health scare, he stepped away from IBM and later served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, adding yet another fascinating chapter to his life.
February 10, 2021
A strong three stars. This isn’t really the story of IBM—it’s a memoir of conflict and love between two titans of industry. I was amazed at how transparent Watson Jr. was about his emotional turmoil and shortcomings. Especially from a rich man of that era.
Modern readers will (rightly) chafe at the self-described nepotism of the Watson family, who seem to view ruling others as a divine right. But—and this is important—they did more for workers than any of their peers. They treated their people well. Maybe not their wives. But really, they saw the cracks in capitalism decades ahead of others and showed real care and concern in action: healthcare, living wages, HBCU partnerships, training women in STEM.
All in all, the Watsons are a weird, culty family that I wouldn’t want to be in but would be happy to work for.
Modern readers will (rightly) chafe at the self-described nepotism of the Watson family, who seem to view ruling others as a divine right. But—and this is important—they did more for workers than any of their peers. They treated their people well. Maybe not their wives. But really, they saw the cracks in capitalism decades ahead of others and showed real care and concern in action: healthcare, living wages, HBCU partnerships, training women in STEM.
All in all, the Watsons are a weird, culty family that I wouldn’t want to be in but would be happy to work for.
June 22, 2024
Amazing read! The journey of IBM is not only inspirational but also one that makes us realize the importance of family equations, integrity and life as a whole.
"It amazes me that two people could torture each other to the degree dad and I did and not call it quits. Our fights were deeply disturbing. They were savage primal and unstoppable. My father loved me and wanted me to thrive, I loved him and wanted to see him live his life without trauma, without strain to his health."
"But while I always tried to live up to his expectations, he was never satisfied, because no son can ever totally please his father. And when he criticized me, I found it impossible to hold back my rage."
"By that time I had very little doubt about my ability to manage IBM. I was much more concerned about whether I would be able to manage dad."
"It amazes me that two people could torture each other to the degree dad and I did and not call it quits. Our fights were deeply disturbing. They were savage primal and unstoppable. My father loved me and wanted me to thrive, I loved him and wanted to see him live his life without trauma, without strain to his health."
"But while I always tried to live up to his expectations, he was never satisfied, because no son can ever totally please his father. And when he criticized me, I found it impossible to hold back my rage."
"By that time I had very little doubt about my ability to manage IBM. I was much more concerned about whether I would be able to manage dad."
November 24, 2019
One of the best business biographies I have read. What IBM accomplished is amazing. The transition from punch cards to vacuum tubes to transistors to mainframes to pcs is something no other technology company has been able to accomplish. Tom JR was an amazing man. He was a true renaissance man. Skilled businessman, pilot, sailor, skier, father, and husband. He served his company, community and country with great success. By no means was he perfect and he faced many relationship challenges. But he is certainly someone in business today one could look at and say I want to do it his way.
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February 9, 2022I loved this book. It gave me a sense of history and showed how he and his company and family went thru different events in history. I read it a chapter at a time and sometimes a half chapter at a time. It made me remember a field trip to IBM when I was in 4th grade that became my reason to go into computers for my career later in life. I could see history being relived thru his stories and his family's interactions with those events. Wish I had kept a map to keep track of where he was and a timeline to keep track of it, but it was still very informative and fun.
April 20, 2023
It was somewhat weird to read this book. I'm not that into corporate enviroments and IBM is a proto-one. I'm not that into nepotism and the author got his job because his father was the CEO in a shareholder owned company. And yet it was very usefull in succession cases i've been a part of to understand the perspective of someone who will inherit governance of a large institution - and be good with running it.
May 15, 2023
Thomas J. Watson Jr. provides a rewarding memoir of his father's and his own life. Being the head of IBM was exciting, powerful and overly stressing for both of them; however Mr. Watson Sr.'s gregariousness and love of being at the center of it all made his life much easier. Junior other propensity to worry and fuss. Sometimes that worry and stress was justifiable, especially when the US government imposed antitrust questions upon them.
April 25, 2021
Well written and mostly interesting, I just couldn't get past the ungrateful and demanding personality of the author. As an adult, he did work hard at IBM, but he probably wouldn't have been there without his father (and the rest of his family). He criticizes family, co-workers, his kids, etc. I did enjoy learning about "the history of computers."
October 9, 2022
Este libro es muy enriquecedor, aprendes muchísimo del tema corporativo desde el nivel más bajo hasta los cargos más altos, pero también deja aprendizajes de la vida, las relaciones interpersonales y la política. A medida que avanzaba mi lectura iba tomándole más afecto al libro, sin lugar a dudas se ha convertido en uno de mis favoritos.
February 5, 2023
Very thorough book on the Watson's lives
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got is an in depth look at the lives of the two great Watson men. This book doesn't constrain itself to IBM or even technology, it's essentially two biographies in one. I can't put myself in their shoes, but I do marvel at their lives.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but what I got is an in depth look at the lives of the two great Watson men. This book doesn't constrain itself to IBM or even technology, it's essentially two biographies in one. I can't put myself in their shoes, but I do marvel at their lives.
August 22, 2017
Good read if you currently or have worked at IBM. Outlines the development and evolution of company culture and rise of a great American Company. Identifies some early pitfalls and how they got around them.
December 26, 2017
Should be mandatory reading for business students.
July 21, 2018
You've probably heard of IBMs Watson super computer. This is the story of the gentlemen it was named after.
September 21, 2019
Insider view of the beginnings of IBM with focus on development of the first main frame by the founder's son`.
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March 31, 2023The future back when.
April 20, 2024
gooddd
July 4, 2017
Get book.
June 6, 2015
A fasinating read about the life story of two legends in computer history. A father and the son who grew up rich and lived in the shadow of his successful and over powering father. It is a candid account on his lack of confidence , poor grade and rebellious behaviour growing up; his decent into depression and his young brother's breathing problem under the pressure from their father. Not the kind of life you'd imagined for a rich man's kid who never had to worry about money and lived with privileges. Fountune is a curse if you lose the drive to making out your life on your own. Tom Watson Jr was eventually as successful as his father through his hard working and constantly learning from his own mistakes. He retired at early age of 51 after a heart attack. It is also interesting to read how he lived under power , getting the power , yielding it and finally letting it go. He had a marriage crisis right after his retirement because he managed his family life as he was at IBM. He is honest with his faults and his vanity. That is probably what made him a great man.
December 2, 2013
In hard times, he saw opportunity. ~ Thomas J. Watson Jr., Father, Son & Co., Page 33 (Speaking of his father Thomas J. Watson Senior, founder of IBM)
I found this book to be an honest account of the son of the IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr.
Thomas J. Watson Jr. shares with his readers what it was like to grow up with a father who owned a company that provides business machines to the world.
He takes his readers through the journey of his younger years, to becoming the head of IBM, to retiring and then to becoming Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
This book gives insight in to the early management of IBM and the changes that took place when the computer industry was building momentum.
I found this book to be an honest account of the son of the IBM founder Thomas J. Watson Sr.
Thomas J. Watson Jr. shares with his readers what it was like to grow up with a father who owned a company that provides business machines to the world.
He takes his readers through the journey of his younger years, to becoming the head of IBM, to retiring and then to becoming Ambassador to the Soviet Union.
This book gives insight in to the early management of IBM and the changes that took place when the computer industry was building momentum.
July 27, 2018
As a computer guy, I'm shocked I'd never heard of this book before. It's thoroughly charming as an autobiography as Watson is very down to earth about the difficulties he had in his professional life and personal life and specifically the challenges of trying to succeed a legendary father.
Even though it's an autobiography, in many ways the real star is IBM and the evolution of the computer industry, especially from the late 40s to the early 70s, which is the period where Watson was heavily involved.
Great read for anyone interested specifically in the subject, or even history and biography in general.
Even though it's an autobiography, in many ways the real star is IBM and the evolution of the computer industry, especially from the late 40s to the early 70s, which is the period where Watson was heavily involved.
Great read for anyone interested specifically in the subject, or even history and biography in general.
November 19, 2013
I found it to be a very honest documentary. A little bit long, but had some very interesting sections. Watson Jr.’s role in WWII was very interesting. The race to get to market with the latest and best technology set the pattern that future market leaders still fight with to this day. Watson’s work as an ambassador to Russia after his time at IBM and slightly before the Afgan war was very interesting.
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August 30, 2007My dad worked for IBM for 25 years beginning with the time when TJ Watson Jr ran the show.
An interesting read if your life included IBM in the 70s.
People who are also sons/daughters in a family business would find it an interesting read as Watson illuminates his challenges of living in the shadow of the founder of IBM.
An interesting read if your life included IBM in the 70s.
People who are also sons/daughters in a family business would find it an interesting read as Watson illuminates his challenges of living in the shadow of the founder of IBM.
September 23, 2017
I Recommend this book to any one wanting to build a company, owned or employed. It talks of all the invaluable lessons, challenges, fears, life in it's happiness , sorrow and little things that you can recollect with lot of satisfaction even after you stop getting your pay cheque . It's a book worth reading to make work and life more loving.
June 16, 2020
Guao, , exelente libro,
Me gustó casi al final del libro cuando en un momento ,un camarada de guerra igual de viejo y antiguo como él le dice que lo reconoce en un museo de guerra me parece que en Rusia ,., ,Guao súper nostalgico, , , él admite tener cierto celos de su hermano menor, , y cierta competencia con su padre ,.. increíble hermoso libro
Me gustó casi al final del libro cuando en un momento ,un camarada de guerra igual de viejo y antiguo como él le dice que lo reconoce en un museo de guerra me parece que en Rusia ,., ,Guao súper nostalgico, , , él admite tener cierto celos de su hermano menor, , y cierta competencia con su padre ,.. increíble hermoso libro
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