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.
