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

Kevin Maney's book on Thomas Watson Sr. describes a prideful, egotistical man driven to succeed. Very informative and well researched- Maney yaks as well as he always has.

All great stories have a good guy and a bad guy. In this story, it's the same guy. Thomas Watson, Sr., by sheer force of personality, created IBM.The best part of this book is the IBM songs at the end of every chapter. They are hillarious, but probably no more so than some of the silly cheers dot.coms used to pump up their employees.But back to the story: Mr. Watson created the first tech growth company of the 20th century. Mr. Maney had unbelievable access to Mr. Watson's personal notes and correspondence as the primary resource to tell how he created IBM. Some of the details about meetings, drawn from the transcribed minutes, give an eerie "you are there" quality to the book. One feels almost as terrorized as the executives in those meetings.In reading the book, one gets the clear message that Mr. Maney would have really liked to have met Mr. Watson. He truly admires his subject while at the same time showing warts and all. This is not a soft treatment of Mr. Watson. Yet, you can almost hear Mr. Maney saying between the lines, "I just wish I could have met that old S.O.B."This book holds great detail but is an easy read. Mr. Maney's style covers the point without belaboring it. The book is often funny, sometimes sad but never disappointing.

If IBM and computers are synonymous, so are Watson and IBM. Whatever the criticisms and the controversies surrounding the 3 magical alphabets in blue, IBM is IBM. To build such a company from ground up, offering solutions to business and scientific computing and thereby acting as the catalyst for the process of economic progress during the most part of the twentieth century is by no means an ordinary feat. That was exactly the material Thomas Watson Sr was made of. Watson has done his job and done it well and now Kevin Maney completes the rest by bringing this story in a truly remarkable manner to our bookshelves. It is difficult not to fall in love with Watson Sr and his beloved company even half way through the book. From his humble beginnings to the misfortune at NCR, for nearly forty years Watson Sr is just another story of struggles, ups and downs. But to him, life just begins at forty with his job at CTR and of course the birth of Tom Watson Jr. The birth of IBM and its growth under the paternalistic care of Watson Sr through depressions, wars, booms and uncertainties gets a lion's share of coverage in this book. Watson Sr took big business risks bordering on a propensity to gamble, pushing IBM into higher orbits. Luck is the word the author takes recourse to while describing these successes. The next logical part of the book deals with the succession plan at IBM that is a story by itself. Father, Son and Co by Tom Jr is widely quoted in these pages. The father's affection for his sons Tom Jr and Dick, his struggle to reconcile their differences and the frequent fights with Tom Jr are very close to what Tom Jr himself has described in his book.The chapters on transformation of IBM into the era of electronics under Tom Jr and the trust suit that had a severe personal impact on Watson Sr deserve commendation.While reading the pages where the old man bids goodbye to IBM and to this world, I stood up in salute to this great man.

I've generally not been a huge fan of business biographies...they can get very much bogged down in transactional specifics and company arcana, not to mention shoot-from-the-hip hindsight. This Watson biography, though, is very different and exceptionally engrossing, for two reasons: One, because Maney, whose USA Today columns are pretty much always highly entertaining, is a terrific storyteller, and two, because it seems Watson was nuts enough to have stenographers in his boardroom and all kinds of other meetings so as to preserve his words and wisdom for the ages (not something today's Sarbanes-Oxley-bound CEO's are hurrying to do!). Maney took that source material and turned it into what I found to be a very interesting page turner that's a great read for anyone interested in the history of business -- any business, not just IBM. Maney spends a fair amount of time explaining how Watson had large early-career successes at NCR, got into very deep yogurt with the feds for anti-trust activities, and then bounced back from that taint to create the world's first great technology company. It's also fascinating, given our three year old economic malaise, to see how Watson steered IBM through the Great Depression and powered it forward into the modern era.A very vivid and worthwhile book.

Ok, I admit to being a Maney fan. His trademark wit and wisdom about the tech industry are legendary.While his wit twinkles throughout this book, it's his insight and ability to weave a fascinating tale that are truly on display here.Watson, while no saint, deserves his legendary status. He created new ways of doing business during a time of great change and upheaval. While much of industry and finance were rife with hucksterism and scandal, Watson (ultimately) preached a focus on ethics, customers, quality, employees, and teamwork - all messages that resonate today. In an eerie way, we find ourselves living in similar tumultuous times that echo back to the early and defining Watson years. It makes this story even more riveting, and the lessons that it teaches truly relevant today.This is clearly a serious piece of research masquerading as a 'can't put it down' bestseller.Watson's story is a must read for every businessperson who aspires to greatness.