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Title: Father, Son & Co. : My Life at IBM and Beyond by THOMAS J. WATSON, PETER PETRE ISBN: 0-553-38083-4 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 29 February, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Readable portrait of an IT empire
Comment: It's always interesting to read what sons have to write about their fathers. Thomas J. Watson Jr.'s book is no exception to this rule. Although in many ways the book is a business biography, the relationship between the two men creeps in between the lines (almost more than you could imagine that the author had intended it to). Watson Jr. was clearly influenced by his iconic father, both for better and for worse. The book is a lot about how that influence (and the escape from that influence) shaped the company that is IBM today.
Obviously the company has gone through many changes since this book has written-- Gerstner, downsizing, eBusiness, Business Consulting Services, etc. But still, it's remarkable how much of the culture is recognizable back to the very earliest days.
I have a special interest in the subject matter, so it's hard for me to say how fascinating someone without an IBM attachment would find the book. But as far as I was concerned it was an interesting book executed well.
Rating: 3
Summary: A somewhat interesting and fairly candid account of IBM
Comment: Although not exactly riveting, this book does provide an interesting and readable history of IBM from the view of Thomas Watson Jr. who took over control of IBM after his father, Thomas Watson Sr.. Although much has happened to IBM since then (the job cuts, the internet boom, etc.), this is a fascinating glimpse at the evolution of big blue and the culture it once had.
The Watsons did not start IBM but they did oversee its growth into "Big Blue". Some of the anecdotes are quite memorable, the strict sales "uniform" (including sock suspenders), the refining and gentrifiying of the sales staff & executives, Thomas Sr. teaching his son to clean-up the bathroom on the train, the high-flyer told to forgo his tenant problems by Watson Sr.. It seems all tycoons and corporations have some skeletons in their cupboards and IBM is no exception. According to the book, Thomas Sr. and other senior executives at IBM started a business buying up old IBM equipment so prevent a second-hand market developing that would eat into IBM's market. It almost landed the Thomas Sr. and his colleagues in prison. Watson Sr. spent a great deal of time developing himself and his people to become refined, gentlemen with values and priorities. In these sad days of scum CEOs & executives, duplicitous companies, corrupt accountants & lawyers and valueless company "books" (Enron, WorldComm, Tyco, Merrill-Lynch, Arthur-Anderson, Martha Stewart,...) the incident may seem like grist to the mill but at that time it must have been a huge blow to the man and the company. A decent book if you have an interest in IBM or the history of the computer business.
Rating: 5
Summary: better than a novel
Comment: This book tells one of the most fascinating, indeed rivetting, stories that I have ever read. It is about the building of one of the great American businesses of the 20C, but also much much more: it is about the conflict of an extraordinarily hard-driving father and his talented though psychologically burdened and rebellious son. From the beginning, they were at eachothers' throats and never relented in their conflict, even when it became evident that the son's genius surpassed that of his father to build an empire that can only be compared to the accomplishments of the first two Caesars, Julius and Augustus. The book also covers a good deal of American business history from the great depression to the beginning of the stagnation of the 1970s and early 1980s. Thus, it can be read on numerous levels.
There are so many insights in it that it will bear re-reading for a long time to come. Watson Jr. was acutely aware of the cost of success and was brutally honest about his own failings as a manager and family man. I find myself remembering scenes in that book, running them in my mind as examples from which to learn.
Warmly recommended.
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Title: The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM by Kevin Maney ISBN: 0471414638 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 04 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround by Louis V. Gerstner Jr. ISBN: 0060523794 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao ISBN: 0140263616 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Where the Girls Are : Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas ISBN: 0812925300 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 28 March, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The HP Way : How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard ISBN: 0887308171 Publisher: HarperBusiness Pub. Date: 05 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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