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The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived

Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age

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The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived

Auteur(s): Ralph Watson McElvenny, Marc Wortman
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“A compelling new biography… [The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived] spins the Watsons into near-Shakespearean figures, as if ‘Succession’ were set in the era of ‘Mad Men’.”​ The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

The enduring story of Thomas Watson Jr.—a figure more important to the creation of the modern world than Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, and Morgan.

Nearly fifty years into IBM’s existence, Thomas Watson Jr. undertook the biggest gamble in business history when he “bet the farm” on the creation of the IBM System/360, the world’s first fully integrated and compatible mainframe computer. As CEO, Watson drove a revolution no other company—then or now—would dare, laying the foundation for the digital age that has transformed every society, corporation, and government.

The story of Watson being “present at the creation” of the digital age is intertwined with near-Shakespearean personal drama. While he put IBM and its employees at risk, Watson also carried out a family-shattering battle over the future of the company with his brother Dick. This titanic struggle between brothers led to Dick’s death and almost killed Watson Jr. himself.

Though he was eventually touted by Fortune magazine as “the greatest capitalist who ever lived,” Watson’s directionless, playboy early years made him an unlikely candidate for corporate titan. How he pulled his life together and, despite personal demons, paved the way for what became a global industry is an epic tale full of drama, inspiration, and valuable lessons in leadership, risk-taking, and social responsibility.




Affaires Comportement organisationnel et travail Histoire et culture Professionnels et universitaires Technologie Militaire Aviation Gestion Socialisme

Ce que les critiques en disent

“A compelling new biography… [The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived] spins the Watsons into near-Shakespearean figures, as if ‘Succession’ were set in the era of ‘Mad Men’.”
The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice
“A briskly told biography of Thomas J. Watson Jr., IBM’s mid-20th-century CEO, makes clear that the history of the company offers much more than an object lesson about complacent Goliaths...IBM was remarkably prescient in making the leap from mechanical to electronic technologies, helping usher in the digital age.”
The Atlantic
“A riveting tale, one well worth telling, that will be appreciated by fans of Succession. To the public, IBM once looked like that most staid of corporations, a bastion of suited yes-men with lifetime employment. Wortman and McElvenny tell the dramatic family saga behind that image. They also show even the ‘greatest capitalist’ sometimes worked alongside the federal government to produce landmark achievements, from Social Security to military-systems technology.”—Beverly Gage, John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History, Yale University, and author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning G-Man

“Tortured by relations with both his father and his brother, Tom Watson Jr. managed to use his personal demons as fuel to build the company that launched the computer age and earn the epitaph from Fortune captured in the book’s title: The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived. His story is unflinching and makes for a highly readable history of both a man and a company that dominated much of the last half of the twentieth century. A real-life Succession drama.”

Alan Murray, CEO, Fortune Media, and author of Tomorrow’s Capitalist

“Watson Jr. stands alongside Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in the pantheon of tech leaders who have changed our world. Anyone wanting to learn his methods of inspiring innovation and creativity in a modern American corporation must read The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived.”

Craig Nelson, New York Times–bestselling author of Rocket Men
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This was a reasonably good book, but as it went on, I found myself more interested in the rest of the IBM story, than this leader. That could be partly because I didn’t grow to like him all that much as a leader, plus I didn’t like how he treated his spouse and kids. I did like learning how DOS was created. If you worked in technology in the early days, or have ever worked for IBM, you’ll probably appreciate this book more than me.

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