How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
Former IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. sits at one of the electronic data processing machines made by his company, May 24, 1956. (AP Photo) ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption
Former IBM CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr. sits at one of the electronic data processing machines made by his company, May 24, 1956. (AP Photo)
ASSOCIATED PRESSIn the book of corporate folklore, former IBM CEO Thomas Watson Jr. deserves a special spot. Specifically, the massive gamble he took in 1964 to introduce the System/360, which had the potential to undermine his own company's entire business model. Today on the show, an interview with author Marc Wortman on what Watson Jr.'s decision reveals about the fragile relationship between innovation and destruction.
Marc Wortman is co-author of the new book The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson, Jr., and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age.
For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.
Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.
Correction Oct. 24, 2023
In a previous version of this episode, we stated that Thomas Watson Jr. fought on the side of the United States in World War II while IBM, under his father's leadership, was doing business with the Nazi regime. As a World War II pilot, Watson didn't fight in combat missions, but some of his missions did take him through combat zones where he faced enemy fire. And while IBM did sell technology to the Nazi government in the years leading up to the U.S.'s involvement in World War II, by the time the U.S. entered the war and Watson was serving in the war, the German government had seized the assets of American companies, curtailing IBM's control over its German operations.