The First Computer War - Father, Son, and The Future | 2

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2018

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you really “get ahead” in a war? Sometimes you don’t have to do anything, you just wait for your opponent to fumble.

And in the late 1940s, IBM’s CEO Thomas Watson Sr., did. He’s just beginning to grasp the potential of these electronic machines, and - although older than most other CEOs is desperate to stay on top. He takes his volatile temper and insecurities out on the one person who could have helped him out of this freefall: his son.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music.
0:04.8	Download the app today.
0:09.2	It's 1946 in New York.
0:12.4	A chauffeur steers a long black car toward IBM headquarters at 590 Madison Avenue.
0:19.0	In the back sits Thomas Watson Sr.
0:21.8	Lanky, impatient, and at age 72 he often finds he can't muster the energy he'd long brought
0:28.5	to his job.
0:30.4	Watson has rained as chief executive IBM for 30 years.
0:35.3	As the car pulls up, he can see the words international business machines in all capital letters
0:41.2	spread across the front of the building.
0:44.2	Once inside Watson passes through an airy first floor showroom.
0:48.6	It's open to the public and displays IBM's state-of-the-art punch card machines, the metallic
0:54.0	mechanical contraptions that process data for governments, corporations, and railways.
1:00.5	Watson basically invented the information industry and IBM dominates it.
1:05.8	He is one of the best known executives in the world.
1:09.1	On his way to the elevators, IBM employees greet him as he passes.
1:14.2	Good morning, Mr. Watson.
1:16.1	Welcome, Mr. Watson.
1:18.3	He rides the elevator to the 17th floor and steps off into an elegant central hallway,
1:24.2	panelled in oak, with black and white marble floors.
1:28.2	As Watson walks to his office door, five male secretaries greet him.
1:33.2	Most of Watson's contemporaries and other companies employ women as secretaries.
	...

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