The Greatest Capitalist Who Ever Lived: Tom Watson Jr. and the Epic Story of How IBM Created the Digital Age
Robert Watson McElvenny and Marc Wortman
PublicAffairs (October 2023)
Ethical Capitalism and the ROI of Integrity
In their informative Introduction, Robert Watson McElvenny and Marc Wortman note that Fortune magazine once identified Thomas Watson Jr. as “the greatest capitalist who ever lived” and named him among the four most significant businessmen of the 20th century, joined by Henry Ford, Alfred P. Sloan Jr., and Bill Gates.
In his review of this book for The New York Times, Tim Wu observes: “While the book’s title calls him ‘the greatest capitalist,’ it might be more accurate, if less ringingly, to call him ‘the greatest manager,’ for Watson Jr. was a much better at delegating and using his employees’ talents.” I agree. With mixed results, he struggled to manage relationships with his father Thomas Sr. and his younger brother Richard as well as his career within the IBM culture, one that his father dominated like a “feudal lord” with “absolute authority.” McElvenny and Wortman provide the results of a deep dive examination of Watson Jr’s personal talents and strengths as well as his insecurities and imperfections.
These are among the subjects of greatest intererst and value to me:
o Watson Senior ‘s experiences while employed by National Cash Register Company and what he learned from its founder and CEO, John H. Patterson
o Why Senior left NCR and eventually went to work for CTR (Computing-Tabulationing-Recording Company)
o When and why International Business Machines (IBM) was founded
o Senior’s defining characteristics as a CEO (“T.J. Watson was IBM; IBM was Watson”)
o Why Junior Watson was characterized — in his youth and adolescence — as “Terrible Tommy”
o What Junior learned from his service in the U.S. Air Force and especially from his association with Follett Bradley
o Why Junior returned to work again for IBM after his discharge from military service
o His support of the consent decree from the Department of Justice and its impacts on IBM, “for good or ill”
o What Senior and Junior shared in common both personally and professionally
o Their most significant differences
o How and why Junior responded as he did to his father’s death
o How specifically Junior and IBM helped to create the Digital Age
In the Coda, Thomas Watson Jr’s oldest grandson, Robert Watson McElvenny, shares these thoughts about him: “I believe that his greatest legacy was showing that there is no conflict between what I would call humane capitalism and profit. He rarely spoke to me about his management techniques, but emphasized each time he saw an article ridiculing business ethics that both he and his father ran a ‘clean’ company. He worked his entire career at IBM and in his many leadership roles after that to pursue and promote ethical capitalism and to make a positive difference in the lives of those who worked for him…He cared about being fair, cared that all the people at IBM shared in the wealth they helped to create, and wanted the products that IBM built and the people it employed to make a better world.”