Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Watson, Jr., Thomas J.; Petre, Peter

Published by Bantam Books, New York, 1990

About this Item

Fine unread condition black boards with a black cloth spine and gold spine lettering contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes Author Dedication; Introduction; Acknowledgments; Selected Bibliography and Index. Illustrated with two sections of black-and-white photographic plates. " "This is the story of my father and myself, of my years alone at IBM's helm, and of what I've done since leaving the company. Father and I played out our rivalry and our love for each other in the great American business that he created. I never declared myself the winner in the contest between us, but I hope I was successful enough that people could say I was the worthy son of a worthy father." FATHER, SON & CO. In the course of sixty years, Thomas J. Watson Sr. and his son, Thomas J. Watson Jr., together built the colossus that is IBM, one of the largest and most profitable business enterprises on earth. This is their story: a riveting and revealing account of two men who loved each other - and fought each other - with a terrible fierceness. The father rose from penniless sewing-machine salesman to confidant of presidents; one of America's great entrepreneurs, he was a selling genius who gave the world the motto THINK. But is was Thomas J. Watson Jr. who put IBM into computers, leading the company through the longest and most spectacular burst of growth in business history. Under Tom Watson Jr., IBM gave birth to the computer age and came to embody the very idea and ideal of the modern corporation. Thomas J. Watson Jr. was a tall, awkward boy with no self-confidence - always in scrapes, more interested in flying airplanes than in learning from books. He had no inclination toward business, yet at age thirteen he posed at his father's side in a derby hat an a man's suit, already IBM's heir apparent. With great candor and insight, Watson writes of his "thousand-dollar-a-day" father, America's highest -paid businessman, an executive so formidable and charismatic that his leadership evolved into a personality cult. Finally, World War II and a role as a military pilot setting up America's Lend-Lease program in the U.S.S.R. took the author far away from his father's overpowering influence. He emerged as his own man. and truly his father's son. Father, Son & Co. is an eloquent first-person account of a family drama that changed the face of American business. Here are the management insights that shaped IBM and its unique corporate culture; the quirks that made Thomas Watson Sr. one of America's most loved and feared bosses; the tough-minded decisions by Thomas J. Watson Jr. that completed the transformation of IBM from a manufacturer of tabulating machines and time clocks into the world's largest computing company, a $7.5 billion-a-year business. Tom Watson Jr. became a business leader, yet he frequently took positions unpopular with the business majority - denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy and condemning the Vietnam War and the arms race. Unforgettably told by the man Fortune magazine called "the most successful capitalist in history," Father, Son & Co. is the intimate story behind a father-son succession as turbulent as it was inspiring: a lesson for fathers who dream for their children, and for children burdened by those expectations. Father, Son & Co. is also about power: being subject to it, striving for it, inheriting it, wielding it, and finally letting it go, as the author did when a heart attack led him to leave IBM and seek new challenges, both physical and intellectual. He has flown jets, helicopters, and stunt biplanes; taken his sailboat to the Antarctic; and in his public life served as President Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Moscow. Father, Son & Co. is at once an important history of American business and a testament to American ingenuity and values." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps. Seller Inventory # 005916

Bibliographic Details

Title: Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond...

Publisher: Bantam Books, New York

Publication Date: 1990

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Edition: 1st Edition