The best biography ever written of Watson Sr

Reviewed by Unai Alejandre Garcia, 2007-12-22

It is a very easy-to-read book. You find yourself goin' on and on readin' and you can finish the book in a couple of days. I recommend it to everybody. It is very interesting, even if you don't like or have never read a biography. Thomas Watson Sr was such an interesting man and such a succesful businessman that it is more than worth reading this book. On top you get to know a lot of the son of Thomas Watson, Tom Watson Jr and of the IBM history which is as much interesting as its creator's.
The only negative aspects are the quality of the paper, which is poor, and the margins, too narrow for the size of the font(a little bit big I think)

A good read

Reviewed by D. S. Sedov, 2006-12-29

Before I get to the review, let me say that this book gets a 10 for content. It gets only a 2 for style.

I was drawn to this book shortly after reading Lou Gerstner's "Who Says Elephants Can't Dance" (truly an excellent book, esp since it was written without a ghost writer), who makes many references to the old IBM. This book certainly paints the complete picture of what old IBM was.

Manney begins by talking about Watson's upbringing, then draws you into his times at NCR and quick rise to the top. He makes many pauses to describe the nature of character of the folks that would become major influences on Watson's business sense. He even throws in a few amusing anecdotes along the way. Then he dives into the incitement and the flood that would convince Watson of true value of integrity.

The first chapter or so on C-T-R, how Watson got the job, started off and some initial challenges are good. Then the book goes into non-linear time line and starts to loose you. For instance, Maney divides chapters into sections. One section could end in 1934 talking about Watson's big break, the next would be a personal anecdote from 1920s, the next would start off in 1917 and talk about events that lead to Watson nearly bankrupting the company. The next chapter would be a repeat, and you would again seemingly randomly jump from 1930s to 20s for no apparent reason. I found myself going back and forth many times trying to figure out how this even in '34 relates to the other event in '34 five pages ago.

Still, if you are a fan of start-from-nothing-climb-to-the-top stories, this is an absolute must read. Maney captures the essence of Watson, like very few authors could. He gives a balanced view of his personal and public lives, and most importantly, he understands that IBM's success was dependent on many people, not just Watson and so he gives them a significant amount of screen time as well.

Thorough and well researched

Reviewed by emm, 2006-07-13

Kevin Maney's book on Thomas Watson Sr. describes a prideful, egotistical man driven to succeed. Very informative and well researched- Maney yaks as well as he always has.

Highly Recommended!

Reviewed by Rolf Dobelli, 2003-10-15

This book seems to have been written primarily because the author learned about the existence of boxes of Thomas Watson's papers that had never been read by any biographer or journalist. In some cases, the author's access to these new materials does help fill in some minor gaps in the existing accounts of Watson's life. And cumulatively, they take some of the shine off the legend, impressing upon one how humdrum the daily life of even a business titan must be. This book is reasonably well written and packed with memorable anecdotes. While it doesn't offer stunning new insights, we commend it as a readable, accessible and balanced introduction to one of the greatest executives of the twentieth century.

The Story of a Leader

Reviewed by Colin Martin, 2003-07-24

All great stories have a good guy and a bad guy. In this story, it's the same guy. Thomas Watson, Sr., by sheer force of personality, created IBM.

The best part of this book is the IBM songs at the end of every chapter. They are hillarious, but probably no more so than some of the silly cheers dot.coms used to pump up their employees.

But back to the story: Mr. Watson created the first tech growth company of the 20th century. Mr. Maney had unbelievable access to Mr. Watson's personal notes and correspondence as the primary resource to tell how he created IBM. Some of the details about meetings, drawn from the transcribed minutes, give an eerie "you are there" quality to the book. One feels almost as terrorized as the executives in those meetings.

In reading the book, one gets the clear message that Mr. Maney would have really liked to have met Mr. Watson. He truly admires his subject while at the same time showing warts and all. This is not a soft treatment of Mr. Watson. Yet, you can almost hear Mr. Maney saying between the lines, "I just wish I could have met that old S.O.B."

This book holds great detail but is an easy read. Mr. Maney's style covers the point without belaboring it. The book is often funny, sometimes sad but never disappointing.