Current:Home > FinanceHow IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age -×
How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
View
Date:2025-04-14 15:28:34
In 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.
veryGood! (83593)
Related
- Pressure on a veteran and senator shows what’s next for those who oppose Trump
- Body of skier believed to have died 22 years ago found on glacier in the Austrian Alps
- European firefighters and planes join battle against wildfires that have left 20 dead in Greece
- Ecuador votes to stop oil drilling in the Amazon reserve in historic referendum
- What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
- 'We didn’t get the job done:' White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf's patience finally runs out
- Why Priscilla Presley Knew Something Was Not Right With Lisa Marie in Final Days Before Death
- TikToker VonViddy Dies by Suicide at 32
- 'Most Whopper
- Whistle while you 'woke'? Some people are grumpy about the live-action 'Snow White' movie
Ranking
- Backstage at New York's Jingle Ball with Jimmy Fallon, 'Queer Eye' and Meghan Trainor
- Selena Gomez's Sex and the City Reenactment Gets the Ultimate Stamp of Approval From Kim Cattrall
- Cargo plane crash kills 2 near central Maine airport
- Cozy up in Tokyo's 'Midnight Diner' for the TV version of comfort food
- Retirement planning: 3 crucial moves everyone should make before 2025
- With hectic broadcast schedule looming, Kirk Herbstreit plans to 'chill' on prep work
- Japanese farmer has fought for decades to stay on his ancestral land in the middle of Narita airport
- Philadelphia police officer who fatally shot man suspended after video contradicts initial account
Recommendation
South Korea's acting president moves to reassure allies, calm markets after Yoon impeachment
First GOP debate kicks off in Milwaukee with attacks on Biden, Trump absent from the stage
Southern Indiana egg farmer John Rust announces bid for Republican nod for US Senate in 2024.
Titans cornerback Caleb Farley's father, killed in home explosion, pushed son's NFL dream
Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
Gov. Evers creates task force to study AI’s affect on Wisconsin workforce
Minnesota names first Black chief justice of state Supreme Court, Natalie Hudson
Tropical storm hits Caribbean, wildfires rage in Greece. What to know about extreme weather now