Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) was an American business executive. As CEO of International Business Machines (IBM) 1914–55, Watson built one of the world’s most prominent corporations. As the world’s dominant manufacturer of business machines and computers, IBM led a revolution in the business world that ushered the information age.
Born in Campbell, New York, Watson joined the sales staff of the National Cash Register (NCR) Company in Dayton, Ohio, and he rose to the post of general sales manager of the company under the tutelage of its founder and president, John Henry Patterson.
In 1913, Watson joined a smaller competitor, Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR,) a maker of electrical punch-card computing systems and other products. CTR soon grew into IBM. Watson gave pep talks, enforced strict dress code, and posted the now-famous slogan “Think” in company offices. He also introduced IBM’s famed sales culture—having been a salesman himself, Watson insisted that IBM salespeople know how to install and service products as well as sell them.
By the time he retired in 1955, Watson had turned around IBM from debt to having total assets of $630 million and from fewer than 4,000 employees to 41,000. In the ensuing decades, under Watson’s son Thomas, Jr., IBM came to dominate the emerging computer market, and control 80% of the U.S. market. IBM also became a paradigm for corporate planning, research, and customer- and employee-loyalty.
Thomas and Marva Belden wrote the biography The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of Thomas J. Watson (1962,) and William Rodgers, Think: A Biography of the Watsons and IBM (1969.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Whenever an individual or a business decides that success has been attained, progress stops.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Change
Within us all there are wells of thought and dynamos of energy which are not suspected until emergencies arise. Then oftentimes we find that it is comparatively simple to double or triple our former capacities and to amaze ourselves by the results achieved.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Every time we’ve moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Risk
A manager is an assistant to his men.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Management
The way to succeed is to double your error rate.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
You don’t hear things that are bad about your company unless you ask. It is easy to hear good tidings, but you have to scratch to get the bad news.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Business
The man who does not take pride in his own performance performs nothing in which to take pride.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Performance
Prayer is the golden key that opens heaven.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Prayer
Would you like me to give you a formula for … success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure… You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Topics: Success & Failure, Success, Failure, Mistakes
Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
If you want to be a big company tomorrow, you have to start acting like one today.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
To sin because mercy abounds is the devil’s logic; he that sins because of God’s mercy, shall have judgment without mercy.—Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Jack Welch American Businessperson
Andrew Grove Hungarian-born American Businessperson
Henry Ford American Businessperson
Ted Turner American Businessperson
Harvey Samuel Firestone American Industrialist
Robert Kiyosaki American Businessperson
Allen Klein American Businessperson
W. Clement Stone American Self-help Guru
Clarence Francis American Business Executive
Richard DeVos American Businessman, Philanthropist