Book Review: The Maverick and His Machine: Thomas Watson, Sr. and the Making of IBM

This book read like a novel, in fact a better novel than many that i have read. It starts with white collar crime then a life remade through determination, then rich business exploits and adventures follow, but it has drama and ups and downs. The central character is a charismatic super-hero but he also has a number of fantastic flaws. There is a lot of family dysfunction and tragedy, but still the son receives the baton from the father and excels his achievements in many ways.

This is about Thomas Watson Sr. who built IBM to be a great corporation by building a great culture and becoming an embodiment of that culture. IBM is a very customer oriented and sales oriented company. But it also made huge R&D investments, spearheaded enormous number of technical advancements and did a number of "bet the farm" technological initiatives. So they are no doubt a technology company. But the important thing about IBM is that it a very customer and sales oriented company. And the reason lies in it's history and its roots laid out by Thomas Watson Sr. And this book essentially gets into the essence of what IBM is all about by dissecting the life of Mr. Watson.

Some of the fascinating things to learn from this book are how the computing era dawned from the mechanical calculators and the cash registers. Mr. Watson figured out how to sell technology long before others did. This explains totally the "IBM Middleware commercials" which only talks about the solutions and the business benefits and never gets into the technological mumbo-jumbo.

Lou Gerstener in his book: Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? Inside IBM's Historic Turnaround
talks about how his turnaround job was essentially to re-establish IBM's culture like it was under the Watsons. Reading this book will really help in understanding Lou's book and what he accomplished at IBM.

When I read that book, Mr. Watson's persona often reminded me of Larry Ellison (Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle ) with their outsized ego, penchant for publicity and self-promotion and impeccable business instincts. I was delighted to find out that the author thought the same too.

DNA: The Secret of Life by James D. Watson and Andrew Berry

I could not have received a more enlightening introduction to the DNA and Genetic Sciences and BioTechnology than this book from a worthy and eminently illuminating author - Dr. Watson.
He weaves his book with tales, trivia, history and facts and information as well as deeply involved scientific subject matter from the world of DNA and Genetic Sciences.

From DNA fingerprinting to Genetically modified Corn and Potatoes that is ubiquitous in the Soda, Sweeteners, Chips and Fries, I bet that no one living in the US is left untouched by the genetic technologies.

What i liked about Dr. Watson's book is that parts of it is history and tales around this large subject area: Biology, Genetics, Forensics, Law, Science, Technology, etc. I listened to the audiobook version of the book so that style works well for the audiobook. I think the printed version might feel excessively long winded.

Dr. Watson is a controversial figure. I do not agree with all the ideas that he espouses. Especially in the last chapter, he argues for aggressively pursuing Gene Therapy and advocates differential learning programs to account for the difference in learning potentials that are dictated by the genes. I thought those arguments were not clearly articulated and I do not agree with all those ideas.

In any case, for a novice to these subjects, this book presents the best choice by weaving several threads in this large story and presenting how all these connect and intertwine. The blurb says this book is an "Instant Classic". I think I agree.