Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
View all episodes
By NPR
4.6
91199,119 ratings
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
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.
Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices
NPR Privacy Policy
More shows like The Indicator from Planet Money
View all
Marketplace Tech
1,272 Listeners
Marketplace Morning Report
890 Listeners
Marketplace
8,649 Listeners
Planet Money
30,830 Listeners
Marketplace All-in-One
1,358 Listeners
Freakonomics Radio
32,260 Listeners
The NPR Politics Podcast
25,853 Listeners
Make Me Smart
5,497 Listeners
Up First from NPR
56,191 Listeners
Throughline
16,020 Listeners
Short Wave
6,259 Listeners
Consider This from NPR
6,056 Listeners
People I (Mostly) Admire
2,137 Listeners
Planet Money Summer School
170 Listeners
The Economics of Everyday Things
1,610 Listeners
Planet Money: We Bought a Toxic Asset
0 Listeners
Planet Money: We Set Up a Shell Company
5 Listeners
Planet Money: We Invested in Gold
0 Listeners