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How IBM's gamble ushered in the computer age
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Date:2025-04-17 21:43:57
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.
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