{"product_id":"building-ibm-shaping-an-industry-and-its-technology-9780262161473","title":"Building IBM: Shaping an Industry and Its Technology","description":"\u003cp\u003eNo company of the twentieth century achieved greater success and engendered more admiration  respect  envy  fear  and hatred than IBM. Building IBM tells the story of that companyhow it was formed  how it grew  and how it shaped and dominated the information processing industry. Emerson Pugh presents substantial new material about the company in the period before 1945 as well as a new interpretation of the postwar era.  Granted unrestricted access to IBMs archival records and with no constraints on the way he chose to treat the information they contained  Pugh dispels many widely held myths about IBM and its leaders and provides new insights on the origins and development of the computer industry.  Pugh begins the story with Herman Holleriths invention of punched-card machines used for tabulating the U.S. Census of 1890  showing how Holleriths inventions and the business he established provided the primary basis for IBM. He tells why Hollerith merged his company in 1911 with two other companies to create the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company  which changed its name in 1924 to International Business Machines. Thomas J. Watson  who was hired in 1914 to manage the merged companies  exhibited remarkable technological insight and leadershipin addition to his widely heralded salesmanshipto build Holleriths business into a virtual monopoly of the rapidly growing punched-card equipment business.  The fascinating inside story of the transfer of authority from the senior Watson to his older son  Thomas J. Watson Jr.  and the companys rapid domination of the computer industry occupy the latter half of the book. In two final chapters  Pugh examines conditions and events of the 1970s and 1980s and identifies the underlying causes of the severe probems IBM experienced in the 1990s.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45665891876917,"sku":"ByrdShop_0262161478","price":46.24,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780262161473.jpg?v=1782413091","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/building-ibm-shaping-an-industry-and-its-technology-9780262161473","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}