<div dir="ltr">Let me add, with my prejudice of having spent over 38 years at IBM, that Tom has tapped into a very large issue of how powerful influential people affect organizations and societies. My study of Watson Sr. suggests Tom is spot on: two confident managers willing to take responsibility for "making things happen," but in the case of Watson with a greater dignity and sense of values (my apologies to those who appreciate President Trump, this is all relative). I have grown to admire Watson Sr. even more as I have worked on writing a history of IBM (almost finished). In the process, I have concluded that Watson Jr. was an even better executive than his father--perfect for his time--and more for historians, that his brother, Arthur, is a deeply under appreciated if tragic figure. Tom, congratulations on a thoughtful, indeed useful, piece of writing. Jim</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 4:59 PM, Dr. Michael Dobe, Sr. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:michael.dobe@gmail.com" target="_blank">michael.dobe@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div>Thanks, Tom. After reading your article, I would echo your sentiment when you confess to "feeling more fond of vain, pompous old Thomas
Watson Sr., and the empire he created, than I ever thought possible." As you point out, Leonard Cohen did say it best. <br><br>Nice timing for releasing the article I think. A year into this, it is
time to take stock. Your article is a very helpful contribution as we
all take a deep breath and prepare for 2018. Will be sharing with colleagues and friends as we ring in the new year!<br><br></div>Michael<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Thu, Dec 28, 2017 at 3:32 PM, Thomas Haigh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thomas.haigh@gmail.com" target="_blank">thomas.haigh@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><div link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" lang="EN-US"><div class="m_-2057108407064913748m_-2689486678808772009WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal">Hello SIGCIS,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Hope everyone is having a pleasant holiday. I just wanted to let you all know that my short article “Defining American Greatness: IBM from Watson to Trump” just appeared in the Jan 2018 issue of Communications of the ACM. ACM agreed to make this one open access, in hopes of reaching a broader audience: <a href="https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2018/1/223891-defining-american-greatness/fulltext" target="_blank">https://cacm.acm.org/magazines<wbr>/2018/1/223891-defining-<wbr>american-greatness/fulltext</a>. Thanks to Jim Cortada for comments, and to Bill Aspray who has recently stepped down from many years of editorial work helping to shepherd historical material into Communications. <u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">The argument is that IBM founder Thomas Watson Sr. and Donald Trump have a surprising amount in common, including an obsession with “greatness,” but that the ways in which they differ tell us a lot about how America, and global capitalism, have changed over the past century. This seemed like a chance to make IBM’s long history seem more relevant, and, when the parallels become more explicit in the conclusion, to approach Trumpism from a relatively novel direction. Also, it finishes with Leonard Cohen, which may be another first for CACM. Hopefully the computer scientists are not going to complain.<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">There is a SIGCIS connection: the piece is deeply informed by a pair of panels on IBM I organized via the SIGCIS list for the Business History Conference a few years ago (Frankfurt meeting). The argument that IBM had been a “model corporation” in different eras comes from the talk I developed for that panel. This argument is combined here with details from my ongoing work with Petri Paju on the history of IBM in Europe (our article “IBM’s Tiny Peripheral: Finland and the Tensions of Transnationality” should be out early next year in Business History Review).<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Best wishes,<u></u><u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tom<u></u><u></u></p></div></div><br></div></div>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/piperm<wbr>ail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/listin<wbr>fo.cgi/members-sigcis.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br></div>
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This email is relayed from members at <a href="http://sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">sigcis.org</a>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>pipermail/members-sigcis.org/</a> and you can change your subscription options at <a href="http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://lists.sigcis.org/<wbr>listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.<wbr>org</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div>James W. Cortada</div><div>Senior Research Fellow</div>
<div>Charles Babbage Institute</div><div>University of Minnesota</div>
<div><a href="mailto:jcortada@umn.edu" target="_blank">jcortada@umn.edu</a></div>
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