"Hindsight gained from being singed by fire is good training for acquiring foresight."

Herbert Hoover, The Problems of Lasting Peace

The Twentieth Century IBM Home Page
Date Published: July 19, 2021
Date Modified: November 28, 2023
 IBM's Twentieth-Century Corporate Practices and Leadership Heritage
This is a place to remind IBMers about their history and heritage.
​The topics on this site vary from just tidbits of information about IBM and its employees that are found on a day-to-day basis such as the "Songs of the IBM," or they are stories resulting from months of in-depth research. In many cases, this is research that has never been done before.

​These in-depth articles include the "The Story of the IBM Machine Records Units (MRUs) in World War II" and "Thomas J. Watson Sr. and the USO Camp Shows." Both of these articles took months of investigation, and they had never been researched and documented.
National Archives Identifier: 2049853
It is amazing how few people know how much IBM contributed to our country politically and socially as well as economically. If you use the material here, please link back to it to give the appropriate credit to this personal effort [it also helps our SEO efforts]. Users are not tracked on this web site, nor are visitors distracted by advertising pop-ups. Link with confidence knowing that we will treat your readers with respect.
If you want to contribute, contact us and contribute your story, send in your IBM memorabilia, or buy, read and review one of our books about IBM: THINK Again!, A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant, or The World's Greatest Salesman.
The stories in this section can be accessed from the "20TH Century IBM" menu above or ​by selecting one of the menu buttons below which are supported with additional descriptive text.
 IBM's Twentieth Century Performance and Practices
In late 2011, IBMers on LinkedIn's "The Greater IBM Connection" debated "Who Was the Greatest IBM Chief Executive Officer of the Last Century?"

​It was the end-of-year's hottest topic and continued for another several years.
​Utilizing information from this discussion and providing detailed performance data for each of IBM's individual chief executive officers we examine the following areas so the reader can answer the question for themselves. We study how each chief executive either did or did not:​
  • Powering Growth
  • Growing Market Valuation
  • Exploiting Economic Tailwinds
  • Driving Shareholder Returns
  • Employee Engagement and Productivity
  • Stock Market and Economic Headwinds
  • Special Historical Considerations
The 20th Century IBM believed in rewarding its stakeholders equitably. One of these stakeholders was its employees. Although, some position the early benefits as "paternalism," Watson Sr. told his stakeholders that such investments were the most critical investments he and they could make.​
So, this section starts with a history of employee benefits but doesn't stop there.
  • Employee Benefits
  • Corporate Anniversaries
  • A Hundred Years of Employee Creativity
  • Creating and Growing a Corporation with Wild Ducks -- Geese​
Just getting started on this project.

​Of course, capturing all of IBM's products would be an impossible task but life is full of challenges. This one, though, is low on the priority list!
Take a glance at this chart and see if you can tell that I was an "AS/400 Systems Engineer."
These are stories to help balance a person's perspective on the man, Thomas J. Watson Sr.

​This area will be getting the most new focus with new articles and research as we hope to publish a work on Tom Watson Sr.'s life and times in four to five years.
Topics include but are not limited to the following:
  • The Apprenticeship of Tom Watson
  • Constructing an Organization
  • Giving Back to Society
  • Well Deserved Recognition
  • Slice of Life Stories of Tom Watson
  • Defending Democracy
    • USO and USO Camp Shows
    • IBM and World War II
  • Extending the Corporation and Society
© 2024 Peter E. Greulich. All Rights Reserved
Information posted on this site recognizes the legal right of copyrighted material. The following material is considered in the public domain effective January 1, 2024: (1) works published in the United States prior to 1929, (2) all unpublished works created over 120 years ago, (3) works published in the United States before 1978 that have no © copyright notice, and (4) works published in the United States after 1928 but before 1964 with a proper © copyright notice that were not renewed in their 28th year. Some information is used here that does not fit this criteria. It has been purposely minimized, and it is used in good faith, usually with an attribution, and in the belief that such usage would withstand a test of fair use. This site also utilizes images from Pixabay that are "free to use under the Pixabay license" and "do not require attribution." Any concerns with the public domain, fair usage, or attribution of material utilized on this site will be removed until a discussion can resolve the matter with its permanent removal or republication. To reach this author, use the "Contact" menu item above or the hyperlink provided here: [Contact Us]