The World's Greatest Salesman Home Page

Date Published: June 4, 2021
Date Modified: June 30, 2024

The New York Times and Time Magazine called Thomas J. Watson Sr., the founder of IBM, the "World's Greatest Salesman." Newsweek wrote that he was a philanthropist, where "none gained more from his beneficence than his own employees." President Eisenhower said he was a man "marked by a deep-seated concern for people."

The World's Greatest Salesman is a collection of the speeches of Tom Watson Sr. during one of the darkest economic times the United States and the world ever faced. Individual chapters are prefaced with an IBM employee's perspective of Tom Watson Sr.'s leadership during the Great Depression, starting the day after Black Tuesday and ending three days before Christmas 1933, soon after the Depression's trough.

In the midst of today's current economic turmoil, it is time to reexamine the thoughts, words and actions of IBM's founder. He set an example of great leadership during one of the darkest economic times in world history and led a good company to greatness in the 20th century.

The stories in this section can be accessed from the "BOOKS / BIBLIOGRAPHY + GREATEST SALESMAN" menu items above or ​by selecting one of the buttons below which are supported with additional descriptive text.

The World's Greatest Salesman: Preface, Videos and Images

---

Preface

Whether it was the Stone Age, the Agricultural Age, the Industrial Age or the Information Age, there has always been a single constant flowing through the successful communities that benefited from these major cultural and societal changes. Men and women—the pioneers of each age—embraced the shift and pulled their communities, their organizations, and their countries with them.

​Tom Watson was one of these pioneers.

---

Introduction

IBMer described a person in a win-win relationship with their company—a corporation that saw itself as a family. For decades, we attended gatherings called “Family Days.” We closed down sales offices when one of our own died and cried together at the loss.

IBM was one of the first corporate families.

---

Workplace Safety

This is the speech delivered by Tom Watson to the New York Safety Conference in New York City in 1932. He said that we should be "shocked at the picture of industrial conditions, the lack of sanitation and safety devices, and the frequency of fatal accidents and maiming injuries." He claimed that the country had been "prodigal of human safety, as it had been of many of its great natural resources."

Tom Watson did not pull his punches when he saw injustices in action.

---

Images and Quotes

In this section, the images and quotes of Thomas J. Watson Sr. from The World's Greatest Salesman are combined  and flow in screen show mode.

​To understand Tom Watson, read these insights into his character.

---

Tom Watson Videos

Peter E. Greulich plays Thomas J. Watson Sr. in these videos that capture the words of the founder of IBM during the Great Depression.

Topics include Analyze Yourself, The Simplicity of Success, We Are All Service Men, A Company is Known by the Men it Keeps, and, of course, THINK!

---