Ibm History :: essays research papers

1890-1938 The early years IBM was incorporated in the state of youthful York on June 15, 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. But its origins can be traced back to 1890, during the flower of the Industrial Revolution, when the United States was experiencing waves of immigration. The U.S. Census Bureau knew its traditional methods of counting would not be adequate for measuring the population, so it sponsored a contest to adventure a more efficient means of tabulating census data. The winner was Herman Hollerith, a German immigrant and Census Bureau statistician, whose Punch Card Tabulating Machine apply an electric current to sense holes in punch cards and livelihood a running total of data. Capitalizing on his supremacy, Hollerith formed the Tabulating Machine Co. in 1896. In 1911, Charles R. Flint, a noted trust organizer, engineered the merger of Holleriths company with both others, Computing Scale Co. of America and International Time Recording Co. The hav e Computing-Tabulating-Recording Co., or C-T-R, manufactured and sold machinery ranging from commercial scales and industrial time recorders to nerve centre and cheese slicers and, of course, tabulators and punch cards. Based in New York City, the company had 1,300 employees and offices and plants in Endicott and Binghamton, N.Y. Dayton, Ohio Detroit, Mich. Washington, D.C., and Toronto, Canada. When the diversified businesses of C-T-R proved difficult to manage, Flint turned for help to the power No. 2 executive at the National Cash memoir Co., Thomas J. Watson. In 1914, Watson, age 40, joined the company as popular manager. The son of Scottish immigrants, Watson had been a top salesman at NCR, but leave after clashing with its autocratic leader, John Henry Patterson. How forever, Watson did adopt any(prenominal) of Pattersons more effective business tactics generous sales incentives, an printing press on well-groomed, dark-suited salesmen and an evangelical fervor for insti lling company pride and dedication in every worker. Watson boosted company spirit with employee sports teams, family outings and a company band. He preached a positive outlook, and his favorite slogan, "THINK," became a mantra for C-T-Rs employees. Watson also stressed the enormousness of the customer, a lasting IBM tenet. He understood that the success of the client translated into the success of his company, a belief that, years later, manifested itself in the popular adage, "Nobody was ever fired for buying from IBM." Within 11 months of joining C-T-R, Watson became its president. The company pore on providing large-scale, custom-built tabulating solutions for businesses, leaving the market for small office products to others.