June 27, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Test of Time
June 28, 2011 at 12:56 am
I still remember IBM working with Nazi Germany during the holocaust. I still remember that they helped the nazi germany with their computers in the jew camps with computer maintenance.
Make no mistake, there is nothing good about IBM, there is only money.
June 28, 2011 at 6:06 am
I am impressed that you honor one of my former employers in this morning's editorial. IBM was one of the best companies I have worked for in my career and though like every company, they had their shortcomings, it was a place abundant with talented people.
However, as you touch on history a little bit, it is important to remember that Tom Watson Senior did NOT believe in PC's and during his time at the helm he was very resistent to IBM getting into that market. It was in fact his son, Tom Watson Junior, who saw that IBM had to play in that market and that led to the IBM AT personal computer - one of the best PC's of its time.
I strongly recommend (and wish) that people in our business study the history of the business and a great way to do this is to get your hands on a copy of "Triumph of the Nerds" which is a documentary that includes the beginnings of IBM in the PC market, and also covers Microsoft, Apple, and the now-long-gone Digital Research whose operating system "CP/M" might have been huge - but in a critical moment in PC history, the late Gary Kildall bypassed that opportunity which was snatched up by a young Bill Gates.
Another great series is "The Machine that changed the world" which also outlines this history in depth.
If you are in this business, and you are serious about your work, you should study the history of how we got to where we are today. It's a hell of a story!
June 28, 2011 at 6:20 am
http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/builders/builders_codd.html
The company is great because of the people working in it. For a giant like IBM to stay relevant after a 100 years is a big thing. Very few achieve such milestones.
June 28, 2011 at 6:57 am
From the outside they appear to have evolved to have an interesting and diverse culture. Surviving a 100 years is interesting for sure.
June 28, 2011 at 7:23 am
You're spot on Steve! I worked for Digital Equipment Corp. for many many years ( just around the time the VAX/VMS OS became popular ) until 2005. So I had a taste of what you are talking about. I often wish that Ken Olsen hadn't made a few decisions that he did, but that is water over the dam. As a young aspiring software engineer I too thought the culture at DEC was not to be matched anywhere in the world. I also remember when IBM's stock fell below DEC's and people were saying "big iron" is on the way out!
Well, DEC didn't survive and IBM is still around. Those of you who are still lucky enough to be part of the IBM culture, stop for a minute, take a breath and cherish the moment. Things are rapidly changing but tradition, pride and 'doing the right thing' will never change!
June 28, 2011 at 7:39 am
There is a different perspective in a long established company. I work for a 100+ year old company which is a subsidiary of another 100+ year old company. I've only been here 22 years, but we have quite a few 30, 40 and more folks. People have retired from here having never worked anywhere else (the parent company has only had 3 different CEOs in the last 50 years).
There is something to be said for having a long history.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
June 28, 2011 at 8:19 am
There's definitely something special about an introductory session where they show photographs of horses and buggies outside the corporate offices, and say "This is how we started", then go through "This is how we survived the Great Depression".
There are fewer and fewer of those companies; but I also consider IBM special due to their research, and the history of their research, including FORTRAN and SQL, fractals, single transistor DRAM, numerous hard drive improvements, and the scanning tunneling microscope.
June 28, 2011 at 8:20 am
The links are updated in the editorial. My apologies for the issues.
They are:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/16/ibm-turns-100-brags-about-bench-pressing-more-than-companies-ha/
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/overview/ideas/index.html?re=CS1
June 28, 2011 at 11:13 am
In my career, I've worked for a bunch of companies, some startups and some consulting, several of which have withered and died. It was a blast working for them as it was challenging and sometimes seemed to have a wild west attitude.
I have now worked for a 100+ year old company for 4 years now where people stay for 20, 30 or 40 + years. I'm still having a blast as the people I work with are great and the work is still challenging; however, I'm now at the point in my career where some stability is much appreciated. Maybe I'm "Old School", like my Dad's generation where it was the norm that people stayed with the company for decades.
June 28, 2011 at 11:35 am
You mentioned 3COM, that company used to be one "my" clients (of a company I used to work for)! I even got a tour once at their Palm plant.
I remember when I thought that U.S. Robotics was the best computer-related company. (Ahem.) :blush:
Not to take away from IBM's success, but I think they were smart enough to shy away from rapidly changing markets. (What's the web designer de jour?) Also, their government contracts help out a lot.
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge. - Stephen Hawking
June 22, 2015 at 2:46 am
I do appreciate the stability thing but somehow from my experiences with people that have worked there, I find them a little shady. Obviously this is not helped by their links to genocide. Also, I'm not sure there is much innovation from that direction these days.
June 22, 2015 at 6:07 am
I worked briefly for IBM in 2010-2011 as a contractor in a DBA position in Dubuque, IA. They asked me (it never got to the point of a formal offer) if I would consider coming on full-time, so they definitely thought I was doing a good job for them. I said "no" (which is why it never got to the point of a formal offer), because I had learned from the other full-time DBAs that they were only being paid about 45K/yr. I also heard a rumor that IBM had located in Dubuque partly because they had made a deal with the city that Dubuque would look the other way at such low salaries. Now, maybe the salaries have risen dramatically in the four years since then, but could this be a reason that IBM has survived for 100 years?
June 22, 2015 at 11:15 am
I think this a messy but interesting topic. IMO, IBM has survived in spite of it's culture and attitude which has always seemed to me to be rooted in a technological hubris. Evil? Good? "Neither", I say. Corporations aren't people but they are certainly run by them. Talking about them like they are people is irrational and inaccurate. I may say 'those idiots running the Department of the Treasury are evil', but I'm not going to claim that said bureaucracy is 'evil' or 'good'. They were lucky they had the strategic leadership at a critical time to transition to a software services company.
P.S. I work in both IBM and Microsoft worlds now (DB2 for z/OS and SQL Server) and the cultures are pretty distinct. In my experience the IBM world is more disciplined, process oriented, and hierarchical while the Microsoft world is more adventuresome, individual and flexible. Both have their upsides.
June 22, 2015 at 12:49 pm
A company that I worked for turned one hundred when I was working there: NCR.
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