Thomas John Watson's Legacy

Thomas John Watson Sr. was the man behind IBM’s great legacy. Born in Campbell, New York, on February 17th, 1874, Watson went to the Elmira School of Commerce and studied business and accounting until 1892. Watson worked his way up the business ranks by becoming a salesman for suppliers of pianos, organs, and other household furnitures and machines. He then had moved to Buffalo, New York, where he managed stock shares for a building company. The first major accomplishment for Thomas Watson was when he started a job at the National Cash Register Company as a salesman at age 21. In the economic depression the US had at that time, Watson became the top salesman in the Buffalo office. He then was given a position of general sales manager. After he moved to another office in Dayton, he was involved in an illegal scheme of lowering prices on second-hand registers. He was fired in 1913. In 1914 Thomas Watson became the president of the Computing-Tabulating Company, which made punch-cards for early computer programming at age 40. The small company increased sales from $2 million to $33 million in only 35 years under Watson’s plan of finance expansion. The company changed its name to the

He continuously focused for his employees to know how to install, operate, and repair all the equipment they sold so they would be selling not machines, but service. His slogans of “Aim high and think in big figures” and the trademark “Think” stimulated the work and research of IBM. Watson himself was a dignified man and represented a good image of the company as he didn’t drink or smoke nor take vacations. He had regulated the dress code to be a clean and simple business attire for every employee and had given employees optimal working conditions, salaries, and provided health and life insurance from the company. These actions helped employees feel as an important and recognized team member of a