Posters with images of famous people in computing recently appeared on the walls in my office building (Grace Hopper, Jef Raskin, John Mauchly, An Wang, etc). The posters advertise an innovators program for “early tenure” employees.
The other day as I leaving work I noticed one of these posters on the door leading outside. This particular poster caught my eye because I didn’t immediately recognize the photo. It was Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM.
Watson died nearly 50 years ago. The company he founded produces nearly $100 billion in annual revenue and employs over 320,000 people — including me.
Most of us know the names and faces of founders of more recent technology companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Dell, Google, Yahoo, etc. If these firms have the longevity of IBM will, for example, some Apple employee fifty years from now wonder who this guy was?
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