IBM: The Rise and Fall and Reinvention of a Global Icon

A historian offers an authoritative history of the successes and failures of his former employer, IBM—considered one of the most influential American companies of the last century.

For decades, IBM shaped the way the world did business. IBM products were in every large organization, and IBM corporate culture established a management style that was imitated by companies around the globe. It was “Big Blue”—an icon. And yet over the years, IBM has gone through both failure and success, surviving flatlining revenue and forced reinvention. The company almost went out of business in the early 1990s, then came back strong with new business strategies and an emphasis on artificial intelligence. In this authoritative, monumental history, James Cortada tells the story of one of the most influential American companies of the last century.

A historian who worked at IBM for many years, Cortada examines IBM throughout the decades, offering insights on the company’s:

• Technology Breakthroughs: the punch card (1890s), the calculation and printing of Social Security checks (1930s), the introduction of the PC to a mass audience (1980s), and the shift from hardware to software.
• Business Culture
• Global expansion
• Regulatory and Legal Issues
• CEOs

The secret to IBM’s unequalled longevity in the information technology market, Cortada shows, is its capacity to adapt to changing circumstances and technologies.