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Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM
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by Paul Carroll
Sales Rank: 531651
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$2.21
At Amazon
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Paperback: 377 pages
Publisher: Three Rivers Press September 20, 1994
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0517882213
ISBN-13: 978-0517882214
Product Dimensions:
8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
From Library Journal
Throughout most of this century, IBM was a golden bulwark of the American economy. Hugely profitable and famously well managed, Big Blue was more than just a company; it was an international institution. But in the late 1980s, the legend unraveled. IBM fumbled an early lead in the personal computer business, with devastating, possibly irreparable consequences. Carroll, who covered IBM for seven years with the Wall Street Journal , breathes drama into this high-tech tale by focusing not on technological minutiae but on the human players, from fabled chairman Tom Watson Jr. to Microsoft wunderkind Bill Gates (who, more than anyone else, authored IBM's undoing). Although somewhat loosely structured, this work is a captivatingly well-reported piece. This is the first major book on an important chapter in American corporate history. Highly recommended.
- A.G. Wright, Harvard Coll. Lib. , Cambridge, Mass.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
A savvy newsman's tellingly detailed report on the ruinous decline of IBM. Drawing on a wealth of inside sources, Wall Street Journal correspondent Carroll offers an unsparing account of a commercial juggernaut whose button-down culture, rigid bureaucracy, and complacent executives stifled development projects that could have ensured its dominance of the global computer industry well into the 21st century. In remarkably short order, in-house deficiencies and inroads made by nimbler rivals (Apple, Compaq, Intel, etc.) have reduced an erstwhile pacesetter to the status of a crippled colossus fighting for its very life in an increasingly unforgiving marketplace. As the author makes clear, moreover, Big Blue's downfall has caused widespread pain and harm. In addition to the economic costs borne by dismissed employees, host communities, suppliers, and investors, the US could lose a significant measure of its competitive edge in advanced technologies owing to appreciably lower research budgets at IBM. The principal virtue of Carroll's harsh reckoning is his chapter-and-verse fixing of blame for blunders that have combined to humble a once-mighty enterprise. Among other matters, he recounts how Big Blue (whose hierarchs stubbornly tried to protect the company's flagship franchise in lucrative but obsolescent mainframes) fumbled chances to open insurmountable leads in personal computers, PC software, laser printers, microprocessor chips, and allied products for which demand has proved brisk. Whether IBM's new stewards can plot a course that will let the debt-burdened leviathan regain anything remotely resembling its former eminence, much less profitability, remains a very open question for the author. Among other problems, he notes that layoffs and voluntary departures (spurred by attractive severance packages) have not only diminished but also demoralized the available pool of technical, sales, and management talent. Perceptive perspectives on computer errors of convulsive magnitude. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Customer Reviews & Comments
This review is from: Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM (Hardcover)
This is a penetrating and often amusing look at the rise and fall of IBM. It's dated, much like any book about computers that was published about seven years ago is obviously expected to be. If IBM is doing better now, this book might have had something to do with it. Things like corporate hymnals, the ponderous decisionmaking process, and the reasons for the failure of IBM's PS/2 line are all exposed in humiliating detail. As a former retail sales rep for an IBM dealer from 1988-1990, I can tell you that in that time frame the IBM I saw looked a lot like Carroll's portrayal (and completely turned me off about them). This book is worth a search.
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Big Blues: The Unmaking of IBM
Available from Amazon
Price: $2.21
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