One Hit Wonders
Monday, March 19th, 2007 by Mark | Posted in Business, Management, Marketing, Small Business, Unconventional Thinking | CommentsHow is it that a band, a playwright, or a novelist creates a masterpiece, a gift to the world, and then nothing- silence?
Where does the genius go?
Unless a company or individual continuously refreshes their thinking, their creativity, they will disappear from the radar.
A generation ago, IBM created one of the only tag lines that meant something- something of importance to the whole organization: THINK. But then the company stopped thinking, traded on past glories, and as a result nearly collapsed. In many ways, it already is a one hit wonder.
A company doesn’t have to be deceased to be dead. IBM is the living dead, and one of the most interesting of all “one hit” wonders. Add to that list, Microsoft. When’s the last time Bill changed the world?
Microsoft vs. Apple
Steve Jobs is changing the world left and right- a multi-hit wonder, if you will. So he might be a nasty, imperious guy; who cares? He is a non-stop success machine. He thinks.
Do you know how easy it would have been for Apple to be remembered as that crazy “fruit company”? Jobs would never allow it. Would you? Do you?
Any manager at any level can earn their stripes by declaring war on themselves. They stand against the tide, against the ebb and flow, and demand greatness.
Change. Discover. Experiment. Challenge. Think.
Be great.
Mark Stevens
CEO
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March 21st, 2007 at 10:38 am
It’s one thing to make outrageous statements to get attention. It’s quite another to ensure the veracity of what you say and remain credible.
IBM is no one-hit wonder. It’s origin in the 1880s was based on the invention of the dial recorder (like a punch clock) — its first “hit”. Growing by acquisition to become the Computing – Tabulating – Recording Company (CTR), it was in 1915 (about 5 generations ago, by my count) that Thomas Watson Sr, introduced the famous THINK signs to the company. Through this period, the company introduced a number of innovations, such as the electric punch machine (one of the companies that merged to form CTR — Hollerith Tabulating was responsible for the invention of the punch card as a “digital” means of capturing and recording data), and the “direct substraction machine” — i.e. the first calculator that could subtract. CTRs calculators, scales and recording equipment were the best in the industry.
Jumping ahead to the 1940s (they renamed themselves International Business Machines in the 1920s), IBM invented the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator. Called the Mark I, it was the first machine that could execute a series of long calculations automatically, and is generally considered to be the precursor to the first computer.
Although they didn’t create the first computer, in the 1950s IBM launched several important products and inventions that are still critical to modern computers. For example, the first magnetic hard disk was invented by IBM — ask anyone who used a PC before they had hard disk drives how useful they were. In the 1960s, they introduced the 360 mainframe which forever changed business computing by componentizing the computer to use interchangeable software and peripherals — an innovation that led to the rapid adoption of computers in business and spawned both the independent software industry, as well as the independent components industry, on which much of Silicon Valley is based. In 1961, they also introduced the iconic Selectric Typewriter, which was possibly the best business typewriter ever made and stimulated demand for typefaces other than Courier.
Although IBM was distracted by trustbusters in the 1970s, they still introduced some important innovations (post mainframe, which is the “one hit” I’m guessing that you’re referring to), such as inventing the floppy disk and the first speech recognition machines. They also developed the relational data model which underpins most databases today.
In the 1980s, IBM introduced the RISC (reduced instruction set computing) architecture, which is the basis for most workstations today because of the great speed boost it gives by simplifying the instruction set for the most frequently used functions. And, although they didn’t invent the PC, their innovation of an open architecture and standardized OS (provided by Microsoft) that ran on that architecture no matter who built the machine led to the development of the PC industry as we know it today.
In the 90s, IBM re-invented itself yet again to become a services organization first, and a hardware and software provider second. This was a dramatic and difficult transformation, but one that has made them a much more solid and profitable company. And, incidentally, mainframes are back in fashion as servers because of the enormous processing, and data storage and movement needs of the internet.
Now, you may have a low opinion of IBM for some reason, but it is neither accurate nor fair to describe them as a one-hit wonder. How many technology companies have survived for 130 years? You can’t do that without a constant stream of innovation and reinvention.
They aren’t cool like Apple, but remember, Apple was far closer to collapse than IBM ever was. And, Apple’s cool comes from the karma of a single hard-driving individual. I wonder how well Apple will do when Steve retires or dies.
The reason I raise this is that IBM is a prime example of a company that has “declared war on itself” to change the tide of the industries it competed in several times in its history. It’s why they’re still around as a big and continuously growing player. A little bit of research is all it takes to confirm this. You’d have made your point much more effectively by recognizing this and understanding the reasons for their longevity.
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