American business executive Thomas J. Watson assumed management of the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 1924 and built it into one of the world's largest and most respected corporations. As a manufacturer of business machines and computers, IBM under Watson's innovative and inspired supervision led a revolution in the business world that heralded the information age. By the end of 1955, Watson's last full year as IBM's chief executive officer, he had guided his company from debt to having total assets of $630 million and from fewer than 4,000 employees to 41,000. IBM was poised to dominate the emerging computer market, and by the 1960s and 1970s it controlled 80 percent of the U.S. market. Due to Watson's effective leadership, IBM had become a model for corporate planning, research, and customer and employee loyalty.

Thomas John Watson was born February 17, 1874, in Campbell, New York. He was descended from a Scottish-Irish family who...