Making the World Work Better
The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company
By: Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, Jeffrey M. O'Brien
Publisher: June 20, 2011
Format: Paperback, 350 pages
ISBN-10: 0132755106
ISBN-13: 978-0132755108
Publisher: IBM Press
"Information technology literally changes the way we think. It moves ahead, showing us what's possible and freeing our minds to dream of what we can do next. The dreams inspire us to build technology, which in turn unleashes new ideas about what technology can do", write award winning journalists Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien, in their fascinating and informative book Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company. The authors describe a century of transformation at IBM, and the dramatic changes in corporate culture and innovation that built the company.
Kevin Maney (photo left), Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien share stories of innovation and change at the iconic corporation, but also of ideas and a study of how a large organization meets and addresses challenges. The authors transcend the usual commemorative century company book by delving into the ideas that made the company great, and how those concepts provide lessons for organizations outside the walls of IBM itself. the book examines how technology itself has altered the very nature of human thinking, while evolving and propelling change within the field of technology itself. The authors provide three main sections of the book that focus on the major pillars of the organization:
* Pioneering the Science of Information
* Reinventing the Modern Corporation
* Making the World Work Better
Steve Hamm (photo left), Jeffrey M. O'Brien, and Kevin Maney present a multi-faceted examination of the ideas that created a technological revolution that reached beyond IBM itself. From typewriters to punch cards to personal computers, the contribution of the company to today's technological landscape is undeniable. To facilitate these dramatic changes in technology demanded a continual reinvention of the company and its internal culture. The authors consider the critical contribution of legendary leader Thomas Watson who in many ways set the tone for defining how a modern corporation operates, innovates, and reinvents itself on a constant basis. Along with the changes made within the company itself, IBM has contributed heavily to many changes in society itself through its many innovations technological discoveries.
Jeffrey M. O'Brien (photo left), Kevin Maney, and Streve Hamm provide an intriguing and alternative form of company history, that for me, is the power of the book. Instead of opting to write a conventional narrative history of IBM, the authors chose to take the more interesting and informative technological, business transformational, and societal impact approach to the book. The result is an outstanding idea based book that not only chronicles the changes made within Big Blue itself, but also the more radical changes that technological advances made in society as a whole. The lessons learned by IBM, as it rebuilt itself over a century of business and technology innovation, are useful for other companies as well. The book is filled with many black and white and color photographs that add depth and context to the ideas presented in the book.
I highly recommend the idea and history filled book Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company by Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien, to anyone seeking a history of IBM that takes the unexpected and intriguing format of a record of technological and societal change, and the role played by IBM in shaping that transition toward a high tech world.
Read the always interesting and excellent book Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That Shaped a Century and a Company by Kevin Maney, Steve Hamm, and Jeffrey M. O'Brien, and discover how IBM influenced a century of technological change, how that change transformed the company itself, and how that very change created a lasting impact on how people live, and on the very nature of technology itself.
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