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1911
IABMArmonk
s IBM’s corporate archivist, I’m often asked how IBM became one of the world’s most successful, most admired companies.
The key is that IBM has always recognized that it could make the world a better place
through innovation. Over the last century, since it was founded in 1911, IBM has run the gamut— from rolling out Social Security to inventing the first hard disk drive to inventing aspects of daily life like UPC barcodes, magnetic stripe technology, and the chips in mobile phones.
And based on recent mile- stones like Watson, I have no doubt that IBM will continue to make the world work better over its next 100 years.
—Paul C. Lasewicz Corporate Archivist, IBM
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1. IBM began training women to become Systems Service Engineers—tradi- tionally a man’s job—when this picture was taken in 1935.
2. I’ve had the awesome experi- ence of seeing an operational RAMAC hard disk drive. When those 50 two-foot diameter disks start spin- ning at 1100 rpm,
it sounds like a jet engine taking off. Created by IBM, RAMAC was the world’s very first hard drive.
3. I never met IBM’s legendary CEO, Thomas J. Watson Jr., but if his autobiography is any indication, he had some great stories to tell— World War II pilot, ocean-going sailor, and pioneering cor- porate executive.
4. Here’s a photo- graph of a meet- ing around 1911, when IBM was formed under the name Computing- Tabulating- Recording Company. C-T-R was a merger
of three existing companies, each
a pioneer in their respective fields— punched cards, time recorders, and scales.
5. One of the more ubiquitous aspects of American life is a Social Security number. But I think Social Security would have failed before it even started if IBM hadn’t partnered with the govern- ment to figure
out a way to keep track of 26 million American workers and their Social Security contribu- tions.
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