IBM 1911-1993: How Big Blue Ruled Computing and Nearly Died

The story of IBM from 1911 to 1993: how Thomas Watson built Big Blue, bet $5 billion on System/360, created the IBM PC with Microsoft and Intel parts, and nearly died in 1993. On the nineteenth of January, 1993, IBM told the world it had lost eight point one billion dollars in a single year. No American company had ever lost more, and this was the company that had defined the word computer for half a century. Here is the strange part. IBM did not nearly die because it missed the personal computer. It built the PC that won, and then watched the profits go to the two small suppliers it had hired to make it. This is the story of how the habits that made IBM unbeatable for sixty years became the reason it lost eight billion dollars in a single year. CHAPTERS 0:00 Eight Billion Dollars in One Year 4:04 The Salesman and the Coca-Cola Factory 10:28 Bet the Company 17:14 Project Chess 23:05 Everybody's Computer 26:56 Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? SOURCES History of IBM - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History... IBM Personal Computer - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Per... IBM System/360 - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Sys... Louis V. Gerstner Jr. - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V.... The IBM System/360: The 5-billion-dollar gamble - IBM Heritage - https://www.ibm.com/history/system-360 IBM posts loss; announces job cuts - UPI Archives, 1993 - https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/07/... The IBM PC - IBM Heritage - https://www.ibm.com/history/personal-... The Social Security Act - IBM Heritage - https://www.ibm.com/history/social-se... Thomas J. Watson Sr. - IBM Heritage - https://www.ibm.com/history/thomas-wa... Social Security and IBM - Social Security Administration Historian's Office - https://www.ssa.gov/history/ibm.html IBM PC compatible - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_... IBM PC DOS - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_DOS IBM - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM Where the sources disagree, the narration says so. IMAGE CREDITS (archival images, used under the licences shown) All via Wikimedia Commons: • The wub - CC BY-SA 4.0 • Endicott, New York - 4476182938 - Dougtone - CC BY-SA 2.0 • IBM Corporate HQ, Armonk, NY - Mark Hillary - CC BY 2.0 • IBM PC 5150 - unknown author - CC BY-SA 3.0 • IBM PC Motherboard (1981) - German - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Kunszabo - CC BY-SA 4.0 • Thomas J Watson Sr (cropped) - The original uploader was Paul - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Close up of the Hollerith machine in opera - National Museum of Health and - CC BY 2.0 • Bundy Clock, Walsall Arboretum optimized - Andy Mabbett - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Thomas J Watson Sr - The original uploader was Paul - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Agiorgio - CC BY-SA 4.0 • IBM 1401 at CHM - ArnoldReinhold - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Fred Brooks - Copyright owned by SD&M (www.s - CC BY-SA 3.0 • IBM System360 Model 30 - Dave Ross - CC BY 2.0 • IBM System 360 Model 40 with open gates - Myra Siason - CC BY-SA 2.0 • Living Computers: Museum+Labs - CC BY-SA 4.0 • U.S. Department of Justice headquarters, A - unknown author - CC BY-SA 3.0 • IBM Armonk corporate headquarters unusual - Mark Hillary - CC BY 2.0 • IBM 5100 - MfK Bern - Sandstein - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Jud McCranie - CC BY-SA 4.0 • Epson MX-80 - Original uploader was Nakamura - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Ibm pc 5150 - Ruben de Rijcke - CC BY-SA 3.0 • IBM PC 5150 no monitor - Marcin Wichary - CC BY 2.0 • IBM 5170 (PC AT) (8861873514) - htomari - CC BY-SA 2.0 • Intel 80386 - 15057220396 - contri - CC BY-SA 2.0 • Lou Gerstner IBM CEO 1995 - Kenneth C. Zirkel - CC BY-SA 3.0 • Beyond My Ken - CC BY-SA 4.0 • Jim Evans This is an image of a pl - CC BY-SA 4.0 • Endicott, New York - 4475407547 - Dougtone - CC BY-SA 2.0 • IBM Armonk corporate headquarters inside d - Mark Hillary - CC BY 2.0 • IBM 7094 console2.agr - ArnoldReinhold - CC BY-SA 3.0 • IBM PC-5150 - Jordiferrer - CC BY-SA 3.0 Plus 21 public-domain / CC0 images from Wikimedia Commons. Archival images are real historical material; other illustrations are artistic reconstructions created with AI tools; narration voice is synthetic. #businesshistory #documentary #economics