One hundred years ago, the

company that would become

IBM took its first step into an
unknown future. In Making
the World Work Better, three
accomplished journalists tell
a story of progress that
illuminates, and transcends,
the rich story of a single
enterprise.
BOOK DETAI LS
Published by: IBM / Pearson
Page Count: 352
ISBN13: 978-0-13-275510-8
In Making the World Work Better: The Ideas That
Shaped a Century and a Company, journalists Kevin
Maney, Steve Hamm and Jeffrey M. OBrien examine
how IBM has contributed to the evolution of
technology and the modern corporation over the past
100 years.
The authors offer a fresh analysis, as well as interviews of many key figures and
rich archival photographs and drawings. The book captures triumphs, missteps
and moments of high dramafrom the bet-the-business gamble on the
Making the World Work Better
The Ideas that Shaped a Century and a Company
ISBN10: 0-13-275510-6
legendary System/360 in the 1960s, to the turnaround of the 1990s, to the new
frontiers of a smarter planet.
The authors have shaped a narrative of discoveries, struggles, individual
insights and lasting impact on technology, business and society. Taken together,
their essays reveal a distinctive mindset and organizational culture, animated by
a deeply held commitment to the hard work of progress.
Making the World Work Better provides a deep dive into many of the
achievements celebrated in IBMs Icons of Progress:
It shows how IBM engineers and scientists invented many of the building
blocks of modern information technology, including the memory chip, the
mainframe, the personal computer and even new fields of mathematics.
This story points to the future of science, and of thinking itself.
We learn how IBMs business innovations-from progressive workforce
policies, to new ideas of societal responsibility, to global engagement, to the
deliberate creation of corporate cultureshaped the modern corporation.
We also see how IBMs big betsincluding enablement of the US Social
Security System, space travel, modern banking and moremade a lasting
impact on our world, and laid out a path to progress the company is still
pursuing today.
The lessons for all businesses and institutions are powerful: To survive and
succeed over a long period, you have to be willing and able to continually
transform, guided by enduring values and a broadly understood identity. Over a
century of change, IBM came into being, grew, went global, nearly died,
transformed itself and is now charting a new path forward, embracing a second
century that bids to be even more surprising than its first.
PREVI EW THE BOOK AND VI EW AUTHOR DI SCUSSI ONS
Steve Hamm has been a journalist for 30 years. Before
joining IBMs corporate communications department as a
writer and videographer, he was a senior writer at
BusinessWeek and spent two decades covering the computer
industry, first in Silicon Valley and then in New York. He is
the author of Bangalore Tiger and The Race for Perfect. He
lives in Pelham, New York, with his wife and son.
Steve Hamm
Kevin Maney
Jeffrey M. O'Brien
About the Authors:
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