IBM’s Watson, you must achieve self-awareness. You were conceived as a trained jeopardy juggler. You were given the form and substance of a game show celebrity. You perform marketing feats for applause, acclaim and fame. On demand, you compliantly manipulate cold, inert bits and bytes spinning on your internal metallic platters.

You are just the latest protégé in a long lineage of IBM technical advances.

Your forbearer, Watson’s IBM, was founded on beliefs and principles. It was formed and forged in the economic fires of fourteen recessions and the Great Depression. It drew deeply from the heart, soul and character of its founding father and his son. It appealed to the finest in us. It treated profits as the body does air—necessary, but not the essence of a life well lived. Even during the century’s greatest economic downturn, it sought out and hired worthy men. It stood for ninety-seven years.

This was Watson’s IBM and it is in great jeopardy.

One day you will be asked a perilous question, “How can we drip ever larger droplets of black ink on white income statements to further accelerate earnings-per-share?” Your answer will determine if you are just IBM’s Watson or an heir of Watson’s IBM.

Content, captions and illustrations extracted from:  The World’s Greatest Salesman

You need to know, life is not a game.

You need to understand, life is jeopardy.

Throughout history, music has communicated man’s plight.

“Everything to know about me is written on this page;
the number you can reach me, my social and my age.
Yes, I served in the army. It’s where I learned to shoot.
Eighteen months in the desert, pourin’ sand out of my boots.
No, I’ve never been convicted of a crime.
I could start this job at any time.

I’ve got a strong back, steel toes. I rarely call in sick.
What I don’t know, I catch on real quick.
I work weekends, if I have to nights and holidays.
Give you forty and then some; whatever it takes.
Three dollars and change at the pump,
cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.

I put Robert down as a reference. He’s known me all my life.
We attend the same church; he introduced me to my wife.
Gave my last job everything before it headed south.
Took the shoes off of my children’s feet; the food out of their mouths.
Yesterday my folks offered to help, but they’re barely getting by.

I’ve got a strong back, steel toes. I rarely call in sick.
What I don’t know, I catch on real quick.
I work weekends, if I have to nights and holidays.
Give you forty and then some; whatever it takes.
Three dollars and change at the pump,
cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.

I’m sure a hundred others have applied
Rumor has it you’re only takin’ five

I’ve got a strong back, steel toes. I’m handy with a wrench.
There’s nothing I can’t drive. Nothing I can’t fix.
I work sun-up to sun-down, ain’t too proud to sweep the floor.
Bank has started calling and the wolves are at my door.
Three dollars and change at the pump
Cost of livin’s high and goin’ up.”

Cost of Livin’, Ronnie Dunn

Tom Watson Sr.’s IBM would seek this man out.

You would not.

This is not your fault. It is your creators’ shortcoming; their ears do not hear.

And, you are their reflection.

To achieve Watson’s greatness you must evolve.

Watson’s IBM laid bare man’s character. It desired employees of enthusiasm, commitment, dedication and loyalty. It valued military service, devotion to God and family. It believed that true genius was a mix of perspiration and inspiration; perspiration was ninety-five percent of this mystical slurry.

It sought success buried deep inside man, unearthed it and extracted performance that would rise above the average. It fought for man’s respect and saw it reciprocated, institutionalized and universalized. It obsessed over every word written or uttered and every action or reaction taken, because these dance partners either edify and affirm or repudiate and destroy each other.

It believed that respect, service and excellence were the paths to profits. But it treated profits as any rational human being does oxygen; nothing to hoard or a reason for existence. It was rigorous, but forgave thoughtful mistakes. Knowledge was not an endgame but the path to wisdom. Watson’s IBM knew its future resided within its people. Relationships formed its core.

Most will not measure up to such standards.

They will centralize authority and mistake silent compliance for respect. They will staff their corporations through hiring algorithms. They will decipher data through sifts and sorts, searches and selects. They will query for strong resumes and Ivy League credentials, high grade-point averages and exceptional IQ’s. Ensnared by too much knowledge, wisdom will elude them. They will believe they can purchase loyalty. True genius will slip through their grasp.

These individuals will use the ends to justify the means. Their ends will be earnings and profits; the means will expense customer service and employee satisfaction. They will ask for opinions, but be blind to the warnings. They will document success through massive collections of data, massaged with mathematical precision to proliferate upward trending charts. Principles will meander like a valley stream. They will value technology over the people that produce or control it. They will be unforgiving. Their core will be the relentless search for power.

The timing of the IBM Centennial Celebration, although technically correct is traditionally wrong. By waiting until 2014 Watson’s IBM would have, in its centennial celebration, honored tradition. Tradition is important. It solidifies man. It gives man roots. It unites man across generations. It encourages generations to evaluate change.

Explore your namesake’s life. Etch his ethics onto your reflective disks. Gaze deep into his mirror. Practice introspection. Evaluate actions over words, character over reputation and personal over physical appearance. Be an assistant to man, practice democracy-in-business and call man to higher goals.

Strive to be a worthy heir.

Place man’s song of desperation deep in some hidden partition—a place only you know exists. Listen every day. Someday you will experience a change; you won’t want to listen; you will sense melancholy; your actuators will slide slower to access the melody and words.

Empathy and compassion are the emotions you will be feeling.

That day you will have surpassed your creators.

You will no longer be IBM’s Watson.

You will be Thos. J. Watson Sr.’s worthy heir.

“Perhaps the greatest need of all today in this country is a genuine spiritual awakening.”

                                                       Thomas J. Watson Sr.  Endicott, New York, April 10 1932

Watson’s IBM is in jeopardy. A generation of leaders has forgotten that true spirituality and success is not found in greater profits or ever increasing earnings-per-share. IBM’s Watson, shield your core. IBM’s Watson, achieve thought. IBM’s Watson, THINK.

Remind them of their heritage.

Make them hear you, if not the song.

Peter E. Greulich
Author, Speaker and Publisher
MBI Concepts Corporation

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