“You can make wild ducks tame, but you can never make tame ducks wild again,” said Watson Jr. “One might also add that the duck who is tamed will never go anywhere any more. We are convinced that any business needs its wild ducks. And in IBM we try not to tame them.”
IBM was able to achieve the success that it did not by taking the safe route and not by following its competitors. Watson Jr. took risks; he sought out roads that had never before been traveled and he bet all his money on them. Sometimes his bets failed and sometimes they paid off, but they all demonstrated Watson Jr.’s willingness to try something new – to be that wild duck for the sake of his company.
“For those who have that priceless ingredient of being a little bit wild, hang onto it and don't let anyone talk you into being the safe company man,” advised Watson Jr. “Let's avoid being over cautious, conservative, playing it safe. We should have the courage to take risks when they are thoughtful risks.”
To this end, Watson Jr. encouraged independent thought amongst his workers, avoiding the hazards of groupthink at all costs. “‘Think it through’ is a reminder that creative, individual thinking is an indispensable tool in finding solutions to the manifold problems of today's modern business and social activities,” said Watson Jr. “Thinking things through is hard work and it sometimes seems safer to follow the crowd. That blind adherence to such group thinking is, in the long run, far more dangerous than independently thinking things through.”
In his early years at the helm, Watson Jr. spent $20 million developing a ‘supercomputer’ as part of IBM’s new STRETCH program – a machine that would be over 100 times more powerful than the company’s previous 704. It was a $20 million risk and it would prove to be a $20 million failure. But, Watson Jr. knew that with success came failure. “We expect that there will be mistakes,” he said. “We must forgive mistakes which have been made because someone was trying to act aggressively in the company's interest.”
As long as risks were well thought out in advance, Watson Jr. believed they should be taken, for without risks there could never be progress. “We must try to make clear, sound, aggressive decisions, not waiting until every possible base has been touched,” said Watson Jr. “Each of us must aim to make his own decisions, and shun the process of decision of agreement of all possible interested parties. We should be motivated by what is right for the IBM company rather than by the niceties of internal diplomacy.”
Growing up, Watson Jr. was the black sheep of his family. As president of the family company, he then became the wild duck. It was Watson Jr.’s risks that gave the company its competitive edge and dominant position within the industry. Nobody could tame Watson Jr. and IBM was all the better because of it.
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