Thomas John Watson, Sr. was the President of International Business Machines (IBM) during its years of spectacular growth in the 1920’s, 1930’s, 1940’s and 1950’s. It was during this time that he nurtured IBM’s innovative management style which, until recently, kept Big Blue at the top of the global IT league (although, with over 350,000 employees worldwide, IBM is still the world’s largest information technology employer. It was finally knocked off top spot by Hewlett Packard, based on total revenue, not profits).

It was Thomas Watson’s son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., who finally took IBM into the “modern-day” computer business after taking over the reins in 1956, one month before the death of his father. Previously the company concentrated on the building of tabulating machines and cash registers – products which were to later be replaced by mainframes and personal computers. Thomas Watson Sr. was sceptical of the role of these ‘new’ machines – still very much in their infancy in his time – and was reported to have famously said that “there is a world market for maybe five computers”. There is considerable debate as to whether he did or did not actually say this, but looking at the landscape 64 years on, maybe he had a point.

It goes without saying that there was a much larger market for mainframe and personal computers, but had Mr. Watson said that the world could perhaps be run on five computers, then he might not have looked so out-of-touch. I’m thinking Google here, with it’s plans for on-line domination. First search, and more recently on-line tools and applications which many believe will rival and eventually replace Microsoft Office as our main productivity tool. Google has had such an astronomical impact since floating only three years ago, and, as with IBM in its day, it is blazing a trail with its innovative work and management practices.

Imagine the on-line landscape by the end of the decade. Is it really so unbelievable to think that everything we do could be run from five solar powered servers in Mountain View, home of Google? Thomas Watson, Sr. could have been a lot closer to the truth than he ever imagined.

If, of course, he ever said it in the first place…