A Business and Its Beliefs: The Ideas That Helped Build IBM

It is now a commonly accepted truism that the corporation is more than a legal entity engaged in the production and sale of goods and services for profit. It is also the embodiment of the principles and beliefs of the men and women who give it substance. More particularly, the corporation is the expression of those who have given it leadership in its development and in the conduct of its affairs. Perhaps no corporation is more illustrative of these characteristics than the International Business Machines Corporation. Engaged as it is in advanced scientific development, as an organization it is nevertheless governed in its daily affairs by the verities of human relations. Enduring truths of personal conduct learned early by the company’s founder in an uncomplicated rural community setting have successfully served as management guidelines in the development of a highly complex business organization which operates in the most scientific areas of contemporary times.