From Publishers Weekly
Sobel, syndicated financial columnist and author of IBM, ITT, etc., offers valuable background on the growing battle for world supremacy in data processing. Clearly an admirer of IBM, he details the company's rise as a computer giant; its victories over domestic challengers; and its present international success as a "highly efficient, powerful, well-managed" company guided by an emphasis on elan, sales, high technology, service and risk-taking. Sobel analyzes the challenge posed by Japanese businesses, which attempt to apply to the U.S. computer market their imitate-and-improve approach used earlier and successfully in the auto, electronics and other industries. The author notes, however, that the computer industry's complexity and IBM's dominance pose formidable problems for the Japanese, leaving the battle's outcome uncertain. January
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Only about half of Sobel's text deals directly with the IBM versus Japan battle for the computer market. The other half is not padding, however, but an interesting discussion of the nature and history of IBM and, to a lesser extent, that of its non-Japanese competitors and of the industry itself. Sobel (author of IBM: Colossus in Transition , LJ 9/15/81, among many other business history books) is more optimistic than not that IBM will withstand Japanese competitors, in part because IBM is a very flexible company and has a successful subsidiary operating in Japan. This is a well-ordered, superior book; recommended. Stuart Gudowitz, George Washington Univ. Lib., Washington,
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
