Thinkpad: A Different Shade of Blue

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating. Perhaps Insightful. Watch out for the detail!
Review: A fascinating technology success story. Told in detail with plenty of first-hand anecdotal material. Too much, unfortunately. Coupled with a sometimes dry almost academic style -- complete with footnotes. By chapter 20 I was asking "Are we there yet?" Sadly not. There are 31 chapters in all. Possibily the definitive biography of IBM's development and management of the ThinkPad brand. The Foreword -- The Seven Qualities of Enduring Brands -- is penned by Thomas J Kosnik. Each chapter ends with one or more paragraphs headed "The Authors' Insights". These largely seek to draw us back to the successful-brand-management aspects of the Foreword. A mechanism that fell flat for me. Too many of the insights are rather trite. And what is the entire book if not a presentation of the facts wrapped in the authors' insights? That said, individuals involved in the project are quoted liberally -- often across multiple paragraphs. The problem here is that if one is not paying attention it isn't obvious who exactly is saying "I finally realised" or something similar deep into the quoted portion.

On the plus side: I stuck it out to the end although I read it purely out of interest -- I am a gadgets person but I'm a Business Analyst. If product development or brand-building is your thing, there is plenty of detail here -- from a member of the original team.

Rating:
Summary: Thinkpad owners and business professionals will love this!
Review: Being an extremely satisfied owner of an IBM ThinkPad A-series laptop, I came across this book by accident and immediately found myself immersed in the inner workings and coporate culture of the storied IBM corporation. The one thing this book succeeds at detailing are what is actually involved (politically and financially) when large corporations find themselves in the position of creating and branding a new product. Creating something like the Thinkpad notebook computer was a tremendous undertaking and the process in which this was gone about is vastly different than how a small business or startup goes about its business.

Some may be turned off by the technical nature of the book, but I believe that owners of Thinkpad notebooks are a tech and business-savvy group and will thoroughly enjoy this fascinating book. It's the closest you can get to an IBM development team without having to work for Big Blue!

By the way, opt for the hardcover version of the book. This is definitely a title you'll add to your permanent book collection shelf!

Rating:
Summary: A blast from the past
Review: Having been involved in this part of the business during the early years of PC and Thinkpad, I found the book an exciting chronicle detailing that period of IBM's history. It's always fun to re-live those times and the book put lots of details in perspective and 'filled in the blanks'.

Being somewhat of a techno-geek, I found the style to be interesting with the mix of technical enumeration of facts interspersed with the prose detailing people and events. There's only been a handful of I/T related products which evoke the brand recognition that Thinkpad has created. The book should be a lesson and guide to product developers and management on 'the right way to do it.'

My copy has already been passed around to a number of folks.

Rating:
Summary: A boring and horribly-written history of the IBM ThinkPad
Review: One can only imagine who benefits from a book about building a "successful IBM brand"; surely the world at large has nothing to gain from understanding the vast levels of hierarchy that existing within International Business Machines. But "ThinkPad" suffers most by taking what could be an exciting topic--the history of the world's most recognized and sought-after portable computers--and turns it into an exercise in frustration.

The biggest sin here is the writing style, which is dry and uninformative. Each chapter, laid out in a boring corporate timeline structure, is concluded with (and no, I'm not kidding) an "Author's Insights" section that provides a simple summary of the preceding chapter with no new information and no insights at all. Here's some advice: Put your "insights" into the rest of your writing; it's why people will want to read the book. Sadly, insights are the one thing lacking in this book, though some of the stories, such as the development of the excellent "eraser-head" mouse are engaging enough. It's just that you have to get over the writing to appreciate them.

Another problem here has to do with the photographs, which are littered haphazardly throughout the book. We're treated to the exact same photos of the IBM PC Jr. keyboard and an IBM employee picnic, twice each. But more relevant photos are nowhere to be found: Where's the cool "butterfly" keyboard? Where are the insider pictures of products that never saw the light of day? Despite the facts that Dell works for IBM and that IBM gave legal permission for this title to be published, we're denied even the simplest of insider insight here.

"ThinkPad" is a dull, monotonous tome that does its topic a giant disservice while reeking of corporate dryness and an air of IBM's Big Brother-like influence. As an IBM employee says in the book, "I think that one of my personal accomplishments was just surviving the IBM culture." Too bad the same can't be said of this book.

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Summary: Thinkpad Lessons
Review: Rarely, if ever, do we see such a good example of what it takes to break the mold and create a new brand in a large company. This book provides several "object lessons" on how a high-level executive's vision and some talented managers with adequate authority and resources can make something happen that changes everything. While it was slow going in the beginning (both the book and the project), once the key players are in position, the vision takes shape and the team rises to the challenge, I found this to be an absorbing look behind the scenes. Both the technology and the politics were difficult, and there were numerous "moments of truth" which solidified elements critical to the team's ultimate success: clear focus, good people and commitment to deliver.

Thinkpad shows how a small team with a mandate can buck the bureaucracy and shine. It clearly wasn't easy getting the Thinkpad off the ground, but anyone interested in finding a niche for their project should find some insights to adopt as their own. I would assign the chapter on "Influencing the Influencers" to any new manager on an innovative team: it's an excellent case study of building support both inside and outside your group which has paid dividends for years.

Continuing to get it right after the product's initial success seems to be the most difficult challenge of all. Judging from the continuing good reviews of the most recent models, it looks like the Thinkpad team has learned just that.

Rating:
Summary: Why I wrote the ThinkPad book
Review: There are only a few times in one's life that you get to be in on the inside of one of the greatest success stories of modern technology. I was fortunate to be in the inside with IBM as a consultant and analyst getting to see how they created such a remarkable product line.

The story needed to be heard and is interesting as it's more of the tale and less technical than most people might suspect. Being 15 years now in mobile computing allowed me to add insights to each chapter that our agent Jim Levine said was one of the real kudos for this book as it's something that other authors should do more often.

Try out ThinkPad. You'll find that Debi and I have taken great pains over two years to give a story that most readers tell us is inspiring.

Send us a note if or when you have the time. We'd love to hear from you.

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Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable must read for anyone trying to sell product
Review: This is a great story about an $80+ billion company that could not compete with competitors and consciously decided to do something about it. It's about how having a clear vision, putting great people in place, fostering innovation, developing a strong brand, and listening to the customer DO come together to create success! It's how big companies DO stifle creativity and how you have to stand up to overcome it. It's about cool technology. Most importantly it's about people. You'll read about a jelly donut maker and a typewriter salesman who went on the manage the biggest brand within IBM. It's a blueprint for success!

Rating:
Summary: An enjoyable must read for anyone trying to sell product
Review: This is a great story about an $80+ billion company that could not compete with competitors and consciously decided to do something about it. It's about how having a clear vision, putting great people in place, fostering innovation, developing a strong brand, and listening to the customer DO come together to create success! It's how big companies DO stifle creativity and how you have to stand up to overcome it. It's about cool technology. Most importantly it's about people. You'll read about a jelly donut maker and a typewriter salesman who went on the manage the biggest brand within IBM. It's a blueprint for success!

Rating:
Summary: Thinkpad A Different Shade of Blue
Review: This is an excellent book on what is required to develop a business in a large corporate enterprise. This book illustrates some of the political and business issues a team developing a new business may face that a small company may not have to deal with. I found the writting redundant at times but each chapter stood on its own and didn't depend on you having to read other sections which could make this an excellent text book on branding.