That's right, that NCR--the 117-year-old cash register firm where Thomas Watson worked before he went off to run IBM.

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It came to market in the 1960s and surpassed the hopes of IBM's very own CEO, Thomas Watson Jr.

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So in early 1950, it set up a meeting with Thomas Watson Sr.

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But in 1973, when then IBM chairman Thomas Watson Jr. suggested that design drove sales, he was putting forth a provocative assertion.

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Back in Boston, he hired a research assistant, Thomas Watson.

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But in 1956, with Watson's son, Thomas Watson Jr.

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But in 1973, when then IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) chairman Thomas Watson Jr. suggested that design drove sales, he was putting forth a provocative assertion.

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It's rare to find a dictatorial leader like Thomas Watson Sr. of IBM who could engineer the appointment of his son as chief executive, as he did in 1956 even though the Watson family at the time owned only a small percentage of IBM's stock.

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Watson, named after IBM's founder, Thomas J.

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