Uses case studies to explore why large scale electronics failed to win a leadership position in the early computer industry and why IBM, a firm with a heritage in the business machines industry, succeeded. The cases cover both the US and the UK industry focusing on electronics giants GE, RCA, English Electric, EMI and Ferranti.


TONY GANDY is a reader at IFS School of Finance, UK. After a period as a journalist he worked for an investment bank and spent 15 years running his own small consulting firm mainly specialising in the overlap of banking and technology. His research interests include competition in the early computer industry, innovation in bank delivery channels, strategy and competition in services (financial enterprises) and industrial companies, and banking technology.