Watson Jr.'s 1963 Janitor Memo asked how IBM lost to CDC
The Computer History Museum has put online an item from its CHM Revolution exhibition: a memo from Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM, dated August 1963. The credit line is the IBM Corporate Archive, and the museum lists it as Object ID 500004285.
The page says the memo addressed IBM's loss of competitive standing. It is commonly known as 'The Janitor Memo' because Watson questioned how IBM surrendered 'our industry leadership' to a competitor operating with '34 people, including the janitor.' The page calls the memo scathing.
The competitor is Control Data Corporation (CDC). According to the museum, the memo demonstrates the significant impact CDC and its computing innovations had on IBM's market dominance during this period. It reflects Watson's concern about IBM's position relative to CDC's emerging supercomputer technology.
The page keywords are Control Data Corporation (CDC), International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), Thomas J. Watson (1914-1993) and supercomputers. The memo sits in the exhibition section titled 'CDC 6600's Five Year Reign', in the Supercomputers topic area.
The page gives only the two short quoted phrases, not the full text of the memo. It does not say who the memo was addressed to or what followed it.
Key facts
- The memo is from Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM and is dated August 1963; the museum credits the IBM Corporate Archive.
- It is commonly known as 'The Janitor Memo' because it asks how IBM lost 'our industry leadership' to a company with '34 people, including the janitor.'
- The museum says it shows the impact Control Data Corporation and its computers had on IBM's market dominance.
- The memo reflects Watson's concern about IBM's position relative to CDC's emerging supercomputer technology.
- It appears in the CHM Revolution section 'CDC 6600's Five Year Reign' in the Supercomputers topic.
Why it matters
The page presents a primary document in which Thomas J. Watson Jr. of IBM, writing in August 1963, frames a much smaller rival as a threat to IBM's leadership. The museum places it in a section about the CDC 6600's five-year reign, and says it shows how much CDC and its supercomputers affected IBM's market dominance at the time. The vivid '34 people, including the janitor' line is why the memo has a nickname.
Who it affects
The item is of interest to readers of computing and corporate history, and to anyone studying how a dominant company reacted to a small competitor. The page names IBM, Control Data Corporation and Thomas J. Watson Jr. as the parties involved. Nothing on the page ties it to any current product or policy.
How to use it
Read it as a short archival entry. The museum page gives a summary, the date, the credit and the keywords, and places the memo in the CDC 6600 section of its Supercomputers topic. For the full wording, the Object ID 500004285 is the museum's reference for the item.
How solid is it
The page comes from the Computer History Museum and credits the IBM Corporate Archive, which makes it a reasonably solid pointer to a real document. The page itself is short, though. It gives only two short quoted phrases, not the full text of the memo. It does not say whether the 34-person figure is accurate or how it was counted.
Risks and caveats
Treat the '34 people' figure as Watson's rhetoric as quoted by the page, not as a verified headcount. The page does not say who the memo was addressed to, what followed it, or how IBM responded. It does not give an exact day in August 1963, and it gives no specifications for the CDC machine. The interpretation of the memo as a sign of CDC's impact is the museum's framing.
“34 people, including the janitor”
— Thomas J. Watson Jr., as quoted from the memo by the Computer History Museum