IBM

0134 Biomedical Entry

When I was offered the job in IBM Biomedical I was very anxious about whether I could handle this.  This was partly because, it was based in one of the few areas of knowledge where I was totally a novice. I hadn’t even taken biology at O level, and was worried that I might be one of those who would faint at the sight of blood; where the job would involve literally gallons of the stuff.

In addition, however, although it was supposed to be an opportunity for me, I knew that Keith - my boss in the marketing group - wanted to get rid of me because he couldn't control me. Perhaps even worse, he probably thought that - as a more experienced marketing man than him – I was a threat to his position.

Thus, having had problems with Keith in the GSD marketing group, and not least having non-concurred against most of the management team, I was not surprised when he volunteered me for a new job in GSD.  It was, needless to say, one of those jobs that nobody wanted.  This was understandable since it was totally outside the promotion line and clearly was not one that would be well supported by management.  In this respect at least they were wrong.

The job was to be the Biomedical Group representative in the UK, though in fact it was much more like being the divisional manager for Biomedical in the UK; albeit the staff in the UK was to be just one – me!

As you will also expect, I was not very happy about this.  Nobody is happy when they feel that they are being pushed into a job. Having said that, I had a number of people leaning heavily on me who were quite senior in IBM, so I had at least to appear to be going along with the idea. Accordingly I went off to Paris, to the European headquarters, for a briefing before I made my decision. The office was not actually in the main part of the European headquarters but was in the Avenue Wagram, just by the Arc de Triomphe, where IBM European headquarters had an annex on the first floor of an office building.  Even so, it looked like any other IBM office. That was one thing about IBM, wherever its offices were located they were the same -- and everyone spoke perfect English.

In a couple of offices there the European end of Biomedical Group had started just a few weeks before.  I was interviewed by the Len Naroskin. He was the general manager of Biomedical in Europe, such as that was, and also by Mike Martin who was his assistant -- and scheduled to be my competitor in the UK. They did their best to impress me with the potential, and persuade me to join.  They were desperate for bodies, since almost every country had exactly the same problem – nobody wanted the job! 

It soon became obvious that Mike Martin was intent on becoming my boss; whether in Paris or in the UK.  Needless to say I was not terribly impressed with any of this and returned to the UK to report just this. It was at this stage that John Steele, the personnel director, involved himself.  Basically, he asked what I needed; and I poured my heart out.

There were several other reasons for my nervousness.  It was obvious that the main part of the job would be selling. I had gratefully escaped from the stresses of selling a good few years before; and I didn't really want to get back into that. The net result, in this case, was that David Steele made the deal worth my while considering. I always got good deals out of him. In essence I was most worried about going back on quota, that is on commission. As line sales I had to be on quota, so the deal quite simply was that my quota guarantee would be 90 percent but my salary would be uplifted by 10 percent.  This meant that I was losing absolutely nothing in salary, and potentially had 10 percent extra to gain -- which I did frequently. So the main problem was solved.

The other problem – mentioned above - was that I, like many people, was very nervous about the medical environment.  In particular I was very nervous about how I would react to loads of blood sloshing around in my vicinity.  In fact I needn't have worried, since this never troubled me in practice.  But it is also true to say that biology had been something that I had dropped very soon in my school career! But then ignorance of the topic was never known to hold IBMers back!

I still feared that it was a peripheral organisation for IBM.  Len talked excitedly about what a great opportunity it was and how it would be a great money earner for IBM. But it was clear to me that – in the UK at least - it had to be treated as an exercise in PR rather than a sales opportunity.  Indeed, when I got back to the UK that is exactly how I treated it, over the following years.  I emphasised, to everyone right up to the board, that we were in it to save lives -- and wasn't it wonderful that IBM could do that!

I was still dubious, even when I got back to the UK, but the final sweetener from John Steele was that I would be allowed to choose my own boss!  This was the only time I ever had the privilege of choosing my own boss, and I would recommend it to you if you ever have the opportunity.  I chose Derek Haslam, who was at that stage the head of marketing staff. I had worked for him previously, and I reckoned him to be an excellent manager.  I was right. He proved to be the second-best manager I've ever worked for, after John Eliot, and that's praise indeed. It was one of the best moves ever made by me.

I eventually conceded defeat, and agreed to run Biomedical in the UK -- though clearly it was mainly a selling job. 

My first activity was to go to the United States.  Thus, within a few weeks, I found myself on a plane to New York; the first time I had ever been to the USA. In some respects this was, in 1978, most people's dream. Very few people went to the States in those days. Indeed, it was unusual even for anyone from IBM UK to go there. I remember flying across the Atlantic full of excitement and apprehension.  I had once had a dream about flying to Chicago for a day.  This dream ultimately came true; albeit in two legs. I once did fly to the US for one day, but to New York, and I did later fly to Chicago. But this first trip was to New York for a couple of weeks. Accordingly it was something of a thrill sitting in the jumbo crossing the Atlantic. 

We landed at JFK airport, in brilliant sunshine.  As I got out of the plane I could see, in the distance, the towers of Manhattan with the sun behind them.  I have to admit it was a thrill. In those days going to the US was a very privileged experience.  Even better, I was able to take the helicopter shuttle across to Newark airport.  That was in the days when the shuttle -- a twin rotor machine with 20 seats or so - was still running.  They later banned it, since it crashed too often and killed too many people!  As evidence of the problems it faced, I later went on one trip on it where the stewardess had to spend the whole time holding the door shut!

Landing at Newark airport, I picked up my car, the first time I ever driven a left-hand drive car.  To make life easier, I chose an automatic but that actually caused problems.  I drove tentatively down to the New Jersey Turnpike and just as I was going on to it I decided I wanted change gear. But of course I couldn't do that! I pressed the brakes hard instead of the clutch, and the car nearly nosedived into the tarmac.  That taught me a very quick lesson. Thereafter I was happy driving in American traffic. The New Jersey Turnpike was astounding, with six lanes split into two roads of three lanes each. On it I drove down to the Princeton area where I was going to stay at the Hilton and, surprisingly given the fact that it was 3,000 miles away from home, I very easily found this.

Indeed, as it was the first time in the US, I staggered into the Hilton Inn with my time clock five hours out of kilter.  I went to my room which I found was quite comfortable.  And then I realised that I was incredibly thirsty. No problem at all, since there were drinks machines on every floor; except that they only took coins and of course all I had was notes!  After an hour or so of searching, I found someone who could change my dollar notes and I was able to quench what was by then a raging thirst. This is one problem the inveterate traveller cannot avoid. I have lost count of the number of times I needed change when I arrived in a new country and could find nobody to change my notes!

When I went down to dinner, however, I was immensely impressed.  The service was excellent and the food was superb. It shows you just how much difference the impact of the individual member of staff makes, since - on later visits to exactly the same restaurant - the service was awful and the food was disgusting!  But at that time it was my first experience of American food and service.  As I sat down I was immediately offered a glass of ice water and that was an experience I had never had in the UK. Equally the steak I had was superb. Steak is one thing the Americans do well, though now I like best New York Strip Steak.

The following morning I finally made my way to the plant. This was one of IBM’s Supply Division plants, which normally produced punch cards. These had, in the old days, been the basis of IBM's profits.  But now, with the advent of magnetic media, this was the last of such plants within IBM.

The biomedical section was very small part of the plant.  Indeed, it was barely bigger than a large room, where the blood cell washers were assembled by hand.  It was almost a craft industry, though it grew somewhat larger later on. 

The teaching was conducted in the conference suite of the plant as a whole.  The cell washers had been the main business of biomedical for a decade or so, along with a few of the old-style cell separators.  The American sales-force had been converted from punch card salesman, and hence they found it much easier to sell the simple cell washers to blood banks in the US -- since these required very little technical expertise.  Thus, the main business of IBM Biomedical in the US then was such cell washers.  When the much more sophisticated cell separators were introduced, they had considerable difficulty in selling these. On the other hand, we in Europe, starting with these as our main product line and with a much more sophisticated sales force recruited from the DP Division, did much better. I, in particular, made a specialty of selling these.

They were friendly lot though, and I enjoyed several evenings out at the local bars with them As I was to find out, being part of Biomedical was very good way of getting under the skin of the American way of life

From there I drove of to the other side of New York, to Mount Kisco, where the head office of Biomedical was -- and where development team for its ECG machine was based.  It always seemed a nonsense to me that the two parts of such a small group should be on opposite sides of New York. It took three to four hours travel between the two, since once you had taken the New Jersey Turnpike, which is fast enough, you then had to thread your way through streets of Manhattan before you got to the Parkway on the other side.  It was these streets of New York which took the longest time.  Being somewhat cynical, I guessed that the main reason for headquarters being in Mount Kisco was that the director in charge of the group was very ambitious; and Mount Kisco was only just down the road from Armonk - where the IBM headquarters was!

But it was a nice enough town.  We stayed at a little old hotel there, which had comfortable enough rooms -- though not luxurious.  We used to eat there in the evening; the usual steaks but, like many US hotels, they had a superb self-selection salad bar.  It took me some time to realise that the Americans do not have vegetables with their main course, as we do, but instead have a salad course before this.  Accordingly, their salads were excellent

Breakfast though was taken at the local diner. This was a great cultural experience, with its pancakes and maple syrup and a side order of crispy bacon.  It was then the American way of life to go out to the local diner, perhaps on the way to work, for your breakfast. I found it very good value and very good food.  The problem was that it already was a disappearing feature of the American townscape.

At the head office we were indoctrinated into the strategy and sales plans - and everything else that drove the various parts of  IBM forward.  Although they talked at length about how independent they were, and how much freedom they had, it seemed to me that it was just like any other division of IBM

The new ECG machine, when we got to it and were allowed into the very secret development area, was an interesting machine. It was a mobile ECG machine, albeit a very big and heavy one, which incorporated a computer which was able to analyse the ECG which had been taken.  IBM had been working on this, under Ray Bonner's team of programmers, for the best part of the decade. His expertise meant that he was recognised as the world’s top guru in this field.  It was a miracle of miniaturisation for those days, though the computer was an old one -- deliberately so, in order that the bugs had been sorted out. Nobody can justify using such a machine, which holds the ability to decide between life and death, potentially having even a single bug.

The concept was very good. It later was complemented, for larger hospitals, by lighter carts which fed into a Series 1 computer.  The idea was that it saved the cardiologist the drudgery of reading every individual ECG.  The reality was that, as it turned out, cardiologists actually liked reading ECGs -- and accepted this role as a badge of office.  Accordingly, I had considerable difficulty selling these machines in the UK when they came out -- though Germany proved a  much better market, due to its employee screening programmes.

At the weekend I had my first day in New York, doing the Grey Line tour of the sights and going out to the Statue of Liberty.

 My historic picture of downtown New York

From Mount Kisco I drove down to JFK, to take the plane to Houston.  The highways, especially interstates, were as good as any British motorway.  Thus, I was happily relaxing, and doing nice gentle 70 miles per hour, when I saw, in my rear mirror, red and blue flashing lights.  I pulled over and got out to stand by the car as the Highway Patrol man approached me.  He was just about to start to write the ticket when he said “You realise you were doing seventy miles an hour”. I, believing that honesty is always the best policy, especially when the facts are obvious, said “Yes. I'm sorry. I forgot that I wasn't in England. I won't do it again”. As I said this I could almost see the thoughts crossing his face, as worked out that I wasn't an American.  His next question was “Where are you going”. My reply was “To Houston then to Washington and then to London”.  More confused emotions passed over his face, as he realised there was no way this ticket was ever going to get me into the court.  He stood back, pointed sternly at me and said “Well don't do it again” and let me go on my way!

Houston, when I got to it, was a fairly typical American city -- or so it seemed to me.  I had difficulty locating the hotel. I kept asking whether Gloucester hotel was, pronouncing it in the English way, only eventually to realise that the Americans pronounced it as the Glowsester!  The hotel was five-star and it was luxurious to the extent that in the bathroom my I even had an iced water tap!.  Even so, when I turned the television on -- set to the public broadcasting channel -- what should I see but Dad's Army! 

The next morning I met with Mike Martin, who was also in Houston for training on the cell separator.  Together we went to the MD Anderson hospital, which was the cancer hospital in the Southwestern Medical Centre -- a very big and very well resourced collection of hospitals.  We were there to meet with Jean Hester who was the consultant who had the most experience of cell separation.  She was a real guru, and a driving force behind the extending use of these machines.  Originally it had been developed for harvesting white cells to support leukaemia patients in particular, and the MD Anderson children's wing was full of leukaemia patients.  Thus, I was thrown in the deep end, because my first exposure to cancer was with young children, most of whom were certain to die. Having said that, I found that – like doctors - you had to distance yourself and not get involved in their personal tragedies.

The IBM 2997 cell separator in use at the MD Anderson hospital

We eventually located the prototype of the new machine, which was about to be launched worldwide.  It was a very impressive machine, and did incredible things in terms of separating the patient’s blood into its various components. I was to spend the next five years teaching consultants in the UK to do just that.

One evening we went off to meet Jean Hester herself, who was recuperating from an operation, in a 'local' restaurant.  With this experience, I began to appreciate what the Americans meant by 'local' – even despite the 55 mph speed limit. We must have travelled about an hour and a half through the suburbs of Houston before we came to this restaurant.

Fortunately, everywhere we went we were cosseted in air-conditioned comfort. This was as well since the temperature was 100 degrees and the humidity was 100%. As we came out of the hospital to get into our car it was literally like walking into a steam bath. It was humid because, although we Brits tend to think of Houston as being somewhere in the middle of Texas, Houston is actually on the Gulf of Mexico. Mike and I even drove down to Galveston, its port, though there was nothing to see but mile upon mile of refineries.

I left Mike go round a selection of customers with the Biomedical salesman in Washington.  I landed at Dulles, and took a taxi to the hotel - as directed - along the Beltway.  When I got there, however, no one knew anything about me. They kindly pointed out, however, that there was another branch of the hotel on the Beltway -- it was just 50 miles away on the other side of Washington!  So off I went, to the correct hotel.  I arrived there in time for the happy hour, something that was not then a feature of British drinking -- especially where the drinks were served by waitresses dressed in very short, frilly, skirts. 

The one and only time I saw the front of the White House

I had time to visit the mall in Washington, and see almost all the sights – the only time I did so, even though I later attended Millennium Project meetings there.

I went out with the American salesman in the afternoon, down to Baltimore. There we looked at a couple of the cell washing machines that his customers had, and we talked at length about his job.

The IBM 2991 Blood Cell Washer in a disused toilet in Baltimore!

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