Refering back to my blog on SaaS being around for 114 years, Herman Hollerith didn’t get everything right. According to IBM archives, Hollerith resisted new ideas for the operation of his machines and wasn’t working well with one of his best and original customers, the US government.
To quote the IBM archive of their employee publication “Think” from 1972:
About 1905, the U.S. Census Bureau gave him an ultimatum: improve the machines and cut the rentals (which each year about equaled his total manufacturing cost). To this Hollerith said, No. The Census Bureau said: Then we’ll make them ourselves and improve them ourselves. Which they did, using former Hollerith employees to run the operation.
A simple age old truth, you’ve got to listen to your customers. The pace of change and the competition in today’s business makes this ever more important. But technology still needed to be evolved to meet customers needs back in 1905.