"Think" (stylized as THINK) is a slogan associated with the American multinational technology company
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
.
History
The "THINK" slogan was first used by
Thomas J. Watson in December 1911, while managing the sales and advertising departments at the
National Cash Register Company. At an uninspiring sales meeting, Watson interrupted, saying "The trouble with every one of us is that we don't think enough. We don't get paid for working with our feet — we get paid for working with our heads". Watson then wrote THINK on the easel.
Asked later what he meant by the slogan, Watson replied, "By THINK I mean take everything into consideration. I refuse to make the sign more specific. If a man just sees THINK, he'll find out what I mean. We're not interested in a logic course."
In 1914, Watson took the slogan with him to the
Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company
The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) was a holding company of manufacturers of record-keeping and measuring systems; it was subsequently known as IBM.
In 1911, the financier and noted trust organizer Charles R. Flint, called the ...
(CTR) and its subsidiaries, all of which later became
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
. International Time Recording, one of the subsidiaries, published a magazine for employees and customers, named ''Time'', which, in 1935, IBM would rename to THINK. IBM continues to use the slogan. THINK is also an IBM trademark; IBM named its laptop computers
ThinkPad
ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop and Tablet computer, tablet computers produced since 1992. It was originally designed, created and manufactured by the American IBM, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. IBM Acquisit ...
s, named a line of business-oriented desktop computers
ThinkCentre and the monitors
ThinkVision.
Since 2018,
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
's main conference is called
IBM Think.
The
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
slogan "
Think different," meaning "Think differently", first used in 1997, has been widely taken as a response to IBM's THINK.
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...
in 2011
File:IBM Poughkeepsie Think Path.JPG, A walking path at the IBM Poughkeepsie site, with the word "THINK"
File:IBM Think D100 Test.jpg, IBM Think sign
See also
*
History of IBM
References
External links
IBM Think(
Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...
archived versions)
{{IBM
IBM
American advertising slogans
1910s neologisms
1911 quotations