L.E.O.: The Incredible Story of the World's First Business Computer - Hardcover

Aris, John; Hermon, Peter; Land, Frank

4.25

8 ratings by Goodreads

9780070095014: L.E.O.: The Incredible Story of the World's First Business Computer

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0070095019 ISBN 13: 9780070095014

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 1997

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Reveals the tale of how Lyons, a tea-and-cake company in Great Britain, hatched the first business computer in history, including interviews with the participants in the project

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Review:

A variety of machines mark the milestones on the way to modern cyberculture. Many, such as ENIAC, UNIVAC, the TRS-80, and the Apple II are well known. Less celebrated but vitally important was the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO), the first business computer. Rather than being built by an electronic firm, LEO was built by J. Lyons & Co., a British food company that kept Great Britain in tea and cakes throughout World War II. J. Lyons & Co. operated in constant innovation, leaping into business history right after the war with the vision that the growing mountain of paperwork could be tamed by machine--if they only had the courage to build it. LEO tells the story of what many believed to be, at best, a quixotic effort. LEO's success was demonstrated when the world's first routine office job--weekly bakery valuations--was computerized in 1951. Within a few years, LEO computers were running payrolls for Ford Motor Company and working for British railroads, military, and businesses. This is not just a story about technology, but about individual and corporate vision and the people who made a dream work despite mistakes.

From the Back Cover:

A saga of how the impossible can be made to happen. ``The reader must experience this wonderful story through the words of the people who were there to fully appreciate what was accomplished and how.''--Richard L. Noland, Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University. ``Fascinating. . .an extremely timely book. A band of exceptional, dedicated, and hard-working professionals performing pioneering work almost without realizing it.''--The Times (London). ``The LEO project was on the one hand delightfully dotty. . .on the other, it was a hugely professional effort.''--Financial Times (London). ``The LEO team can certainly teach us a thing or two.''--Computing magazine. ``An unparalleled insight into the problems, challenges, and above all the sheer excitement of making the world's first business computer.''--Computer Weekly. In 1947, a remarkable group of pioneers began a process that would change the way business was done forever. Now, the original development team tells the fascinating story of LEO--Lyons Electronic Office, the world's first business computer long before IBM's first business mainframes! This compelling book transports the reader to postwar England, where a small group with limited resources designed and built a machine that luanched the modern world of business computing. Their story is a fascinating case study in business innovation, vision, and change--one that offers powerful parallels for anyone grappling with the impact of the Internet on business today.

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