The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, the precursor to IBM, was founded on June 16, 1911. At its beginning, it was a merger of three manufacturing businesses, a product of the times orchestrated by the financier, Charles Flint. From these humble beginnings sprang the company that Thomas Watson Sr. would mold into a global force in technology, management and culture.In 1914, Flint hired Thomas Watson Sr. to run the company. It turned out to be an inspired move.By 1924, he renamed C-T-R with the more expansive name of International Business Machines.The computing scale and time clock businesses fell away. IBM grew to become the most significant player in every stage of the evolution of information technology over the 100 years after it was first formed.