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The college met its requirements by canceling its order for a 7090 and instead buying an IBM 1401 -- a simple nonresearch "baby computer" (price: $80,000) that is roughly 100 times less powerful and used for different purposes. "It's like the difference between a BB gun and a cannon," says a former top salesman, Ken Crider, who was "shocked" that IBM management allowed Perot to walk away with a commission on the original order.
The paperwork on the deal no longer exists, but a former IBM executive claims to have reviewed it after Perot resigned. "The proposal stated that GRC would start renting time on other people's equipment, until such time as it made sense to install a 7090," he says. "But IBM doesn't take provisional orders like that." This executive says IBM management in Dallas covered up the incident by quietly absorbing Perot's commission. Why? To save the hide of another colleague, who had approved the deal.
A Texas League Squeeze Play. One of Perot's best accounts was the Southwestern Life Insurance Co., which he inherited in 1958 from fellow salesman Jim Cox, who was promoted to a post in California. Some months earlier, Cox had received an order from Southwestern for a 7070 computer, then IBM's largest commercial unit. Perot had 90 days either to declare the deal dead (and get Cox to return a $10,000 partial commission) or to agree to try to install the machine himself for what was known as an installation commission. If he accepted the risk and failed, however, Perot would be required to pay IBM back the $10,000.
Cox, now 66, bitterly recalls that just as the 90-day period was ending, Perot demanded that Cox return his commission. "The account required almost constant attention, and Ross just let the deal die," says Cox, who feels that Perot then "would have resold ((the computer)) to Southwestern in a few months and kept 100% of the money. He was extremely devious."
Cox says Perot relented only after Cox surprised his superiors by requesting the right to install the computer himself from California. "I was going to . take it all the way to the top of IBM," he says. "There are very few people who have really tried to cheat me on anything. And, in Ross's mind, he wasn't cheating me at all. That's the frightening part."
Making Soup of Campbell. When Perot finally installed the 7070 at Southwestern, he received roughly $25,000 as a commission, which he wanted to keep for himself -- to the consternation of his IBM partner, Dean Campbell. When the two first started working as a team in the late 1950s, they shared 20 insurance-company accounts. Perot agreed to work on two large, difficult accounts -- including Southwestern -- while Campbell would take the rest. Perot told his boss that he should not split the Southwestern commission with Campbell because he had done all the work. In response, Campbell argued that Perot didn't visit the 18 accounts Campbell was managing but the pair was splitting those smaller commissions.