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SPIRITED, irascible salesman left IBM in 1962 to start a new kind of computer company.
Thirty years later, still spirited, still irascible, he would start his own political party and run for president of the U.S. In between, H. Ross Perot generated more publicity than you can shake a stick at. But Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), the Dallas-based company he founded on his 32nd birthday - June 27,1962 - with a $1,000 loan from his wife Margot, remains one of the most significant contributions by an individual to the development of the information technology industry. Only time will tell if his Reform Party will have the same impact on the twoparty U.S. political system.
Before EDS, a number of computer services bureaus had cropped up, offering data processing services for monthly contracts of about $500 each.
But Perot envisioned a computer services firm that would offer a cradle-to-grave information services pact at a prearranged price, on a prearranged schedule, via a longterm operating agreement, as he explained in an article in the June 22,1992, issue of Computerworld. He pitched the idea to his employer, IBM. When IBM declined, Perot struck out on his own.
Frito-Lay Inc. stepped up to be EDS' first customer in a $5,128 deal. EDS' next contract was nearly double the value of the first.
At about the same time in 1962, far...