Information Technology implementation: the case of the worlds first business computer: the initiation phase F.F. Lancf London School of Economics Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom +44 (0)1409 221 765 (tel), +44 (0)1409 221 147 (fax), aland@uk.pi. net Abstract The world'sfirst computer designed and used primarily as a business computer was built by a British food manufacturing and catering company at the beginning of the 1950s. The paper tells the story of how the decisions to make a computer were taken and sets out an analysis of the characteristics of the enterprise which made such an action not as surprising as it may seem at first glance. Keywords Technology transfer, initiation, innovation, business computing, organisational culture 1 INTRODUCTION theme of the conference is the "diffusion, transfer and implementation of information technology". This paper sets out by means of a case study and analysis of the case to describe how one company in the UK - J Lyons and Company - came 1 Frank Land started his business career with J. Lyons and Co and joined the LEO team in 1953. He worked with LEO until 1967 when he went to the London School of Economics to establish teaching and research in Systems Analysis. T. McMaster et al. (eds.), Facilitating Technology Transfer through Partnership © IFIP International Federation for Information Processing 1997