A review of Charles E. Sorensen's book, "My Forty Years with Ford."This is the sixth book I have read concerning Henry Ford: (1) My Life and Work, (2) Today and Tomorrow, (3) Moving Forward, (4) 365 Henry Ford Sayings, and (5) The Last Billionaire. The first three were written in conjunction with Samuel Crowther—who is mentioned in this latest book. In my opinion, The Last Billionaire by William Richards is the best of the works at presenting a balanced perspective on Mr. Ford. It presents him as a complete man within a changing society. It balances his eccentricities as both strengths and weaknesses [Reviews of Crowther’s books are here] and [The review of "The Last Billionaire" is here]. In any prioritized list of books, this work of "Cast-Iron Charlie's" should be added as last. If Sorensen knew Henry Ford “as well as any man alive or dead” as he claims, he left out the compassionate side of his chief executive and, maybe, in so doing reveals a weakness in himself. Sorensen either did not know or appreciate, or did not write any of the human-interest stories of Mr. Ford that come across in the other biographies. I don't think he knew Henry Ford as well as he thought he did. Select image or link provided below to read the full review.
0 Comments
A review of Fortune's book: "USA: The Permanent Revolution."It is refreshing to read in a major work from 1951 by the editors of Fortune magazine an affirmation of a basic fundamental foundation of capitalism that I arrived at in my research for "THINK Again: IBM CAN Maximize Shareholder Value: The Rometty Edition." One of the major responsibilities of a chief executive officer is the maintenance of a balanced, self-sustaining stakeholder ecosystem. Peter E. Greulich, Author and Public Speaker The following is an excerpt from "USA: The Permanent Revolution. “The manager is becoming a professional in the sense that like all professional men he has a responsibility to society as a whole. This is not to say that he no longer needs good, old-fashioned business sense. He does, and more than ever; the modern enterprise should be in business to make money. … But … "The great happy paradox of the profit motive in the American System is that management, precisely because it is in business to make money years on end, cannot concentrate exclusively on making money here and now. To keep making money years on end, it must, in the words of Frank Abrams, Chairman of Standard Oil of New Jersey, ‘conduct the affairs of the enterprise in such a way as to maintain an equitable and working balance among the claims of the various directly interested groups—stockholders, employees, customers, and the public at large.’ ” Select image or link provided below to read the full review. A review of Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick's book, "The Power to See It Through."“This basic law holds good: nothing great without serenity. Let us get our eye clearly, then, on what we are talking of—not serenity as an escape from life, but as an indispensable part of life: what rest is to the body, what peace is to the home, what roots are to the tree, what depth is to an ocean. Nothing in heaven above or the earth beneath can be great without serenity! … "There are people who are trying to substitute thrills for serenity. Having no serenity at home within themselves, they run away into sensations, spend as much time as possible away from themselves amid their thrills, and then at last have to come back again to no serenity. “That is the very essence of unhappiness.” "The High Uses of Serenity," Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick The Power to See It Through To read a few more quotes from this book and this author's full review of Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick's book, "The Power to See It Through," select the image or the link below. Remembering our fallen brethren on Memorial Day 2024 and Memorial Day 2023It seems that with so many kneeling before our flag and during our national anthem, the majority of us have a hard time explaining why we stand. Maybe these words will help you. If they do, share them as you see fit. This is why this U.S. Army veteran stands: "Because America is not only the home of the brave, but of the respectful, tolerant and forgiving. May we never forget those who made the perfect sacrifice for us, their imperfect brethren." Peter E. Greulich, Vietnam-era veteran Select the image or the link below to read the article, be thankful, and know why I stand. Maybe, it will help you stand stronger and taller this 2024 Memorial Day in remembrance of our fallen, perfect brethren. Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick on the importance of "staying power."Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote of the distinction between "starting power" and "staying power." I had been trying to put into words the effect of people's opinions expressed "in the raw" on social media on both myself and others around me. Sometimes it feels as though the "staying power" of whole generations is being attacked by this new outlet of unchecked, unverified, and too-many-times illiterate, opinions of the opinionated. After reading this excerpt from Dr. Fosdick's book, "The Power to See It Through," I know I need to refresh my "staying power." This is a short excerpt from his book, "The Power to See It Through." "To give a child a good start, we say, is the most essential benediction that can be bestowed upon him or her. This emphasis is profoundly important and it represents truth, just not the whole truth. … The qualities which make a good start possible are not identical with the qualities which see life through to the end. In no realm are "starting power" and "staying power" the same thing. … However beautiful one's beginning, nothing matters much in human life without a good end. … "Staying power is associated with a certain central integrity of conscience. Whatever else life may give or may deny, one thing is absolutely indispensable—that a man should not break faith with himself, that he should keep his honor bright. … that whatever else may fail he should not inwardly be a failure. … "Whatever happens, a man living on high terms with himself, is the essence of "staying power." Harry Emerson Fosdick, The Power to See It Through, 1935 "However beautiful one's beginning, nothing matters much in human life without a good end."
Sarah Schuyler Butler's article "Women as Citizens" from "Review of Reviews."“The women voters of the country are facing the first real test of their value as citizens. . … “In the presidential election of 1920, little was expected of the women, for the suffrage amendment had only recently been ratified. But this year [1924] the situation is different. … Those who believed that woman suffrage would bring about the 'political millennium' have been disappointed. … Those who claimed that women could not take any part in active political work have … to admit that they were mistaken." “The truth seems to lie midway between these two extremes. ” Sarah Schuyler Butler, June 1924 Select the image or the link provided to read Sarah Schuyler Butler's full article "Women as Citizens" from "The American Review of Reviews" in 1924 Ralph Waldo Emerson Defines the Four Conditions for a Great Social Culture."The secret of culture is to learn that a few great points throughout history steadily reappear … and that these few are alone are to be regarded:
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Conduct of Life" I do wonder how many of us when we talk about our "work culture" or our "societal culture" apply these standards to our individual, daily contributions? Do we serve … to add somewhat to the well-being of mankind? Peter E. Greulich
Peter F. Drucker and Thomas J. Watson Sr. empowered employees to be effective.I would challenge any executive or employee to look at these following insights and not wonder, "Why can't we learn from the past?" As much as every generation has its differences, human nature is a constant that evolves over eons, not generations. These thoughts are over five decades old, but as new as every article you read today on "Quiet Quitting," and "Acting Your Wage." Eventually, everything comes back to and onto the individual. "Knowledge workers" should control their destinies and attitudes. Be effective! Peter E. Greulich, April 19, 2023 Quotes from Peter F. Drucker's "The Effective Executive" - Achieving Effectiveness, not Efficiency? "For manual work, we need only efficiency; that is, the ability to do things right rather than the ability to get the right things done. … Working on the right things is what makes knowledge work effective." - Why Do Employees Check Out? "The knowledge worker cannot be supervised closely or in detail. He can only be helped. But he must direct himself, and he must direct himself toward performance and contribution, that is, toward effectiveness. … The motivation of the knowledge worker depends on his being effective, on his being able to achieve. "If effectiveness is lacking in his work, his commitment to work and to contribution will soon wither, and he will become a time-server going through the motions from 9 to 5." - What is an Executive? "I have called 'executives' those knowledge workers, managers, or individual professionals who are expected by virtue of their position or their knowledge to make decisions in the normal course of their work that have significant impact on the performance and results of the whole." Select the image or link provided below to read more on Drucker and Watson. This website has established a home page for Booker T. Washington book reviewsAfter reading three of Booker T. Washington's books, Character Building, My Larger Education, and Up from Slavery, it seemed appropriate to establish a home page for his works and my reviews. I agree with this statement of Booker T. Washington's from his book Up from Slavery. “The older I grow, the more I am convinced that there is no education which one can get from books and costly apparatus that is equal to that which can be gotten from contact with great men and women." For me, Booker T. Washington is one of these great men, and I am learning from his wisdom. I would add that we should also learn from the mistakes of greater and lesser men and women. Peter E. Greulich, March 16, 2023 Select the image or link provided to go to Booker T. Washington's Book Review Home Page. Warren Buffett displayed his "economic illiteracy" when he bought/sold IBM stock.Here is what Warren Buffett wrote about share buybacks in his 2023 Annual Report to Shareholders: "When you are told that all repurchases are harmful to shareholders or to the country, or particularly beneficial to CEOs, you are listening to either an economic illiterate or a silver-tongued demagogue . . . characters that are not mutually exclusive! [bolding emphasis in this statement is Warren Buffett's not this authors.]." It would be this author's contention that "anytime" a writer uses the words "all" or "every" or "always" that the reader should raise their level of distrust . . . just a bit . . . to catch a possible misleading generalization. Rarely is anyone always or in every way, one thing or another . . . be skeptical and inquisitive. No, all repurchases aren't harmful, but historically some have been, and Warren Buffett—at one time—bought into IBM's share buyback strategy, and then got out. He should have used IBM as an example to ensure we all are not . . . economically illiterate! Peter E. Greulich, February 28, 2023 Select the image or the icon below to read an IBM Case Study: Do Share Buybacks Work? The Best Presidents' Day Speech Ever Delivered: "We Should All Be Abraham Lincolns."This was an address delivered by Ida M. Tarbell on February 12, 1909 at the University of Michigan in honor of the Centennial Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Subheadings were added for clarity by Peter E. Greulich and are his sole responsibility. The theme of this address by one of our country's greatest journalists—who was well-known in her day as a muckraker—is that "We Should All Be Abraham Lincolns." I hope you find time to enjoy this on President's Day . . . a day that has lost too much of its meaning as so many view it as just a day off from school or a long weekend from work. Peter E. Greulich, February 28, 2023 Select image or link below to read Ida M. Tarbell's speech: "We Should All Be Abraham Lincolns." Book review of Ida M. Tarbell's "Owen D. Young: A New Type of Industrial Leader.""We must deal with this question of unemployment, which I regard as the greatest economic blot on our capitalistic system. … The world does not owe men a living, but business, if it is to fulfill its ideal, owes men an opportunity to earn a living. " Owen D. Young, Chairman of the Board General Electric Company A different perspective on unemployment from another great 20th Century American industrialist. Peter E. Greulich Select the image or the icon below to read more about Owen D. Young, Chairman of the Board of General Electric Company. How IBM's Resource Actions—Layoffs, Affect Family and Business Productivity.It seems appropriate this week to post about how layoffs affect work and family. At IBM the employees have lived with constant layoffs—called resource actions in IBM speak, since Lou Gerstner took over the company in 1993. This is one example of how Gerstner's elephant—and that of his successor's, "danced" on the livelihoods of their employees. What are resource actions? They are as hard to explain as they are to experience, and IBM employees have been experiencing them for almost three decades. These two articles (extracted from journal entries) are critical to understanding why IBM's sales and profit productivity have fallen so drastically in the 21st Century. Here are three resource actions … in action. Select the image or the link below to read about three IBM layoffs—resource actions, not during hard but good times. Daniel C. Roper, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Discusses Different Viewpoints."It dawned upon me that interpretation of truth, or the righteousness of either side of a question depended upon the sources of information and an open-minded willingness to examine different views." Daniel C. Roper's Autobiography, Fifty Years of Public Life, 1941 As applicable today in a social-media-driven world as it was in the rock-and-spear Stone Age, and all the eras in between. Daniel C. Roper was the United States Secretary of Commerce during Tom Watson's time at IBM. Fundamentally, thinking is important but also the sources of information that your thinking is founded on. A good case for a university's social sciences and attaining a wide, generalized education. Peter E. Greulich, January 19, 2023
A review of J. C. Penney's book, "Fifty Years with the Golden Rule."“I don't have much patience with people I hear saying that it is impossible to get good people for jobs. . . . Won't it follow naturally that if a business idea is basically sound it will draw to itself quality people, not only because of the job but because they want to be connected with a business whose underlying idea has vigor, and offers scope for individual initiative?" “Our country could have been mightier than it is, had not some throughout every period of its history retarded its growth by greed, corruption in high places, petty partisanship in crucial periods, and individual selfishness. . . . Selfishness, of course, is the festering spot in every evil situation, whether world, nation, or individual.” “My advice to young people today is to let no day pass without pushing personal standards a notch higher. The law of struggle is the essence of all life—animal, vegetable, and human. Our progress from birth to death is marked by struggle, and rightly so, for when we cease to struggle, dry rot takes over. . . . Young people who count not their hours but their opportunities are the ones who maintain the difficult road to success.” J. C. Penney, Excerpts from "Fifty Years with the Golden Rule" Select the image or link below to read full book reviews of "Fifty Years With the Golden Rule." A Review of Perle Mesta's "Perle: My Story."“I had been in Luxembourg nine months when I returned to Washington for a consultation with the State Department, a customary procedure with ambassadors and ministers. … After my Washington consultations, I went up to New York for a few days and was given a luncheon there that I consider one of the greatest honors of my life [emphasis added]. “Matthew Woll, the A. F. of L. Vice-President … got together with his friend and mine, Thomas J. Watson Sr., President of International Business Machines, to co-host the affair. “I don't think a party was ever given anyplace by hosts as far apart as those two [Watson and Woll] in their economic viewpoints. As we looked around the luncheon room at the Hotel Pierre from the head table, Matt Woll commented that only in America could such an affair as this take place, with labor and management getting together socially." Perle (Pearl) Mesta Select the image or link below to read the full book review. Reviews of "Famous Leaders of Industry" & "Famous Leaders of Character"The "Famous Leaders" Series of books spanned a timeframe from 1920 to 1955. There was one "Famous Leaders of Character" and a series of six "Famous Leaders of Industry." The target audience was the adolescent reader. It is important to understand the audience to set the proper expectations. I did not realize this because I read the very last in the series first. “Famous Leaders of Industry [with a new author: Trentwell M. White] discusses the lives of twenty-five men who have had the courage and independence … to work night and day to bring the results of their thinking to fruition.” Trentwell M. White, New Author, 1931 Select the image or link below to access the book-review home page of the "Famous Leaders of Industry" and "The Famous Leaders of Character" The IBM Basic Beliefs Were IBM's 20th Century Corporate ConstitutionIBM's 20th Century Corporate Constitution was referred to as "The Basic Beliefs." A corporate constitution that is unforgettable, pervasive, and inclusive serves as a compass to guide individuals across rough organizational terrain. A constitution beckons to men and women of service who are willing to change everything about themselves except for a fundamental set of beliefs. Whatever form a corporate constitution takes it must provide three things: (1) It must provide a consistent, ever-present, guiding light—a “north star” by which individuals navigate rough organizational terrain; (2) It must provide the mechanism by which the organization defines its objectives—goals that aren’t necessarily monetary but—if achieved—rewards success with a monetary gain; (3) It must provide an internal mechanism that demands an ever-constant evolution—it should institutionalize change. Peter E. Greulich, A View from Beneath the Dancing Elephant, Select the image or link below to read about IBM's Corporate Constitution: The Basic Beliefs. Raymond B. Fosdick: "We Must Not Be Afraid of Change.""When the last glacier retreated northward from what is now Connecticut, it left behind as mementos of its visit, great boulders of rock which are now strewn lavishly across the state. Several of them, as large as a corncrib and many tons in weight, were deposited on my farm, and for fifteen years I have watched one of them fight a losing battle with an ash tree. The tree evidently started in a seed lodged in a tiny pocket in the top of the rock. "When I first saw it, it was a sturdy sapling that had made for itself a comfortable crevice for its roots. Today, its irresistible growth has torn the massive rock into fragments. This is the law of life. The future belongs not to rigid absolutes, whether they are primal rocks of unyielding social arrangements, but to the thing that can grow, whether it is a tree or a democracy." Raymond B. Fosdick, "We Must Not Be Afraid of Change," The New York Times, April 3, 1949 This is the starting few paragraphs to a full article written by Raymond B. Fosdick. If you think that what we are facing today is a new threat to democracy, I would highly recommend reading it in its entirety. Change and the discussion of change is the way of a people united through democracy . . . a diversity, not so much achieved through shades of color or non-color—black and white, but . . . through thoughtful discussion. Peter E. Greulich Select the image or link below to access the full article. Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Violence Cannot Bring About Right.""We got a peace of a sort almost five years ago [post World War II]. It has been more or less with us in the guise of what we call a cold war. … But there is a second kind of peace, and in our aspirations, it must be to bring to all men living together the confidence that bodily harm will not be used to make them agree—that violence cannot bring about right." General Dwight D. Eisenhower, May 1950 It would seem that this fundamental truth holds true whether it is in international relationships or within our own political system here at home. "Bodily harm" cannot be the means to make individuals agree. To preserve the freedom of speech, we have an obligation to listen to each other. Peter E. Greulich, December 2022
IBM Relinquishes Its Worldwide Patent Leadership in 2022 to SamsungFor the last three decades, IBM has been industry-leading in patent leadership. But through October of this year, IBM’s patent production has fallen off a cliff. This is giving Samsung an opening to become this year’s pennant winner. If so, IBM will close out its third full decade of patent leadership with a whimper rather than a flourish. Peter E. Greulich Charts of IBM's patent performance and an overview of the IBM-Samsung positioning of themselves for patent leadership is available by selecting the image or the link below. Why the President of Recording and Computing Machines Hired Women in 1917.This is an Interview in 1917 with Will I. Ohmer, President, Recording and Computing Machines Company. Headings, subheadings, and images were added by this author. The article was shortened and minor edits performed where appropriate for readability without affecting the overall tone and purpose of the piece while, hopefully, improving clarity. Some author insights are provided which were gleaned from a follow-on, 1922 article—written five years later, about this same company, this same president, this production of fuses for the war effort, and this corporation’s approach in utilizing women in its workforce. Several times the term “girl(s)” has been replaced with “woman/women” so as to keep the reader engaged and not distracted with an out-of-date term that was widely used at the time, and not in a derogatory manner. Peter E. Greulich Select the image or link below to read the article in its entirety. Thomas J. Watson Jr. Writes About the Dangers of Data Centralization in 1971“Today the Internal Revenue Service has our tax returns. The Social Security Administration keeps a running record on our jobs and our families. The Veterans Administration has medical records on many of us, and the Pentagon has our records of military service. “In this scatteration lies our protection. But put everything in one place, computerize it, and add to it without limit, and a thieving electronic blackmailer would have just one electronic safe to crack to get a victim's complete dossier—tough as that job would be. "And a malevolent Big Brother would not even have to do that, he could sit in his office, punch a few keys, and arm himself with all he needed to know to crush any citizen who threatened his power. “Along with the bugged olive in the Martini, the psychological test, and the spike microphone, the critics have seen ‘data surveillance’ as an ultimate destroyer of the individual American citizen's right to privacy--his right to call his soul his own.” Thomas J. Watson Jr., 1971 This information was included in a statement from Robert P. Bigelow, Attorney at Law, Boston, quoting Thomas J. Watson Jr. before a U.S. Senate Congressional Hearing: "Federal Data Bank, Computers, and the Bill of Rights" on March 10, 1971
The Character of an Individual Is Displayed in Many Ways in an Interview."A man's life and beliefs are written upon his hands, upon his face and form, in his words and actions . . . and even into his penmanship." Carroll D. Murphy, "Handling Men: The Man for the Job," 1917 For more business insights, quips and witticisms select the image or the link below. John H. Patterson Comparing Life to Reading a Book: "Turn the Page.""Life is like a book . . . and the individual who spends all of their time in one place, reads only one page." John H. Patterson, President, NCR Corporation Attribution: John R. Bangs Jr., “Human-O-Grams,” The Ithaca Journal, April 14, 1938, p. 12
|
Peter E. GreulichPeter E. has been studying IBM and early American corporate history since his retirement in 2011. These are his thoughts and musings, and of those whose biographies and autobiographies he has read with links to articles and book reviews on this website. Contact the author directly.
|