A Chief Executive Who Earned His Pay
Thomas J. Watson Sr. Was a CEO Who Earned His Pay
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Date Published: August 25, 2021
Date Modified: June 29, 2024 |
A Chief Executive Officer Who Earned His Pay
Watson Sr. Grew and Transitioned the Business During Tough Economic Times
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Thomas J. Watson Sr. in his four decades at IBM faced a total of 10 economic downturns. Of these only four were less than twelve months long. Six—more than any other IBM Chief Executive—were greater than or equal to 12 months in duration. Of these, one was the Great Depression.
It is unusual to find a corporate document that shows the wage detail that is in the chart at the beginning of this article. |
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These numbers clearly document that Tom Watson during the Great Depression was growing the number of employees significantly in both the plant and field locations, and he increased these employees’ weekly take-home pay while reducing the number of hours they worked in a day and over a week.
These actions were taken based on what he had learned during tough economic times but mainly from the mistakes he made during the Recession of 1920-21. [article here]
This chart also does not reflect the number of benefits that he put in place during this time for these same employees such as: paid vacation time off, starting and continually improving life insurance coverage, improving health and accident benefits, reducing on-the-job, work-related accidents, and building homes at cost for his employees in Endicott.
It is an amazing record that Tom Watson, himself, told his shareholders was not paternalism but just good common business sense because of the return on investment they were seeing on their stock investments and their customers were receiving in new products.
One more proof point of a chief executive who earned his paycheck.
These actions were taken based on what he had learned during tough economic times but mainly from the mistakes he made during the Recession of 1920-21. [article here]
This chart also does not reflect the number of benefits that he put in place during this time for these same employees such as: paid vacation time off, starting and continually improving life insurance coverage, improving health and accident benefits, reducing on-the-job, work-related accidents, and building homes at cost for his employees in Endicott.
It is an amazing record that Tom Watson, himself, told his shareholders was not paternalism but just good common business sense because of the return on investment they were seeing on their stock investments and their customers were receiving in new products.
One more proof point of a chief executive who earned his paycheck.