Freedom of Speech is Founded on an Obligation to Listen"With every privilege there is also an obligation. The obligation for the individual and for corporations which have had an opportunity in this country to make a lot of money is to repay for that privilege by paying taxes and not complaining about it." Thomas J. Watson Sr., December 5, 1942, IBM Family Event When we stand today for the freedom of speech in this country, what is our most sacred obligation to preserve this wonderful freedom and ensure it remains strong for the individual, communities of likeminded individuals, and the press? I would propose that it is an obligation to give fair hearing to each other: An Obligation to Listen. Or, as my father used to tell me when I was a know-it-all teenager, "Son, God gave you two eyes, two ears, one brain, and a single mouth. Take the hint from Him who created all things: Observe and listen, and then engage your brain before opening your mouth. To read how Tom Watson was taken to task by Drew Pearson in "The Washington Merry-Go-Round" for his taxpayer statement above, select the image or icon below. You may also find a story of two men listening to each other to resolve a misunderstanding. Don't we need a little more of this in politics, business, and spiritual matters today? Select the image or link below to read about Thomas J. Watson Sr.'s "Tax Problem." 
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How Thomas J. Watson Sr. Helped Fund the IBM Employees' Retirement PlanWhen I started my research on Tom Watson and IBM in 2011, I saw this entry in the IBM Annual Reports: "The Watson Fund for Supplementing the IBM Retirement Plan." Of course, I thought it was money set aside for Tom Watson's retirement. Isn't that what most 21st Century Chief Executives would have done? Through on-going research, I learned that this fund was set up by Tom Watson for the benefit of his employees. This is an amazing, forgotten slice of IBM history about how IBM's Retirement Plan was started and supplemented over time … … with Tom Watson Sr.'s generosity. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of how IBM's corner office has changed in this new century. That which one exemplary 20th Century chief executive made possible for his employees, three 21st Century chief executives—two men and one woman—have exploited to pump up profits and earnings per share for personal gain. This is not a problem with the system of capitalism. It is a problem with the internal moral character of IBM's leadership.
Peter E. Greulich Select the image or link below to read about "The Founding of IBM's Retirement Plan."  A. W. Shaw Writes That "A Leader's Habits Are Contagious."“Many a man in charge of others snarls at his employees simply because the man who held the job before him and under whom he was trained had cultivated the fine art of snarling. An equally pertinent observation is that the pleasant-mannered employee usually reflects the attitude of a similarly pleasant-mannered boss. "Habits are catching. An executive’s daily attitude toward those in his employ becomes a habit. And the sum total of the relations of all the executives in all their relations with employees is the labor policy of that business in action.” A. W. Shaw, Management and the Worker Today, wouldn't we call such an environment a culture of corporate snarling? And doesn't this concept apply in all aspects of life: economic, political, spiritual, and even parental?
Peter E. Greulich Select the image or link below to read the reviews of A. W. Shaw's Trilogy on "Management and the Worker."  |
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. 
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