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"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
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 button 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?
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When Peter E. Greulich started his research on Tom Watson and IBM in 2011, he saw this entry in the IBM Annual Reports: "The Watson Fund for Supplementing the IBM Retirement Plan." He, of course, thought it was money set aside for Tom Watson's retirement. Isn't that what most 21st Century Chief Executives would and have done?
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 “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.
Today, wouldn't we call such an environment a corporate "culture" of snarling? And doesn't this concept apply in all aspects of life: economic, political, spiritual, and even ... parental?
Peter E. Greulich |
Peter E. GreulichPete 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 he has read with links to articles and book reviews on this website. Archives
March 2023
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