Peter E. Greulich's Business Articles
Date Published: June 9, 2021
​Date Modified: October 18, 2023
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Business Thoughts and Lessons from History
Definition of Witticism: ​A cleverly witty and often biting or ironic remark. Synonyms within the context of this page include: wise crack, one-liner, maxim, saying, proverb or adage.

Read Mark Twain aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens
In January 1926, A. W. Shaw published this survey in System: The Magazine of Business. More must be done to develop a deeper, well-rounded understanding of—and admiration for—our country’s early business founders.

​This is a great place to start learning.
Much of the fallacy of thought concerning industrialists and capitalists is hidden in the evolving definition of the word capitalist. These individuals believed in the economic system of capitalism, but they never referred to themselves as "capitalists."
20th Century Corporate Definition of True Steel: Organizations where employee engagement, passion, and enthusiasm provide the necessary tensile strength to withstand competition, recession, and depression.

Are you producing True Corporate Steel?
B. C. Forbes asked the following question of the world’s top industrialists. “If you were to name one quality as the most desirable of all in a person, which would you specify?”

"Earnings-per-share oriented" was not on the list!
America’s greatest, twentieth-century business leaders were hands-on artisans who took pride in building corporations held to the highest of ethical standards. They interweaved the threads of fairness, equality and justice into the very fabric of their corporations.

Where does the 21st Century IBM stand?
In 1956, THINK Magazine clearly defined IBM’s stakeholders with the adage, “Business exists to provide a service to MAN — service to consumer man, to worker man, to investor man, and to the community of man.”

This was a sustainable stakeholder community!
It is rare to find examples as outsized as Henry Ford’s reaction when he was challenged in court by his stockholders. When his shareholders disagreed with his plans to expand the Ford Motor Company, he took them to school.

He fought shareholder-first and -foremost!
"King, you are always thinking and inventing; why don't you try to create something like the ‘Crown Cork?’ Something that's thrown away after it is used. ... The customer keeps coming back for more. Each new customer becomes a permanent foundation of profit."

And the razor-blade business model was born!
So many times, a son or daughter asks for advice on what it takes to succeed in business – or in life. This is the story of two women who succeeded in business in 1918. It is a story to share with those who are priceless.

It is about doing little things well.
Sears’ chief executive, Eddie Lampert, thought he had a pension problem? Today’s poorest of chief executives have little understanding of the beliefs that supported the rise of this country’s greatest corporations: Sears was one.

Sears died an unnecessary death.
Does LinkedIn need an incognito mode? A year ago my answer would have been an emphatic, “No!” My initial experience with anonymous forums was not pleasant. But I learned, and I am, now, just as insistent in my, “Yes!” … with some qualifications.

This is why.
If this article wasn't dated, a reader would be hard pressed to believe it was written at the beginning of the 20th Century rather than the 21st Century. Images have been added to make this 100-year-old article "feel" more current. Maybe the images will help overcome some pre-conceived notions.
I agree with Edward A. Filene when he writes, "Genius is an infinite capacity for hard work.”
The ideal of college education is not to give miscellaneous instruction, but to disclose to the student his highest capacities and teach him how to turn them to achievement. By this ideal, those who labor in darkness are brought to see a great light, and those who dwell in silence shall give service in obedience to the voice of love.
by Helen Keller, McClure's Magazine, October 1905
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