DISCERNING READERS
  • Home
  • About
  • Books / Bibliography
    • Keys to Success >
      • Preface
      • Introduction
      • Appendix
      • You: The First Key
    • THINK Again! Series >
      • Ideas and High Ideals >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Prologue
        • Insights into Tom Watson >
          • Tom Watson's Character
          • A Wartime Humanitarian
          • Democracy's Man O' War
          • An Exemplary Man
          • On Youth & Education
        • A Successful Rebranding
      • The Rometty Edition >
        • Preface
        • Foreword
        • Introduction
        • Business Talk Interview
        • Book Trailers and Videos
      • The World's Greatest Salesman >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Workplace Safety
        • Images and Quotes
        • Book Trailers / Videos
    • A View from Beneath >
      • Preface
      • Resource Actions >
        • Two R.A. Days Hit Home
        • R.A. Day Kills Productivity
      • Business Talk Interview
      • Book Trailers and Videos
    • Essays on Leadership >
      • Democracy in Business
      • We Are All Assistants >
        • Frank Venner: We Are All Assistants
      • We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes
    • Bibliography Overview >
      • Authors and Writers >
        • Garland, Hamlin
        • Wise, John S. >
          • Slave Auction
          • Tribute to Robert E. Lee
          • On Lincoln's Assassination
      • Capitalists >
        • Baruch, Bernard M. >
          • My Own Story
          • The Public Years >
            • A Review
            • Second Thoughts
        • Davison, Henry P.
        • Schiff, Jacob H.
      • Educators >
        • Washington, Booker T >
          • Up From Slavery
          • My Life and Work
          • Character Building
          • My Larger Education
          • The Man Farthest Down >
            • Booker T. Washington and John Burns
          • Future of American Negro >
            • Future of the Negro
      • IBM >
        • IBM Books >
          • IBM Classics
          • IBM Executives' Books
          • IBM Employees' Books
          • IBM Outsiders' Books
        • IBM Publications >
          • THINK Magazine
          • Business Machines
          • IBM Heart and Soul >
            • Endicott Memorial Day
            • Poughkeepsie Memorial Day
          • IBM Art Books
        • IBM Situational
      • Industrialists >
        • Anthologies >
          • The Book of Business
          • New Ideals in Business
          • Master Workers' Library
          • The Age of Big Business
          • Famous Leaders Series Home Page >
            • Leaders of Character
            • Leaders of Industry: 1st Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 2nd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 3rd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 6th Series
          • Forbes' Anthologies
        • Armour, J. Ogden >
          • The Packers
          • The Packers: Second Look
        • Baldwin, William H.
        • Beatty, Edward
        • Bell, Alexander Graham
        • Carnegie, Andrew >
          • Carnegie Quotes
          • Carnegie Autobiography
          • Carnegie Biography by B. J. Hendrick
          • Round the World
          • The Empire of Business
          • An American Four-in-Hand
        • Eastman, George
        • Edison, Thomas A. >
          • Edison: His Life and Inventions
          • Edison: My Friend
        • Farquhar, A. B.
        • Filene, Edward A. >
          • The Way Out >
            • Captains of Industry vs. Captains of Finance
          • Successful Living >
            • Rules of Success
        • Firestone, Harvey S. >
          • Men and Rubber
          • Making an Organization
        • Flint, Charles R.
        • Ford, Henry >
          • Books by Henry Ford
          • The Last Billionaire
          • My Forty Years with Ford
        • Gary, Elbert H.
        • Guggenheim, William
        • Hill, James J.
        • Hollerith, Herman
        • Johnson, George F.
        • Patterson, John H.
        • Penney, James C. >
          • Fifty Years With the Golden Rule
        • Procter, William C.
        • Rockefeller Jr.
        • Rockefeller Sr.
        • Rosenwald, Julius
        • Sloan Jr., Alfred P.
        • Swope, Gerard >
          • Swope of G.E.
          • The Swope Plan
          • Selected Addresses
        • Verity, George M. >
          • True Steel
          • Character & Success
        • Wanamaker, John >
          • A Business Biography
          • Retail Firsts
        • Watson Jr., Thomas J. >
          • A Business and Its Beliefs
          • Management Briefings
          • Father, Son & Company
        • Watson Sr., Thomas J. >
          • Human Relations
          • Men-Minutes-Money
          • The Lengthening Shadow
        • Young, Owen D. >
          • Selected Addresses
          • New Industrial Leader
      • Inventors & Innovators >
        • Fulton, Robert
        • Goodyear, Charles
      • Journalists >
        • Baker, Ray Stannard >
          • Autobiography
          • The Color Line
          • Woodrow Wilson
        • Crowther, Samuel >
          • Articles >
            • Bantam Ball Bearing
          • Biographies
          • Industrialist Anthology
          • "Why Men Strike" Review
        • Gunther, John >
          • Eisenhower
        • Steffens, Lincoln
        • Sullivan, Mark >
          • Our Times
          • The Education of an American
        • Tarbell, Ida M. >
          • Overview
          • Lincoln Centennial
          • Lincoln Publications
          • Corporate Publications
          • Fiction Publications
          • Other Publications >
            • Mme. (Madame) Roland
          • Magazine Articles >
            • Disbanding the Confederate Army
            • Disbanding the Union Army
        • White, William Allen >
          • Woodrow Wilson, The Man
      • Military Leaders >
        • Lee, General Robert E.
      • Pioneers / Explorers >
        • Byrd, Richard E. >
          • Alone
          • Discovery
          • Little America
        • Columbus, Christopher
        • Lindbergh, Charles
      • Politicians >
        • Eisenhower, Dwight D.
        • Hoover, Herbert >
          • American Individualism Book >
            • American Individualism Article
          • Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Problems of Lasting Peace
        • Lincoln, Abraham >
          • Lincoln in the Telegraph Office
          • Abraham Lincoln Books By Ida M. Tarbell
        • Mesta, Perle
        • O'Connor, Basil and FDR >
          • Friends and Partners (Against Polio)
        • Roosevelt, Theodore >
          • Roosevelt: A Story of Friendship
        • Roper, Daniel C. >
          • Fifty Years of Public Life
        • Taft, William H.
        • Wilson, Woodrow >
          • The New Freedom
          • The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Wilson's Last Words
          • Wilson's Tasks and Life
          • Wilson's Life and Letters >
            • Volume IV: President
            • Volume V: Neutrality
            • Volume VI: Facing War
      • Preachers >
        • Fosdick, Harry Emerson >
          • The Meaning of Prayer
          • The Meaning of Faith
          • The Meaning of Service
          • Power to See It Through
      • Publishers >
        • Forbes, B. C. >
          • Men Who Are Making America
          • Men Who Are Making the West
          • Automotive Giants of America
          • Little Bits about Big Men
          • America's 50 Foremost Business Leaders
          • America's Twelve Master Salesmen
          • Scrapbook of Thoughts on Business of Life
          • 101 Unusual Experiences
          • Keys to Success
          • Teamwork
        • Fortune Magazine >
          • USA: The Permanent Revolution
        • Shaw, A. W. >
          • Handling Men >
            • Why We Are Hiring Women
            • The Dream Behind the Business
          • The Companion Series
    • Research Sites
    • Acknowledgements
  • 21st Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • Comparing KPIs
      • Brand Performance >
        • Forbes' Best Employer
      • Patent Performance >
        • 2021 Patent Performance
        • 2020 Patent Performance
        • 2019 Patent Performance
        • 2018 Patent Performance
      • Revenue Performance
    • Corporate Practices >
      • Acquisitions >
        • Acquisition: Red Hat >
          • A $35 Billion Gamble
          • IBM + Red Hat 2019 Results
        • Acquisitions: Goodwill
        • Acquisitions: Since 2001
      • Centralization >
        • A Lost Federation
        • The Need to Decentralize
      • Divestitures >
        • Kyndryl Analysis
        • Kyndryl Top Questions
        • Martin Schroeter
      • Employees >
        • Resource Actions
        • Age Discrimination >
          • Cutting Old Heads
        • Employee Engagement
        • Aren't Buying Into IBM
        • Massive Work Slowdown
        • Failure of Work at Home
      • Financial Engineering >
        • Workforce Rebalancing
        • Aggressive Bookkeeping
      • Shareholders >
        • Share Buybacks
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Overall Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Employment Security
        • Employee Engagement
        • Warren Buffett's Mistake
        • Do Share Buybacks Work?
    • CEO Performance >
      • Arvind Krishna Overview >
        • First Year Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Share Buybacks
        • The First 100 Days
      • Ginni Rometty Overview >
        • Shareholder Value
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Share Buybacks
        • Dividend Strategy
        • Acquisition Strategy
        • Revenue & Profit Productivity
        • Revenue & Profit Growth
        • Revenue & Profit
  • 20th Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • IBM's Greatest CEO >
        • Shareholder Returns
        • Revenue Growth
        • Revenue Per Employee
        • Profit Growth
        • Profit Per Employee
        • Market Value
        • Goodwill
        • Economic Contractions
        • Economic Expansions
        • Stock Market Headwinds
        • CEO Historic Footnotes >
          • IBM's Founding Team
          • Financial Engineering
          • The Greatest Gamble
    • Corporate Practices >
      • IBM Anniversaries
      • IBM Benefits
      • IBM Creativity >
        • IBM Cartoons
        • IBM Song Books
        • IBM UK Dictionary
        • IBM Computing Dictionary
      • IBM Wild Ducks >
        • The Wild Goose
        • Royal Dissenters
        • Corporate Constitution
        • Respect for the Individual
        • Service to the Customer
        • Pursuit of Excellence
    • Corporate Products >
      • 1890: U.S. Census
      • Dayton Scales in 1920
      • 1940: The Electromatic
    • Thomas J. Watson Sr. >
      • Quotes By Watson
      • Quotes About Watson
      • Articles By Watson >
        • On World Peace
        • On the Cost of War
        • On Public Education
        • On Thomas Jefferson
        • On Thoughtful Mistakes
        • On Stakeholder Relations
      • Articles About Watson >
        • A Gift of Retirement
        • A Gift of Home Ownership >
          • Construction Timeline
        • The $1,000-A-Day Chief Executive Officer
        • Employees are Valued
        • Democracy's Man o' War
        • Human Relations in 1956
        • A CEO Who Earned His Pay
        • The Story of "THINK" >
          • Two Journalists "THINK"
          • A Buddy Davis Interview
        • Learning from Crises
        • Tom Watson's Wild Ducks
        • The Lengthening Shadow
      • Slice of Life Stories >
        • Dali, Salvador
        • Drucker, Peter F. >
          • Authority and Power
          • Short-Term Thinking
          • A Corporate Culture
          • Raising Business Issues
          • Focus on Principles
          • Character and Manners
          • Knowledge Workers
          • Recognizing Ability
          • Individual Respect
          • Employee Paternalism
        • Eastman, George
        • Penney, J. C. (James Cash) >
          • Watson Homestead
          • Golden Rule Businesses
        • A 1943 Tax Problem
        • Fighting Discrimination
        • A Pajama Party
      • Pre-World War II >
        • Women in the Workplace
        • A Lost Dream of Peace
        • USO Camp Show Founder
      • World War II Effort >
        • Selling War Bonds
        • Production Awards
        • Controlling Profits
        • Machine Records Units
        • Wartime Contributions
        • Widows & Orphans Fund
        • Declaring Human Rights
        • Supporting Home Morale
        • Employee Military Service
        • War's End & Reconversion
      • Post-World War II >
        • Endicott Memorial
        • Poughkeepsie Memorial
        • Rehiring WWII Veterans
  • Articles
    • Corporate Articles >
      • High-Performance Corporations
      • The Art of the Restart
      • Crises, Recoveries & Lessons Learned
      • Strategy Should Create Human Relationships
      • A Time-Tested Corporate Constitution
      • IBM, JC Penney and The Golden Rule
      • How IBM Created its 20th Century Brand
      • The Greatest Business Risk of the 20th Century
      • How to Grow a Business
      • The Importance of Sales Productivity
      • How Much Is a Great CEO Worth
      • Let Your Guard Down
    • Business Articles >
      • Business Witticism
      • The Golden Rule and Productivity in Business
      • Who and What Built Early American Capitalism
      • Capitalism Needs Industrialist Minded CEOs
      • Producing Corporate True Steel
      • CEO Perspectives >
        • Rules of Success
        • Top Employee Qualities
        • Industrialist vs. Capitalist
      • An Open Letter to the World's CEOs
      • Henry Ford Takes Control
      • The Razor Blade Business Model
      • Two Successful 20th Century Businesswomen
      • Sears: A Dead Franchise Walking
      • A LinkedIn Incognito Mode
      • Value a College Education
    • Political Articles >
      • Political Witticisms
      • Meritocracy and Teachable Humility
      • What Is Patriotism?
      • Presidents' Day 2024-25
      • Memorial Day 2025
      • Pursuing The "American Way"
      • America: Home of the Brave
      • Securing the Borders of the Americas
      • General Grant's Stand for Justice
      • America's Heartland Stands Strong
      • The New Freedom
      • Teddy Roosevelt on Socialism & Individualism
      • Women as Citizens
      • Mary Slessor of Calabar
      • Walt Rostow Speaks to Congress
    • Spiritual Articles >
      • Inauguration Day Prayer
      • Reincarnated Thoughts >
        • Why Lies Should Never Be Glorified
        • Are You More Than A Wise Entrepreneur?
        • A World of Peace or Turbulence?
      • Wilson's Last Words
      • Spiritual Songs
    • Fiction Articles >
      • A Father's Love
      • Introducing a Friend to God
      • Hyphenated Relationships
  • Contact
  • Blog

Alfred P. Sloan Jr.

A Review of Alfred P. Sloan's "My Years with General Motors"

Date Published: June 23, 2021
Date Modified: November 3, 2024
A high-quality, color slide with an image of dust cover and front book cover of Alfred P. Sloan Jr.'s
The following single paragraph summarizes the theme of Alfred P. Sloan's "My Years With General Motors." It describes why a business leader should read the book to grasp the concept and benefits of coordinated decentralization:

​
"From decentralization we get initiative, responsibility, development of personnel, decisions close to the facts, flexibility – in short, all the qualities necessary for an organization to adapt to new conditions. From coordination we get efficiencies and economies. It must be apparent that coordinated decentralization is not an easy concept to apply. There is no hard and fast rule for sorting out the various responsibilities and the best way to assign them. The balance which is struck between corporate and divisional responsibility varies according to what is being decided, the circumstances of the time, past experience, and the temperaments and skills of the executives involved."
​A Review of "My Years with General Motors" by Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
  • Reviews of the Day: 1964
  • Selected Quotes from "My Years with General Motors"
  • This Author’s Thoughts and Perceptions
Alfred P. Sloan Jr.: My Years with General Motors
Reviews of the Day: 1964
​In 1964, Alfred P. Sloan’s My Years with General Motors made the country’s top five, non-fiction, best seller’s list and stayed there for most of the year. It was interesting to read the critiques of the book.
​​One review asked if it is okay to be critical of a book that omits so much: his personal life, his outside interests, his interactions with others outside of General Motors and the automotive industry, and his charitable interests because after all, “Almost all of the fortune that this [stock holdings] represents has gone and is going into the charitable foundation which bears my name, and from there into education and scientific research in medical and other fields.”
​These were the areas I was most interested in as I have found that the paths of Alfred P. Sloan Jr. and Thomas J. Watson Sr. crossed a multitude of times in their careers: the International Trade Relations subcommittee of the Business Advisory Council to FDR, joint signatories of a letter to the President of Harvard University acknowledging the debt of business to American Universities, formation of Research Associates of MIT to help business and universities work closer together, and the “Share the Work Movement” during the Great Depression.
I was hoping to find a few nuggets concerning their interactions in these areas, but the book never strays – as the title suggests – outside of General Motors and the automotive industry and those relationships.
Sidebar image of book review of Alfred P. Sloan's
A Selected Quote of Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
Picture of the front dust cover of Alfred P, Sloan's
​That being said, I was impressed with the major theme of the book and found it very relevant in my research of the changes that are taking place at IBM in the 21st Century. One theme is driven home from Sloan’s introductory chapter to his second-to-last chapter entitled, “The Management: How it Works.”

​In this chapter, Mr. Sloan writes, “It has been a thesis of this book that good management rests on a reconciliation of centralization and decentralization, or “decentralization with coordinated control.” I love it when an author scribes out so plainly the theme of his book. He also describes the benefits that accrued to his organization and his management team as they stayed the course on this policy.
​Sloan writes:
"From decentralization we get initiative, responsibility, development of personnel, decisions close to the facts, flexibility – in short, all the qualities necessary for an organization to adapt to new conditions. From coordination we get efficiencies and economies. ​It must be apparent that coordinated decentralization is not an easy concept to apply. There is no hard and fast rule for sorting out the various responsibilities and the best way to assign them.

​"The balance which is struck between corporate and divisional responsibility varies according to what is being decided, the circumstances of the time, past experience, and the temperaments and skills of the executives involved."
This Author's Thoughts and Perceptions
This single paragraph summarizes the book and why a business leader should read it. It summarizes the profit that will be found in an organization and management team that is constantly balancing the benefits between centralization and decentralization. It was fascinating to read Alfred P. Sloan’s memorandums of the time struggling with this conflict. He was a true believer in the benefits of decentralization. Fundamentally his rule was: It depends! The business leader must be constantly flexible in their approach.

For example, he recounts gaining control of the company to survive the Recession of 1920-21. He walks the reader through the centralization they actively implemented to gain centralized control of the corporation’s inventory; but he then describes how the top management team implemented policies so they could let the control revert back to the individual divisions. He describes the formation of policy committees to delineate and formalize the lines between corporate centralization and divisional empowerment; and he covers how this model of decentralization of coordinated control was one of the major factors why General Motors remained in the black during the Great Depression, and how the organization was able to adapt so quickly to assist the nation’s struggle against fascism during World War II.
Advertisement for General Motors from
​As I read the changes Alfred P. Sloan implemented at General Motors highlighted above, I couldn’t help but think of Louis V. Gerstner’s centralization of control at IBM in 1993. It was probably a necessary action of the time to get the company financially back on its feet (just like General Motors in 1920), but Lou failed to decentralize after the recovery—in fact, he created IBM’s financial autocracy. The result is that IBM revenue and profit productivity flattened in 1995 and has been in a continual decline for the entire 21st Century. Rather than improved profits—earnings-per-share—coming from productivity improvements they have come from financial gamesmanship: workforce rebalancing, employee benefit cuts, and selling off once-critical assets—whole divisions.
Lou Gerstner’s, Sam Palmisano’s, Ginni Rometty’s and now Arvind Krishna's policies of over-centralization and ceding of business control to a financial autocracy has destroyed initiative, blurred responsibilities, failed to offer leadership growth opportunities to its personnel, removed decision making far from the customer where the facts reside, and is an inflexible organizational structure – in short, they have killed all the qualities necessary for an organization to adapt to new conditions. This is why IBM has been unsuccessful so far in the 21st Century in adapting to significant changes in the marketplace or “transform” as Ginni used to say.
​
For this reason, Alfred P. Sloan Jr.’s My Years with General Motors was a tremendous, supportive read. It was further evidence from one of America’s greatest industrialists that what I have been writing about IBM for the last eleven years has been on target:
IBM must let go of its centralizing, financial autocracy: THINK, Act and Let Go.
A high-quality, color image with a description of how the American Red Cross solved it scaling problems through
Return to the Industrialist Bibliography Home Page
© 2025 Peter E. Greulich. All Rights Reserved
Information posted on this site recognizes the legal right of copyrighted material. The following material is considered in the public domain effective January 1, 2025: (1) Works published in the United States prior to January 1, 1929, (2) All unpublished works created over 120 years ago, (3) Works published in the United States before 1978 that have no © copyright notice, and (4) Works published in the United States after 1929 but before 1964 with a proper © copyright notice that were not renewed in their 28th year. Some information is used here that does not fit this criteria. This type of material has been purposely minimized, and it is used in good faith, usually with an attribution, and in the belief that such usage would withstand a test of fair use. This site also utilizes images from Pixabay that are "free to use under the Pixabay license" and "do not require attribution." Any concerns with the public domain, fair usage, or attribution of material utilized on this site will be removed until a discussion can resolve the matter with its permanent removal or republication. To reach us, use the "Contact" menu item above or this hyperlink: [Contact Us]
  • Home
  • About
  • Books / Bibliography
    • Keys to Success >
      • Preface
      • Introduction
      • Appendix
      • You: The First Key
    • THINK Again! Series >
      • Ideas and High Ideals >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Prologue
        • Insights into Tom Watson >
          • Tom Watson's Character
          • A Wartime Humanitarian
          • Democracy's Man O' War
          • An Exemplary Man
          • On Youth & Education
        • A Successful Rebranding
      • The Rometty Edition >
        • Preface
        • Foreword
        • Introduction
        • Business Talk Interview
        • Book Trailers and Videos
      • The World's Greatest Salesman >
        • Preface
        • Introduction
        • Workplace Safety
        • Images and Quotes
        • Book Trailers / Videos
    • A View from Beneath >
      • Preface
      • Resource Actions >
        • Two R.A. Days Hit Home
        • R.A. Day Kills Productivity
      • Business Talk Interview
      • Book Trailers and Videos
    • Essays on Leadership >
      • Democracy in Business
      • We Are All Assistants >
        • Frank Venner: We Are All Assistants
      • We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes
    • Bibliography Overview >
      • Authors and Writers >
        • Garland, Hamlin
        • Wise, John S. >
          • Slave Auction
          • Tribute to Robert E. Lee
          • On Lincoln's Assassination
      • Capitalists >
        • Baruch, Bernard M. >
          • My Own Story
          • The Public Years >
            • A Review
            • Second Thoughts
        • Davison, Henry P.
        • Schiff, Jacob H.
      • Educators >
        • Washington, Booker T >
          • Up From Slavery
          • My Life and Work
          • Character Building
          • My Larger Education
          • The Man Farthest Down >
            • Booker T. Washington and John Burns
          • Future of American Negro >
            • Future of the Negro
      • IBM >
        • IBM Books >
          • IBM Classics
          • IBM Executives' Books
          • IBM Employees' Books
          • IBM Outsiders' Books
        • IBM Publications >
          • THINK Magazine
          • Business Machines
          • IBM Heart and Soul >
            • Endicott Memorial Day
            • Poughkeepsie Memorial Day
          • IBM Art Books
        • IBM Situational
      • Industrialists >
        • Anthologies >
          • The Book of Business
          • New Ideals in Business
          • Master Workers' Library
          • The Age of Big Business
          • Famous Leaders Series Home Page >
            • Leaders of Character
            • Leaders of Industry: 1st Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 2nd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 3rd Series
            • Leaders of Industry: 6th Series
          • Forbes' Anthologies
        • Armour, J. Ogden >
          • The Packers
          • The Packers: Second Look
        • Baldwin, William H.
        • Beatty, Edward
        • Bell, Alexander Graham
        • Carnegie, Andrew >
          • Carnegie Quotes
          • Carnegie Autobiography
          • Carnegie Biography by B. J. Hendrick
          • Round the World
          • The Empire of Business
          • An American Four-in-Hand
        • Eastman, George
        • Edison, Thomas A. >
          • Edison: His Life and Inventions
          • Edison: My Friend
        • Farquhar, A. B.
        • Filene, Edward A. >
          • The Way Out >
            • Captains of Industry vs. Captains of Finance
          • Successful Living >
            • Rules of Success
        • Firestone, Harvey S. >
          • Men and Rubber
          • Making an Organization
        • Flint, Charles R.
        • Ford, Henry >
          • Books by Henry Ford
          • The Last Billionaire
          • My Forty Years with Ford
        • Gary, Elbert H.
        • Guggenheim, William
        • Hill, James J.
        • Hollerith, Herman
        • Johnson, George F.
        • Patterson, John H.
        • Penney, James C. >
          • Fifty Years With the Golden Rule
        • Procter, William C.
        • Rockefeller Jr.
        • Rockefeller Sr.
        • Rosenwald, Julius
        • Sloan Jr., Alfred P.
        • Swope, Gerard >
          • Swope of G.E.
          • The Swope Plan
          • Selected Addresses
        • Verity, George M. >
          • True Steel
          • Character & Success
        • Wanamaker, John >
          • A Business Biography
          • Retail Firsts
        • Watson Jr., Thomas J. >
          • A Business and Its Beliefs
          • Management Briefings
          • Father, Son & Company
        • Watson Sr., Thomas J. >
          • Human Relations
          • Men-Minutes-Money
          • The Lengthening Shadow
        • Young, Owen D. >
          • Selected Addresses
          • New Industrial Leader
      • Inventors & Innovators >
        • Fulton, Robert
        • Goodyear, Charles
      • Journalists >
        • Baker, Ray Stannard >
          • Autobiography
          • The Color Line
          • Woodrow Wilson
        • Crowther, Samuel >
          • Articles >
            • Bantam Ball Bearing
          • Biographies
          • Industrialist Anthology
          • "Why Men Strike" Review
        • Gunther, John >
          • Eisenhower
        • Steffens, Lincoln
        • Sullivan, Mark >
          • Our Times
          • The Education of an American
        • Tarbell, Ida M. >
          • Overview
          • Lincoln Centennial
          • Lincoln Publications
          • Corporate Publications
          • Fiction Publications
          • Other Publications >
            • Mme. (Madame) Roland
          • Magazine Articles >
            • Disbanding the Confederate Army
            • Disbanding the Union Army
        • White, William Allen >
          • Woodrow Wilson, The Man
      • Military Leaders >
        • Lee, General Robert E.
      • Pioneers / Explorers >
        • Byrd, Richard E. >
          • Alone
          • Discovery
          • Little America
        • Columbus, Christopher
        • Lindbergh, Charles
      • Politicians >
        • Eisenhower, Dwight D.
        • Hoover, Herbert >
          • American Individualism Book >
            • American Individualism Article
          • Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Problems of Lasting Peace
        • Lincoln, Abraham >
          • Lincoln in the Telegraph Office
          • Abraham Lincoln Books By Ida M. Tarbell
        • Mesta, Perle
        • O'Connor, Basil and FDR >
          • Friends and Partners (Against Polio)
        • Roosevelt, Theodore >
          • Roosevelt: A Story of Friendship
        • Roper, Daniel C. >
          • Fifty Years of Public Life
        • Taft, William H.
        • Wilson, Woodrow >
          • The New Freedom
          • The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson
          • Wilson's Last Words
          • Wilson's Tasks and Life
          • Wilson's Life and Letters >
            • Volume IV: President
            • Volume V: Neutrality
            • Volume VI: Facing War
      • Preachers >
        • Fosdick, Harry Emerson >
          • The Meaning of Prayer
          • The Meaning of Faith
          • The Meaning of Service
          • Power to See It Through
      • Publishers >
        • Forbes, B. C. >
          • Men Who Are Making America
          • Men Who Are Making the West
          • Automotive Giants of America
          • Little Bits about Big Men
          • America's 50 Foremost Business Leaders
          • America's Twelve Master Salesmen
          • Scrapbook of Thoughts on Business of Life
          • 101 Unusual Experiences
          • Keys to Success
          • Teamwork
        • Fortune Magazine >
          • USA: The Permanent Revolution
        • Shaw, A. W. >
          • Handling Men >
            • Why We Are Hiring Women
            • The Dream Behind the Business
          • The Companion Series
    • Research Sites
    • Acknowledgements
  • 21st Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • Comparing KPIs
      • Brand Performance >
        • Forbes' Best Employer
      • Patent Performance >
        • 2021 Patent Performance
        • 2020 Patent Performance
        • 2019 Patent Performance
        • 2018 Patent Performance
      • Revenue Performance
    • Corporate Practices >
      • Acquisitions >
        • Acquisition: Red Hat >
          • A $35 Billion Gamble
          • IBM + Red Hat 2019 Results
        • Acquisitions: Goodwill
        • Acquisitions: Since 2001
      • Centralization >
        • A Lost Federation
        • The Need to Decentralize
      • Divestitures >
        • Kyndryl Analysis
        • Kyndryl Top Questions
        • Martin Schroeter
      • Employees >
        • Resource Actions
        • Age Discrimination >
          • Cutting Old Heads
        • Employee Engagement
        • Aren't Buying Into IBM
        • Massive Work Slowdown
        • Failure of Work at Home
      • Financial Engineering >
        • Workforce Rebalancing
        • Aggressive Bookkeeping
      • Shareholders >
        • Share Buybacks
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Overall Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Employment Security
        • Employee Engagement
        • Warren Buffett's Mistake
        • Do Share Buybacks Work?
    • CEO Performance >
      • Arvind Krishna Overview >
        • First Year Performance >
          • Revenue & Profit
          • Revenue & Profit Growth
          • Revenue & Profit Productivity
          • IBM Market Value
          • Shareholder Returns & Risk
          • Share Buybacks
        • The First 100 Days
      • Ginni Rometty Overview >
        • Shareholder Value
        • Shareholder Risk
        • Share Buybacks
        • Dividend Strategy
        • Acquisition Strategy
        • Revenue & Profit Productivity
        • Revenue & Profit Growth
        • Revenue & Profit
  • 20th Century IBM
    • Corporate Performance >
      • IBM's Greatest CEO >
        • Shareholder Returns
        • Revenue Growth
        • Revenue Per Employee
        • Profit Growth
        • Profit Per Employee
        • Market Value
        • Goodwill
        • Economic Contractions
        • Economic Expansions
        • Stock Market Headwinds
        • CEO Historic Footnotes >
          • IBM's Founding Team
          • Financial Engineering
          • The Greatest Gamble
    • Corporate Practices >
      • IBM Anniversaries
      • IBM Benefits
      • IBM Creativity >
        • IBM Cartoons
        • IBM Song Books
        • IBM UK Dictionary
        • IBM Computing Dictionary
      • IBM Wild Ducks >
        • The Wild Goose
        • Royal Dissenters
        • Corporate Constitution
        • Respect for the Individual
        • Service to the Customer
        • Pursuit of Excellence
    • Corporate Products >
      • 1890: U.S. Census
      • Dayton Scales in 1920
      • 1940: The Electromatic
    • Thomas J. Watson Sr. >
      • Quotes By Watson
      • Quotes About Watson
      • Articles By Watson >
        • On World Peace
        • On the Cost of War
        • On Public Education
        • On Thomas Jefferson
        • On Thoughtful Mistakes
        • On Stakeholder Relations
      • Articles About Watson >
        • A Gift of Retirement
        • A Gift of Home Ownership >
          • Construction Timeline
        • The $1,000-A-Day Chief Executive Officer
        • Employees are Valued
        • Democracy's Man o' War
        • Human Relations in 1956
        • A CEO Who Earned His Pay
        • The Story of "THINK" >
          • Two Journalists "THINK"
          • A Buddy Davis Interview
        • Learning from Crises
        • Tom Watson's Wild Ducks
        • The Lengthening Shadow
      • Slice of Life Stories >
        • Dali, Salvador
        • Drucker, Peter F. >
          • Authority and Power
          • Short-Term Thinking
          • A Corporate Culture
          • Raising Business Issues
          • Focus on Principles
          • Character and Manners
          • Knowledge Workers
          • Recognizing Ability
          • Individual Respect
          • Employee Paternalism
        • Eastman, George
        • Penney, J. C. (James Cash) >
          • Watson Homestead
          • Golden Rule Businesses
        • A 1943 Tax Problem
        • Fighting Discrimination
        • A Pajama Party
      • Pre-World War II >
        • Women in the Workplace
        • A Lost Dream of Peace
        • USO Camp Show Founder
      • World War II Effort >
        • Selling War Bonds
        • Production Awards
        • Controlling Profits
        • Machine Records Units
        • Wartime Contributions
        • Widows & Orphans Fund
        • Declaring Human Rights
        • Supporting Home Morale
        • Employee Military Service
        • War's End & Reconversion
      • Post-World War II >
        • Endicott Memorial
        • Poughkeepsie Memorial
        • Rehiring WWII Veterans
  • Articles
    • Corporate Articles >
      • High-Performance Corporations
      • The Art of the Restart
      • Crises, Recoveries & Lessons Learned
      • Strategy Should Create Human Relationships
      • A Time-Tested Corporate Constitution
      • IBM, JC Penney and The Golden Rule
      • How IBM Created its 20th Century Brand
      • The Greatest Business Risk of the 20th Century
      • How to Grow a Business
      • The Importance of Sales Productivity
      • How Much Is a Great CEO Worth
      • Let Your Guard Down
    • Business Articles >
      • Business Witticism
      • The Golden Rule and Productivity in Business
      • Who and What Built Early American Capitalism
      • Capitalism Needs Industrialist Minded CEOs
      • Producing Corporate True Steel
      • CEO Perspectives >
        • Rules of Success
        • Top Employee Qualities
        • Industrialist vs. Capitalist
      • An Open Letter to the World's CEOs
      • Henry Ford Takes Control
      • The Razor Blade Business Model
      • Two Successful 20th Century Businesswomen
      • Sears: A Dead Franchise Walking
      • A LinkedIn Incognito Mode
      • Value a College Education
    • Political Articles >
      • Political Witticisms
      • Meritocracy and Teachable Humility
      • What Is Patriotism?
      • Presidents' Day 2024-25
      • Memorial Day 2025
      • Pursuing The "American Way"
      • America: Home of the Brave
      • Securing the Borders of the Americas
      • General Grant's Stand for Justice
      • America's Heartland Stands Strong
      • The New Freedom
      • Teddy Roosevelt on Socialism & Individualism
      • Women as Citizens
      • Mary Slessor of Calabar
      • Walt Rostow Speaks to Congress
    • Spiritual Articles >
      • Inauguration Day Prayer
      • Reincarnated Thoughts >
        • Why Lies Should Never Be Glorified
        • Are You More Than A Wise Entrepreneur?
        • A World of Peace or Turbulence?
      • Wilson's Last Words
      • Spiritual Songs
    • Fiction Articles >
      • A Father's Love
      • Introducing a Friend to God
      • Hyphenated Relationships
  • Contact
  • Blog