The World's Greatest Salesman: Book Trailers and Videos
|
|
Date Published: June 4, 2021
Date Modified: May 7, 2025 |
The World's Greatest Salesman: Thomas J. Watson Videos
Thomas J. Watson Sr. was a man who believed that hope was a critical factor in motivating individuals—hope of a better future for themselves and their families. He believed that if these individuals sought after and worked to make that hope a reality, they would bring their corporation along with them. He knew he needed a team that understood hard work and would not shy away from it—eventually, he understood that he needed both men and women.
On the subject of women, I must provide some details concerning the following videos that I use for "The World's Greatest Salesman." I preserved as much as I could of Thomas J. Watson Sr.’s exact words. The word “men” will appear so often, such as in “The Man Age” or in his other speeches, that women may feel excluded from his comments and observations.
To this I would say, “Please don’t.” It was a function of the times.
Women did not get the right to vote until 1971 in Switzerland; the words he used in the videos are from the 1920s and early 1930’s. At the time in these videos, when he looked out over his sales force, his engineers, his shop foreman, and his executives--for the most part, what he saw were men.
Read this article to see how Tom Watson Sr. brought women into IBM: Women Enter the Automation Workplace.
On the subject of women, I must provide some details concerning the following videos that I use for "The World's Greatest Salesman." I preserved as much as I could of Thomas J. Watson Sr.’s exact words. The word “men” will appear so often, such as in “The Man Age” or in his other speeches, that women may feel excluded from his comments and observations.
To this I would say, “Please don’t.” It was a function of the times.
Women did not get the right to vote until 1971 in Switzerland; the words he used in the videos are from the 1920s and early 1930’s. At the time in these videos, when he looked out over his sales force, his engineers, his shop foreman, and his executives--for the most part, what he saw were men.
Read this article to see how Tom Watson Sr. brought women into IBM: Women Enter the Automation Workplace.
Thomas J. Watson Video: "When We Think of Men as Automatons"
|
Article: To Make a Business Grow - Grow Men!
"When I became the head of this company in 1914, it was suggested that I dispense with a number of men connected with the executive staff. That is one thing I did not do; that is the one thing no thinking person in the same position should do.
|
|
"Yet it is the course of least resistance which some executives have followed upon coming into a business under similar circumstances - while stockholders paid the bill."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "A Company Is Known by the Men it Keeps"
|
Speech: The Forthcoming Year
"When the curtain falls on this convention and you go back into your fields, you are going to take much of value to every corner of the world. You are going to contribute thoughts, ideas and ideals to all the people with whom you come in contact.
|
|
"The good that we have received here will endure forever. As we send you back into your various territories, we send with you our company and its reputation. We are very happy to have you represent us. There are very few of the people with whom you come in contact who will ever see our factories, our executives or our home offices. Therefore, they judge our company and our ideals by you.
"The greatest satisfaction and pleasure that I have in this business is in sending you out to all corners of the world, taking with you The IBM Company, because I know that you are going to represent it in the way that we want it represented. That, gentlemen, I appreciate more than anything else in connection with our institution."
"The greatest satisfaction and pleasure that I have in this business is in sending you out to all corners of the world, taking with you The IBM Company, because I know that you are going to represent it in the way that we want it represented. That, gentlemen, I appreciate more than anything else in connection with our institution."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes"
|
Speech: We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes
"We have another motto, 'We Forgive Thoughtful Mistakes.' If a man told me that he had thought a thing over and gave me his reason for doing it, I do not care how wrong it might be, I would never criticize him, because he had done his best—he had put thought into it.
|
|
"But if a man tells me that he did not think I do not like it. I do not like to overlook mistakes of that kind, because a man should think. I do not want you to interpret this as coming from me merely in the interests of the IBM. I want you to feel that I have talked to you for your own good as individuals because that is my intention. We cannot hope to build this business unless we build the individuals in it.
"If you can take what I have said as my contribution to your personal success, I will feel that I have accomplished a great deal in coming up here to talk to you."
"If you can take what I have said as my contribution to your personal success, I will feel that I have accomplished a great deal in coming up here to talk to you."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "Sailors Are Developed When the Seas Are Rough"
|
Speech: More Thought, Effort and Determination
"What we need and always will need, in this business, is greater intimacy and simple honesty between us.
|
|
"That is what I am trying to get over to you this morning—the plain, honest fact that you are in this business for the purpose of making some money for the stockholders of the company and you know, and you will all agree, that the company is willing and anxious to divide that profit with you men on a fair, honest and reasonable basis.
"We cannot afford to carry men who do not operate their territories on a profitable basis. It makes no difference whether you are working on commission, salary, or salary and commission. We have to figure everything on a straight commission basis. When a man runs a territory at a loss he reduces the profit on the territories which are operating successfully. There never has been a time in the history of industry when business people have had as great a need for our products as they have today. It is harder to sell today, of course, but the business is there. There are fair weather sailors and rough weather sailors, and it has been mostly rough sailing lately. It requires more thought and more effort and more determination in rough weather, but it can be done."
"We cannot afford to carry men who do not operate their territories on a profitable basis. It makes no difference whether you are working on commission, salary, or salary and commission. We have to figure everything on a straight commission basis. When a man runs a territory at a loss he reduces the profit on the territories which are operating successfully. There never has been a time in the history of industry when business people have had as great a need for our products as they have today. It is harder to sell today, of course, but the business is there. There are fair weather sailors and rough weather sailors, and it has been mostly rough sailing lately. It requires more thought and more effort and more determination in rough weather, but it can be done."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "The Best Supervision is Self-Supervision"
|
Speech: Advice to Young Men Entering the Business
"When you start out make up your minds that you are going to supervise yourselves, because self-supervision is the most valuable kind there is. You know what is expected of you, so just go out and do it.
|
|
"Learn to supervise yourself properly, and that will qualify you in time to supervise other people. Take your orders gracefully. A man who cannot take orders gracefully will never be in a position to give orders. Do not be afraid to be critical of us, if you think we are not running this business properly. But do not criticize us to your fellow workmen. Go direct to headquarters.
"We are always anxious to receive constructive criticism, but we do not care for destructive criticism. That helps no one. Always make up your mind before you criticize that you are going to think out some plan which you believe is better, and then come and present it to us. You would be surprised at the number of good suggestions that we receive in that way. You would be surprised at the number of changes we make in the handling of the affairs of IBM through suggestions we receive from men like yourselves"
"We are always anxious to receive constructive criticism, but we do not care for destructive criticism. That helps no one. Always make up your mind before you criticize that you are going to think out some plan which you believe is better, and then come and present it to us. You would be surprised at the number of good suggestions that we receive in that way. You would be surprised at the number of changes we make in the handling of the affairs of IBM through suggestions we receive from men like yourselves"
Thomas J. Watson Video: "Analyze Yourself"
|
Speech: The Forces That Produce Success
"Analyze the past, consider the present, and visualize the future."
|
|
Thomas J. Watson Video: "The Simplicity of Success"
|
Speech: Have Faith in the Future!
"It is no trouble to come into this business, or any other business, and be an average man. You have often heard it said in your schools and colleges: "Well, I am up to the average."
|
|
"But that does not mean anything. No man deserves any special credit for being an average man. It is the men who are striving to be above the average who are the men who build business—they are the men who build nations. They are the real builders in every line. I want every one of you to strive to be something better than the average in your particular line in this business.
"That is what I want you in this class to get fixed in your minds: that you are going to learn all you can here and then you are going out and use everything you have learned to stimulate your minds and your thoughts along lines that will bring into this business new thoughts and ideas, new principles that have never been heard of before. That is what has built this business. If we had rested on what we had accomplished sixteen years ago, we would not be as far ahead today as we were sixteen years ago. You can not stay in one place—you either go forward or go backward. That is why it is necessary in the engineering and developing ends of this business to keep striving and spending money to build new products."
"That is what I want you in this class to get fixed in your minds: that you are going to learn all you can here and then you are going out and use everything you have learned to stimulate your minds and your thoughts along lines that will bring into this business new thoughts and ideas, new principles that have never been heard of before. That is what has built this business. If we had rested on what we had accomplished sixteen years ago, we would not be as far ahead today as we were sixteen years ago. You can not stay in one place—you either go forward or go backward. That is why it is necessary in the engineering and developing ends of this business to keep striving and spending money to build new products."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "Decrease Unnecessary Things"
|
Speech: Where Pupils are Teachers
"I find myself in a very pleasant position this morning. If this were a convention I might feel that I ought to officiate as Chairman and run things. But it is not a convention; it is a school and I'm one of the pupils in it. . . . I am going to learn from you."
|
|
Thomas J. Watson Video: "We Are All Service Men"
|
Speech: Our Work is One of Service
"I have often said that a man deserves no credit for making a living. We must render service beyond thought of personal gain.
|
|
"I could not be happy if I were connected with a business which did not render a service to a large number of people. As I look over our organization and the records our men are making in seventy-seven countries of the world, I realize that we are doing something to make life easier and more pleasant for a large number of people because of the service we render our customers. . .
". . . When I realize the vast number of representatives we have throughout the world and the great family spirit they represent, regardless of nationality, regardless of religion or creed, it makes me feel that IBM, like other international organizations, is accomplishing a great deal toward building for the future peace of the world."
". . . When I realize the vast number of representatives we have throughout the world and the great family spirit they represent, regardless of nationality, regardless of religion or creed, it makes me feel that IBM, like other international organizations, is accomplishing a great deal toward building for the future peace of the world."
Thomas J. Watson Video: "THINK!"
|
Article: Things to Think About
"A few years ago we acquired the habit of mass thinking. I think that is one of the things that caused a great deal of the trouble we have had. We were all thinking the same about almost everything, particularly the things that were going on in the speculative world.
|
|
"Today, fortunately, the individual thinker is getting back on the job. The President of the United States is in the lead and he is thinking out ways and means to assist all of us. It is up to us, individually and collectively, to back him in every constructive movement he starts and I am sure that we all want to do so. Individual thought and action will meet the individual's needs."
