Summary: Father, Son & Co. E-Book

BusinessNews Publishing

• Herausgeber: Business Book Summaries
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 47

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

The must-read summary of Thomas J. Watson, Jr.'s book: "Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond".

This complete summary of the ideas from Thomas J. Watson, Jr.'s book "Father, Son & Co." tells the story of how Thomas Watson, Sr. and his son built one of the greatest business success stories of all time, which changed the face of American business. In his book, the author describes his relationship with his father, the early days of IBM, the evolution of its culture and the change of leadership in 1956. By reading this summary, you will be offered a glimpse into the father-son relationship behind the company as well as the decisions that transformed IBM into the international giant it is today.

Added-value of this summary:
• Save time
• Understand key concepts
• Expand your knowledge

To learn more, read "Father, Son & Co." and discover the family story behind one of the world's biggest companies.

Leseprobe

Book Presentation:Father, Son & CO by Thomas J. Watson JR

Important Note About This Ebook

Summary of Father, Son & CO (Thomas J. Watson JR)

Part 1

Part 2

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Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23

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Part 26

Part 27

Book Presentation:Father, Son & CO by Thomas J. Watson JR

Important Note About This Ebook

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.

Summary of Father, Son & CO (Thomas J. Watson JR)

Part 1

The people around Short Hills (a small town about 20 miles from New York) had their own way to describe the oldest son of the founder of International Business Machines (IBM). They simply called him “Terrible Tommy” and for most of his childhood, that name really suited. He was the oldest of four kids ­– two girls, Jane and Helen, and a younger brother Arthur who everyone called Dick. Tom was always in trouble.

One of his fondest achievements at that time involved a dead skunk. Tommy met an outdoorsman who had just skinned a skunk, and he bought a small bottle of skunk juice. Armed with this, he went to his school building and snuck down to the furnace room, where he dumped the entire bottle into the air conditioning vents. He rushed upstairs, just as a school assembly was commencing, and took his place. Before long, the entire hall stunk with an awful stench, and the school had to be closed for a day. He considered it his finest achievement to close an entire school for the day.

His elation was rather short lived. He eventually owned up to the Principal, who decided to take up the matter before the school board, which happened to include Thomas Watson Sr. His father was totally embarrassed, and came as close to belting his son as he ever came in his entire life. However, before it came to that, Tommy ran off. His father yelled after him, “I don’t need to discipline you! The world will do that, you little skunk!”

Part 2

Thomas Watson Sr went from rags to riches, but he came very close to staying in rags. His first job, at age 17, was selling pianos, organs and sewing machines to families from the back of a wagon. He was working for Mr W.F. Bronson who paid him $12 a week, which was good money in the 1880s. However, by talking to other salesmen who were paid on commission, he learnt that for his volume of sales, he would have earned a commission of $65 per week. He quit the next day.

Thomas Sr was always a passionate advocate of a sales career. He’d say, “Everything starts with a sale. If there’s no sale, there’s no commerce in the whole of America.” He went to Buffalo, determined to work in sales on commission so he would be paid what he was worth.

Mr C.B. Barron took on Thomas Sr as his assistant. Barron sold stock in the New York State Building and Loan Association which was actually a savings plan that was a forerunner to insurance savings plans. Thomas Sr was too naive to realize that Barron was a crook, but before long Thomas Sr had saved some capital. He decided to open a butcher shop in Buffalo, but in less than a year this business failed.

However, while operating the butcher shop, Thomas Sr had bought a cash register on an installment plan, and when he went to transfer the account to the new owner, he used the occasion to talk his way into a sales job with the National Cash Register (NCR) Company. As it later turned out, this marked the beginning of a lifetime career.

Before long, Thomas Sr was the top salesman at NCR and he came to the attention of John Henry Patterson, the owner of the company. Paterson is now widely regarded as “the father of modern salesmanship” and he developed the techniques of America’s first national sales force. He introduced memorized, standard sales pitches, ran sales meetings and developed the idea of setting goals and sales quotas. He also introduced the idea of sales territories to avoid inter-salesmen rivalry. He worked his sales force hard, but paid them very well.

Thomas Sr was with the company for 18 years, rising to become Paterson’s second-in-command. Thomas Sr didn’t marry until he was 34, as he wanted to choose a wife who could keep up as he became successful. He married Jeanette Kittredge, the daughter of a prominent Drayton businessman. On return from their honeymoon, Paterson gave the couple a house to live in.

Paterson, however, was fairly ruthless. For example, when one of his employees had angered him, Paterson took that man’s desk and the contents of his office and set fire to them on the front lawn of the company. The man left without coming back into the building. Paterson worried that Thomas Sr was becoming too popular, and started cutting him out of the important decision making meetings. Finally, Thomas Sr realized it was time to leave. It was early 1914, and he left with a severance payment of $50,000 but no house, car or job.