Actually, it was Bernard of Chartres, not Isaac Newton, who should be properly credited with first observing that "we are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness on sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size." I thought of that observation as I began to read Todd Buchholz's book about ten "giants" of the business world, each of whom introduced or refined "new" ideas that have, by now, been widely adopted.
The ideas on which Todd Buchholz focuses in this book were obviously "new" at one time but have by now become widely-adopted core concepts for achieving and then sustaining success in business. For example, almost all of the ideas about salesmanship that Thomas J. Watson, Sr. institutionalized so effectively at IBM and his son Thomas Jr. then refined were developed years earlier at National Cash Register when CEO John Patterson noted that his brother was outselling everyone else, examined how he achieved it, and established what is reputed to be the first corporate sales training program (in 1893) based on his brother's sales strategies and tactics. It is worth noting that Watson Sr. worked for IBM for several years and later acknowledged the value of what he learned about salesmanship from its branch manager in Buffalo, John J. Range.
In (of all places) the book's concluding chapter, Buchholz offers a challenge to his reader and makes a statement that indicates his approach top each of the ten "giants":
"I dare you. Search this book for the solitary secret that will guarantee riches while protecting you from being flung against the wall by competitors. You won't find it." Buchholz then continues, "Not because I have failed to divulge the lives and lessons f great CEOs, but because I tried to reveal the simple truth about making it big: It does not take a village, a Harvard MBA, or even a rich uncle. It takes passion, and obsession with turning a great idea into a sweeping revolution."
That is certainly true of A.P. Giannini who "invented modern banking" by establishing and then building his Bank of Italy (that eventually became Bank of America) with a customer base of "the little people" (e.g. immigrants) and small businesses ignored by other banks. It is also true of Estée Lauder who "recognized that by placing herself among the `power elites,' to borrow C. Wright Mills' phrase, she could more easily market her cosmetics to the strata just below them." One of her most important insights was that she could sell more perfume by avoiding the word "perfume." She was among the earliest (if not the earliest) of those who recognized how important it is to members of the lower and middle economic classes to have a "taste of luxury" even if and especially if, that is all they can afford. Mass affluence has become and remains among the most significant phenomena in contemporary marketing.
Of special interest to me is what Buchholz reveals about David Sarnoff `s life and career, and especially his impact on the communications media in the 20th century. He was hired by Guglielmo Marconi to work for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company as Marconi's personal assistant. He enrolled in and was among the few to complete an electrical engineering course at the Pratt Institute. He was on duty the night of April 14, 1912, when he received a message from H.M.S. Titanic that it was struck an iceberg and was rapidly sinking. Of course, there was nothing he could do except share this tragic news with his associates. But he began to think about an intriguing challenge: How to deliver sound to more people? Over the next several decades, he served as CEO of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), heading an organization that delivered first sound, then pictures, and eventually colored pictures to people throughout the world. "David Sarnoff conquered radio and television because he had the brainpower and the willpower to understand both the science and the business."
Buchholz also has much of value to say about the lives and careers of Mary Kay Ash, Ray Kroc, Akio Morita, Walt Disney, and Sam Walton. With regard to Ash, in response to someone's suggestion that pink (actually mountain laurel) Cadillacs are "tacky," she inquired: "What color was the car your company gave you?" As a boy, Disney lived with his family on a small farm near Marceline, Missouri, for only a few years but later immortalized it as Main Street, USA, an especially popular area that welcomes visitors to both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. "In fact, along Main Street, Walt honored his father with a fictitious second-story shop, featuring the following window sign: Elias Disney - contractor - est. 1895." Some of the anecdotes that Buchholz shares about them and the other CEOs are well-known, some less so. However, in combination with a wealth of carefully selected historical material, they help to reveal the CEOs' "passion, and obsession with turning a great idea into a sweeping revolution."
Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Richard Tedlow's Giants of Enterprise: Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built, Michael J. Silverstein and Neil Fiske's Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods... And How Companies Create Them (Revised and Updated), and Paul Nunes and Brian Johnson's Mass Affluence: Seven New Rules of Marketing to Today's Consumer.
