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The downfall of International Harvester
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<blockquote data-quote="SRBeef" data-source="post: 793552" data-attributes="member: 7509"><p>I worked across the street from the IH combine plant at the time this happened. There is more than enough blame to go around both the management and the labor sides.</p><p></p><p>One key point I recall was that IH hired a president from a completely different, non-farm, non-heavy manufacturing sort of company, Xerox I believe. </p><p></p><p>This was a time when the business school/management prevailing wisdom was that if you were a good "manager" you could manage anything and did not need to really know anything about the particular line of business or industry you were managing in...</p><p></p><p>This new outside president decided he needed to break the union and its tight control of the plant and workforce. Basically he felt he needed to prove who was boss. At least that is my recollection of the time.</p><p></p><p>Well you can imagine how the union reacted to this type approach. THEY were then going to prove who was boss...</p><p></p><p>In the end they both lost and killed the company in their nose to nose pi$$ing contest. As their customers got tired of this and went elsewhere, as described in another post above, no one would give in and they just rode the horse down until there was no choice but to sell what was left to the highest bidder. Factories were then closed, jobs permanently lost...</p><p></p><p>Trying to say who was at fault here is pretty difficult. One could say it was the IH board of directors and the whole approach to business at the time which let the situation get to this sort of standoff.</p><p></p><p>To their credit, John Deere dealt with many of the same types of issues but emerged very differently.</p><p></p><p>At some point there will be a realization by all parties that working together is the only way to succeed. Greed will eventually bring you down. There may be ways to postpone it but eventually greed will come back to bite you. This type of standoff is probably NOT going to happen in China, for example, and much production will just move there, which it has.</p><p></p><p>One of the real benefits to having a lot of kids to read bedtime stories to over the years is that I actually remember a lot of Aesop's fables. Such as the greedy dog carrying a piece of meat across a bridge who looked down and saw his reflection carrying what appeared to be a bigger piece of meat and opened his mouth to grab it away from that other dog. But in the process dropped his own piece in the river and ended up with none....</p><p></p><p>How's that for a cattle board story... Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Jim</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="SRBeef, post: 793552, member: 7509"] I worked across the street from the IH combine plant at the time this happened. There is more than enough blame to go around both the management and the labor sides. One key point I recall was that IH hired a president from a completely different, non-farm, non-heavy manufacturing sort of company, Xerox I believe. This was a time when the business school/management prevailing wisdom was that if you were a good "manager" you could manage anything and did not need to really know anything about the particular line of business or industry you were managing in... This new outside president decided he needed to break the union and its tight control of the plant and workforce. Basically he felt he needed to prove who was boss. At least that is my recollection of the time. Well you can imagine how the union reacted to this type approach. THEY were then going to prove who was boss... In the end they both lost and killed the company in their nose to nose pi$$ing contest. As their customers got tired of this and went elsewhere, as described in another post above, no one would give in and they just rode the horse down until there was no choice but to sell what was left to the highest bidder. Factories were then closed, jobs permanently lost... Trying to say who was at fault here is pretty difficult. One could say it was the IH board of directors and the whole approach to business at the time which let the situation get to this sort of standoff. To their credit, John Deere dealt with many of the same types of issues but emerged very differently. At some point there will be a realization by all parties that working together is the only way to succeed. Greed will eventually bring you down. There may be ways to postpone it but eventually greed will come back to bite you. This type of standoff is probably NOT going to happen in China, for example, and much production will just move there, which it has. One of the real benefits to having a lot of kids to read bedtime stories to over the years is that I actually remember a lot of Aesop's fables. Such as the greedy dog carrying a piece of meat across a bridge who looked down and saw his reflection carrying what appeared to be a bigger piece of meat and opened his mouth to grab it away from that other dog. But in the process dropped his own piece in the river and ended up with none.... How's that for a cattle board story... Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Jim [/QUOTE]
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