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Old Age Serene and Bright

Old Age Serene and Bright BUSINESS STRATEGY Old Age Serene EDITORIAL and Bright? Editor: Miriam Leuchter Contributing Writers: Ken Cottrill, JoAnn Greco, Tom Groenfeldt, Todd Pitock, Bristol Voss The subject of this issue's cover story, NCR, is 113 years old, which might be regarded as venerable for a U.S. company. Of course, some firms are older—Eleuthére Irénée du Pont de Nemours set up shop to produce black powder in 1802, and William Procter and James Gamble established their partnership in 1837. But only shortly before John H. Patterson founded the National Cash Register Company in 1884, did General Electric (1876), and Exxon (as Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1882) come into being. And just two years later, in May 1886, Dr. John S. Pemberton sold the first sip of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. We have to respect age in business when we consider just how tenuous business survival is. After all, there are about 60,000 business failures every year. Okay, a lot of those are mom and pop shops, but P&G was hardly a multinational when Gamble and Procter decided to combine their separate soap and candle making businesses, and Pemberton actually lost money ($20) the first year he sold Coke. And even the mighty have been known to crumble. Nor does age ensure survival. The fact that a company has managed to hang on for more than a century is hardly a statement that it has cracked the mystery of how to succeed in business for all time. There is, for example, no certainty that NCR, despite its placement on our cover, will still be here in the new millennium. As W. Edwards Deming liked to remind us, "survival is not required." But being around for the long term is what everyone—CEOs, employees, and investors—wants. Warren Buffett tells Berkshire Hathaway shareholders [see page 6], "If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes." And, he says, if you're going to hold onto equities that long, you need to look for "excellent business economics and an outstanding manager." What we look for in the Journal of Business Strategy are companies that have developed clear, comprehensive strategies that will help them meet very real challenges. Without a clear strategy, or focus, the business economics are unlikely to excel, and if they're not excellent, no manager is going to be deemed outstanding. And we're always looking for a few good strategists, not only for our case studies, but also for our annual "Strategists to Watch" issue. We're beginning to plan that issue now, and we'd like your help with nominations for that feature. Feel free to nominate anyone—including yourself—who you feel has crafted a decisive strategy designed to overcome potentially damaging competitive challenges. Nominees can be familiar faces in the business news, or complete unknowns, but they must be responsible for creating and implementing strategies that can conceivably result in their companies being seen as venerable 50 or 100 years from now. Please E-mail your nominations to Miriam Leuchter or me at the E-mail addresses at the top of the masthead at your left, or fax them to us at (212)629-7885. —Pamela Goett, Editorial Director 2│ May/June 1997 JOURNA L OF http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Business Strategy Emerald Publishing

Old Age Serene and Bright

Goett, Pamela
Journal of Business Strategy , Volume 18 (3): 1 – Mar 1, 1997
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0275-6668
DOI
10.1108/eb039847
Publisher site
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Abstract

BUSINESS STRATEGY Old Age Serene EDITORIAL and Bright? Editor: Miriam Leuchter Contributing Writers: Ken Cottrill, JoAnn Greco, Tom Groenfeldt, Todd Pitock, Bristol Voss The subject of this issue's cover story, NCR, is 113 years old, which might be regarded as venerable for a U.S. company. Of course, some firms are older—Eleuthére Irénée du Pont de Nemours set up shop to produce black powder in 1802, and William Procter and James Gamble established their partnership in 1837. But only shortly before John H. Patterson founded the National Cash Register Company in 1884, did General Electric (1876), and Exxon (as Standard Oil of New Jersey in 1882) come into being. And just two years later, in May 1886, Dr. John S. Pemberton sold the first sip of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. We have to respect age in business when we consider just how tenuous business survival is. After all, there are about 60,000 business failures every year. Okay, a lot of those are mom and pop shops, but P&G was hardly a multinational when Gamble and Procter decided to combine their separate soap and candle making businesses, and Pemberton actually lost money ($20) the first year he sold Coke. And even the mighty have been known to crumble. Nor does age ensure survival. The fact that a company has managed to hang on for more than a century is hardly a statement that it has cracked the mystery of how to succeed in business for all time. There is, for example, no certainty that NCR, despite its placement on our cover, will still be here in the new millennium. As W. Edwards Deming liked to remind us, "survival is not required." But being around for the long term is what everyone—CEOs, employees, and investors—wants. Warren Buffett tells Berkshire Hathaway shareholders [see page 6], "If you aren't willing to own a stock for ten years, don't even think about owning it for ten minutes." And, he says, if you're going to hold onto equities that long, you need to look for "excellent business economics and an outstanding manager." What we look for in the Journal of Business Strategy are companies that have developed clear, comprehensive strategies that will help them meet very real challenges. Without a clear strategy, or focus, the business economics are unlikely to excel, and if they're not excellent, no manager is going to be deemed outstanding. And we're always looking for a few good strategists, not only for our case studies, but also for our annual "Strategists to Watch" issue. We're beginning to plan that issue now, and we'd like your help with nominations for that feature. Feel free to nominate anyone—including yourself—who you feel has crafted a decisive strategy designed to overcome potentially damaging competitive challenges. Nominees can be familiar faces in the business news, or complete unknowns, but they must be responsible for creating and implementing strategies that can conceivably result in their companies being seen as venerable 50 or 100 years from now. Please E-mail your nominations to Miriam Leuchter or me at the E-mail addresses at the top of the masthead at your left, or fax them to us at (212)629-7885. —Pamela Goett, Editorial Director 2│ May/June 1997 JOURNA L OF

Journal

Journal of Business Strategy – Emerald Publishing

Published: Mar 1, 1997

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