Management Stories

When Tom Watson Jr. was chief executive of IBM in the early 1960s, he summoned an executive to his office after the man lost $10 million in a venture. Watson asked the man, “Do you know why I called you here?” Knowing of Watson’s legendary temper, the man replied: “I assume you’re going to fire me.”

“Fire you?” Watson asked. “I spent $10 million educating you. I just want to be sure you learned the right lessons.”

Source: Failed Strategies | By Paul B. Carroll And Chunka Mui | Chief Executive, September/October 2008

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In a small pub in the highlands of Scotland a group of fishermen gathered one afternoon to swap tales over a round of ale. One of them stretched his arms apart to show the big one that got away. At that very point, a waitress walked past carrying a tray of full ale glasses. The fisherman’s wild gestures sent the tray smashing against the wall. The dark brew splashed on the white wall of the pub and began running down. The waitress and the fisherman tried to wipe the mess off the wall, but it had left an ugly dark stain. A man who had watched the whole scene from another table walked quietly over to the wall. With a brown pastel crayon he took from his pocket, he began to sketch. The entire pub watched in silent awe as a majestic stag with great spreading antlers magically took shape around the stain. The artist was Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, the top 19th British painter of animals.

Source: Successful Failures by Jim Clemmer / LeaderValues

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John DeLorean told me that shortly after he had become general manager of Chevrolet he attended a sales conference in Dallas, and when he arrived at his hotel suite he discovered that someone from the company had delivered a huge basket of fruit to his room. Remarking to an associate on the basket’s size and variety he commented, humorously, he thought, “What? No bananas?”

From that moment on, the word throughout General Motors was “John DeLorean loves bananas.” No matter how many times he attempted to explain that he had only meant to be amusing, bananas kept showing up in cars, chartered planes, hotel suites—even in meetings—and followed him throughout his career at Chevrolet.

Source: What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School by Mark H. McCormack

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