Tennessee's Vanderbilt Univ., once known only for its academia power, is now showing success on the athletic fields and the hardwood.
Years past, I remember a post-game interview in which a Vandy student athlete answered a question with "their defensive change allowed a precipitous dichotomy in our excoriated offensive attack." The press room heard crickets chirping as they had no idea what the star had just said.
Today, money kicks in and they have some of the best teams that can be bought. Just think what they might have been if it were not for two scoundrels in the past named James Fisk and Jay Gould.
During the Gilded Age of the 1800s when Cornelious Vanderbilt was amassing his fortunes in railroad monopolies, he was buying up the stock of the Erie Railroad. Fisk and Gould paid a counterfeiter to reproduce stock certificates for the railroad. They then bought a high-speed printing press and started printing counterfeit stocks by the bushels.
Now Vanderbilt Univ. founder Cornelius was no dummy and when he stopped to count up that he had purchased 150% of the company but was still not the owner, he hired detectives and lawyers and had James and Jay arrested for forgery. They were caught, or one would think. The two entrepreneurs used their profits to bribe New York legislatures into legalizing the counterfeit stocks. Again, just think of the athletes Vanderbilt Univ. could field if they had all that money back with interest. They might outnumber the doctors and lawyers that they put out.
Fast forward to the just post-WWII era. One of the largest manufacturers of war inputs, turbine technology and farm machinery was struck by what many thought were communist organized labor strikes. Allis-Chalmers was the target of these labor movements that Walt Buescher in his book, Plow Peddler, adamantly claims was the reason other equipment companies got a huge head start on his A-C company in their agricultural and other businesses right after the war. Labor issues prevented Allis from becoming a major manufacturer of jet airplane engines in Terri Haute, Ind. So, what might have been if Allis had been stronger going into the 1980s when they were forced to sell off equipment divisions?
What would have been if James Ketelsen had not survived the Korean War and gone on to Tenneco and have the drive to acquire Case, and then in a desire to be No. 1 in tractors, sell off some of their gas and other businesses to buy International Harvester farm equipment division?
I know, what if a frog had wings...? The older we get, the more we converse with others about the 'what ifs' of the industry. The challenge to this is to learn from history and go forward making our own good decisions. We should strive to be the element of change that makes our world a better place to work, do business in and who knows, be the mover or shaker that others talk about years from now.
Let this goal result in good leadership and not leave the legacy of a Fisk and Gould. Well, they did make a movie about them, but it was not a happy ending. May your endings always be happy and profitable, and your brackets always a winner.
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Told from the perspective of an in-the-trenches owner/operator — Tim Brannon of B&G Equipment, Paris, Tenn. — Equipment Dealer Tips, Tales & Takeaways shares knowledge, experiences and tips/lessons with fellow rural equipment dealerships throughout North America. Covering all aspects required of an equipment dealership general manager, Brannon will inform, entertain and provide a teachable moment for current — and future — leaders within equipment dealerships. |
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