John Patterson: The Original Youre Fired! Boss John Patterson founded National Cash Register in the early 1900s. It became a huge success, but more enduring than the business Patterson built was a term he inspired: firing an employee. But when this nightmare of an employer used the term, it was meant nearly literally. Yes, Patterson directed that underperforming salesmens desks and chairs be carried outside headquarters and be torched as the signal that their employment with him was at an end. (At least they werent still sitting in the chairs when they were set ablaze.) As for job security even for good employees, forget it. Pattersons motto was, When a man gets indispensable, lets fire him. The slightest infraction of his many lifestyle rules, such as consuming pepper, was grounds for dismissal. NCR acquired or sued into destruction most of its competitors until the company was found guilty in 1912 of being a monopoly and violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. And eventually, some of that bad karma caught up with Patterson: One of his fired executives, Thomas Watson, went on to launch a company which became a perennial thorn in NCRs side, and would utterly eclipse it in business history: International Business Machines (IBM).
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 06:46:25 +0000
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