“It is easy to be big in big things, in big moments, when everyone is watching,” noted Watson Jr. “Real character emerges in the way we meet our routine, everyday obligations. Really big people are, above everything, courteous, considerate, and generous, not just to some people, in some circumstances, but to everyone all the time. One of the reasons we are known as a great company is that we are known as a company made up of people like that.”
On both the personal and professional levels, Watson Jr. was committed to maintaining and acting with integrity. He set a new standard for the time when it came to businessmen and their involvement in and advocacy on social issues. In addition to eliminating the hourly wage and introducing tuition loans within his own company, Watson Jr. also pioneered the idea of matching grants for charities. As an aide for many successive American presidents, Watson Jr. also advocated for increased federal aid for the poor, nuclear disarmament and the provision of better national health care.
“We accept our responsibilities as a corporate citizen in community, national and world affairs; we serve our interests best when we serve the public interest,” said Watson Jr. “In communities where IBM facilities are located, we do our utmost to help create an environment in which people want to work and live. We acknowledge our obligation as a business institution to help improve the quality of the society we are part of. We want to be in the forefront of those companies, which are working to make the world a better place.”
Watson Jr.’s integrity extended not only to his beliefs in the social and humanitarian responsibility of businesses, but also to the very way in which his company operated. For instance, Watson Jr. spoke often of “calendar integrity”, which to him was an inherent indication of the orderliness of a company’s plans and executions. “In a business that moves as fast as ours, that is as complex as ours, that has as many people as ours, there will always be the requirement for many meetings, presentations and appointments, but I think we can make “calendar integrity” a way of doing business and benefit from its discipline.”
However, Watson Jr.’s respect for integrity should not be confused with his being soft in any sense. Watson Jr. was a businessman at heart and was, like his competitors, driven by the profit factor. “We believe that the immediate and long-term public interest is best served in a system of competing enterprises,” he said. “Therefore, we believe we should compete vigorously, but in a spirit of fair play, with respect for our competitors, and with respect for the law.”
Watson Jr. might have worked with machines, but he never allowed his company to be run by anything other than rational and compassionate minds. Operating with integrity was not just a way for Watson Jr. to be able to sleep well at night; he knew that to do so also simply made good business sense.
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