willing to sit down with us so that, under the very shrewd questioning
of our professor, we could learn something of what the strengths and
weaknesses of the business really were. I recognized that this was a learn-
ing opportunity of just the type that I was seeking. I was able to jockey
myself into a position to take particular advantage of it. In that day, over
a half century ago, when the ratio of automobiles to people was tremen-
dously lower than it is today, Professor Emmett did not have a car. I did.
I offered to drive him to these various plants. I did not learn much from
him on the way over. However, each week on the way back to Stanford,
I would hear comments of what he really thought of that particular com-
pany. This provided me with one of the most valuable learning experi-
ences I have ever been privileged to enjoy.
Also on one of these trips I formed a specific conviction that was
to prove of tremendous dollar value to me a few years in the future.
It was actually to lay the foundation for my business. One week we
visited not one but two manufacturing plants that were located next
door to each other in San Jose. One was the John Bean Spray Pump
Company, the world leaders in the manufacture of the type of pumps
that were used to spray insecticides on orchards to combat natural
pests. The other was the Anderson-Barngrover Manufacturing Com-
pany, also world leaders, but in the field of equipment used by fruit
canneries. In the 1920’s the concept of a “growth company” had not
yet been verbalized by the financial community. However, as I some-
what awkwardly worded it to Professor Emmett, “I thought that
those two companies had probabilities of growing very much beyond
their present size to a degree that I had seen in no other company we
had visited.” He agreed with me.
Also, through spending part of the time on these automobile trips
by asking Professor Emmett about his previous business experiences, I
learned something else that was to stand me in good stead in the years
ahead. This was the extreme importance of selling in order to have a
healthy business. A company might be an extremely efficient manufac-
turer or an inventor might have a product with breathtaking possibilities,
but this was never enough for a healthy business. Unless that business
contained people capable of convincing others as to the worth of their
product, such a business would never really control its own destiny. It
was later that I was to build on this base to conclude that even a strong
sales arm is not enough. For a company to be a truly worthwhile invest-
ment, it must not only be able to sell its products, but also be able to
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: