Executive Suite Page #10

If you have the right man,

there'd be no worry on that score.

Why? Why would he do it?

What would be his incentive?

You mean, outside of salary?

There's such a thing

as success, isn't there?

The sense of accomplishment.

Exactly.

Now, let's assume, Shaw,

that you're the man

running the Tredway Corporation

your way.

Would you be satisfied

to measure your life's work

by how much you raised the dividend?

Would you regard your life as a success

Just because you managed

to get the dividend

to $3 or $4, or five or six or seven?

Would that be enough?

Is that what you want engraved

on your tombstone when you die?

The dividend record

of the Tredway Corporation?

Are you suggesting

that earnings aren't important?

I'm suggesting no such thing

and you know it!

Shaw's right when he says

that we have an obligation

to our stockholders.

But it's a bigger obligation

than raising the dividend.

We have an obligation

to keep this company alive,

not Just this year, or next,

or the year after that.

Sometimes, you have to use your profits

for the growth of the company,

not pay them all out in dividends

to impress the stockholders

with your management record.

There's your waste, Shaw!

There's your inefficiency!

Stop growing, and you die!

Turn your back on experimentation

and planning for tomorrow

because they don't contribute

to dividends today

and you won't have a tomorrow

because there won't be any company.

Avery Bullard didn't seem to think

my policies were exactly

destroying this company.

No.

No, he didn't.

And he was wrong.

The way a lot of people

are wrong these days,

grabbing for the quick and easy,

the sure thing.

That's Just a lack of faith in the future,

something that's in the air today,

the groping of a lot of men,

who know they've lost their faith,

but aren't sure what it is,

or how they happened to lose it.

Avery Bullard was one of them.

He'd been so busy building

a great production machine

that he finally lost sight

of why he was building it,

of why he was the man he was!

If he ever really knew.

Do you know, Mr. Walling?

Yes, I think I do.

Avery Bullard was driven by pride,

pride in himself,

the urge to do things

that no other man on earth could do.

He was the man at the top of the tower,

needing no one, wanting no one,

only himself.

That's what it took to satisfy his pride.

That was his strength.

That was his weakness, too.

Why shouldn't a man have pride

if he's earned it?

All right.

But why should that set him apart

from the people he's working with?

The force behind a great company

has to be more than the pride of one man,

it has to be the pride of thousands.

You can't make men work

for money alone,

you starve their souls when you try it.

And you can starve a company

to death the same way.

Avery Bullard must have known that once,

but he'd become a little lost

these last few years.

The company had been saved.

There were no more battles to win.

Now he had to find

something else to feed his pride:

Bigger sales, more profit, something.

And that's when we started

doing things like this.

The K-F line.

Walt, are your boys proud

when they go out and sell this stuff

when they know the finish is gonna crack,

the veneer will split off

and the legs come loose?

Now, wait a minute, wait a minute.

That's price merchandise.

It serves a definite purpose

in the profit structure of this company.

- We're not cheating anyone.

- Ourselves!

At that price, the customer knows

exactly what he's going to get.

This?

This is what Tredway has come to mean!

And what do you suppose the people

think of us when they buy it?

How do you suppose the men in the

factories feel when they make it?

What must they think of a management

that's willing to stoop

to selling this kind of Junk

in order to add

a dime a year to the dividend?

Do you know there are men at Pike Street

who've refused to work on the K-F line?

Who've taken a $7.50-a-week cut

to get transferred to something else?

Well, after all,

that's only part of our business.

Eventually, we can cut down on the line.

We'll drop that line!

And we'll never again ask a man

to do anything that will poison his pride

in himself or his work.

We'll have a line of low-price furniture,

a new and different line,

as different from anything

we're making today,

as a modern automobile

is different from a covered wagon.

That's what you'd want, Walt, isn't it?

What you've always wanted?

Merchandise that will sell because

it had beauty and function and value,

not because the buyers like your Scotch

or think you're a good egg.

The kind of stuff that you, Jesse,

will be able to feel in your guts

when you know it's coming off

your production line.

A product that you'll be able to budget

to the nearest hundredth of a cent, Shaw,

because it will be scientifically

and efficiently designed.

And something you'll be proud

to have your name on, Miss Tredway.

We're gonna give

the people what they need

at prices they can afford to pay.

And as fresh needs come up,

we'll satisfy them, too,

with something new

and even more exciting!

And when we achieve that,

we'll really start to grow!

We're not gonna die, we're gonna live!

And it's gonna take

every bit of business Judgment

and creative energy in this company

from the mills and the factories

right to the top of the Tower!

And we're going to do it together.

Every one of us.

Right here, at Tredway.

I'm with you, Don!

I take great pleasure

in nominating Mr. McDonald Walling

for the presidency

of the Tredway Corporation.

Second!

I move we make it unanimous.

All those in favor?

Miss Tredway?

Yes.

Mr. Caswell?

Mr. Shaw?

So voted.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you, Loren.

Loren?

About that stock...

- You're Mary Walling, aren't you?

- Yes.

- You must be very proud of him.

- I am.

- I'm a little frightened, too.

- Because you don't quite understand him?

We never do. Not completely.

Not men like that.

It will make you very lonely at times

when he shuts you out of his life,

but then he'll always come back to you.

And you'll know

how fortunate you are to...

To be his wife.

Will you tell him something for me?

Say thank you for saving my life.

Congratulations, Mary.

- Oh, Erica.

- Yes, Mr. Walling?

Better call a committee meeting

for 10:
00 Monday morning.

We'll be appointing

an executive vice-president.

Yes, Mr. Walling.

- Good night.

- Good night.

- Hey, by the way, who won today?

- We did.

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