Henry J. Kaiser – Western Colossus

Thoughts

Still reading, but great case study of the importance of a) speed of execution and b) energy (in the human, personal sense) as a prerequisite for success.

Quotes

Profressional son:

Liking young people, he had a habit of making sons of his top (and very young) executives.

Speed and constant exploration for new technological advancements to build quicker:

In preparing his bids for each new job, Kaiser would try to conceive every possible technique that might justify making a bid low enough to win the job. But his search never stopped there. Once the construction was underway, he was forever trying to come up with ideas that would expedite the work. His emphasis was always on speed. He had a conviction that the faster the project was completed the lower his costs would be, even though at times extra expenditures would be required to bring about the step-ups in speed. That was a way of doing business he would steadfastly adhere to throughout his entire life in every one of his ventures.

Poem that Kaiser cited – The Builder:

The old man going the lone highway Came at evening old and grey, To a chasm, vast and deep and wide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim. The sullen stream had no fear for him. But he turned, when safe on the other side, And built a bridge to span the tide. ‘Old man,’ said a fellow pilgrim near, ‘You’re wasting your strength with your building here. Your journey will end with the ending day, You never again will pass this way. You crossed the chasm deep and wide, Why build this bridge at eventide?’ The builder lifted his old grey head ‘Good friend — in the path I’ve come,’ he said, ‘There followeth after my day, The youth whose feet must pass this way. This chasm that has been naught for me, To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim Good friend— I’m building this bridge for him.’

Progressively harder things:

We learned you can’t get fine talent into your organization by simply offering high salaries. You and the men who work with you have to build yourselves up to the capacity to tackle bigger and bigger jobs.

Leading people:

Mr. Kaiser was an expert in the handling of people — a talent he was bom with. Getting along with people is being able to understand what their problems are and taking the opportunity when you see it to give help. But you can’t say, ‘You do this and you do that.’ What you do is to ask the kind of questions that will draw the response you want, and once you get that response you say, ‘It’s a great idea,’ never indicating that you planted the idea. I made this work well in Cuba, along with promoting competition. Instead of working everybody in one group I separated them into seven different divisions and then I put them in competition to see who could do the most the quickest. I drove up and down the job letting each one know what the others were doing. No more than that. And, boy, they’d just break their necks to excel. That was one of the main reasons we finished the Cuban job a year ahead of schedule. It was a Kaiser technique which we later used in both dambuilding and shipbuilding.

As infrequent as his visits to Cuba were, Kaiser made the most of every minute. During the day he would inspect the work going on, taking time to visit with superintendents, foremen, and even the lowliest of workers. He would pump them for their ideas, he would volunteer his suggestions (never giving any commands), and he would mostly commend them for the fine progress they were making. x

Pro competition:

And he looked at competition from another angle — the benefit it brings to the buyer or user of the construction service. He took real satisfaction in bringing lower costs to his customers. He became one of America’s most vocal proponents of the free, competitive enterprise system. Even when he lost out to another competitor, he would openly proclaim it was all to the good because of the benefits to the buyer.

Honesty as a total commitment:

third attribute that became firmly imbedded in his way of doing business was his total commitment to honesty. He traced it back to the training he received from his mother, but his roadbuilding experiences showed him he would be much more productive if he was not bedeviled by temptations to make a few extra dollars by cheating on anyone. It became important to him to have a reputation for complete honesty.