Please
read and understand the Samuel C. Johnson Family Enterprise case and write up
your key learning points (1 page).
Samuel C. Johnson Family Enterprises
by Prof. Joachim
Schwass*
“We should worry not
about whether we have lived up to the
expectations of our
fathers…but whether we, as fathers, live up to
the expectations of our
children.” – Sam Johnson
The founder of what is
today the Samuel C. Johnson Family Enterprises was Samuel Curtis Johnson
(1833-1919). In his early working years, Johnson was employed at the Racine
Hardware Company, where he sold parquet floors. In 1886 he acquired the parquet
flooring business, which in its first year generated a profit of $268.27
Recognizing people’s need to treat wooden floors, Johnson developed a wax
product from beeswax and other components that he mixed in a bathtub. In 1888
he introduced “Johnson Prepared Wax” and bought his first national advertising
in The Saturday Evening Post. By the turn of the century, wax sales were
larger than the revenues from selling parquet floors, so Johnson discontinued
the sales of parquet. As the company’s wax products gained wide acceptance,
Johnson exported them to Britain
and even as far as Australia,
and the number of employees ballooned to over 100. By 1900, Johnson Wax was at
the forefront in human resources policies, offering paid vacations to the
employees. In 1917 it introduced a profit-sharing plan that gave employees 25%
of the company’s earnings. In 1919 Samuel C. Johnson died and his son, Herbert
Fisk Johnson (1868-1928) took over. Herbert’s sister, Jessie, neither worked in
the business nor inherited ownership. Herbert, who
had joined the business
at 20, working closely with his father, became an equal partner in 1906, at
which time the company became S.C. Johnson & Son. On Samuel’s death in
1919, Herbert, then 51, became President. More technical than his father,
Herbert’s research-orientation lead to a number of new cleaning and treating
products, which earned him a reputation as the “real business builder” through
diversification. In 1926, Herbert, who
shared his father’s
strong sense of social responsibility, established a 40-hour workweek, calling
his approach “enlightened selfishness.” In 1927, on occasion of the Christmas
Profit Sharing, Herbert gave a widely respected speech that still serves as a
philosophical guide for 2 current generations:
“The goodwill of the
people is the only enduring thing in any business. It
is the sole
substance…the rest is shadow!”
In 1928 Herbert
unexpectedly died at age 59 and left the family business devoid of any will or
succession plan. His son, Herbert Fisk (H.F.) Johnson Jr. (1899-1978), assumed
management control – he was 28. It took a decade to clarify ownership with
Henrietta, H.F.’s younger sister, who eventually received 1/3 of the shares.
This protracted legal battle caused H.F. to
state that he was
“never going to let that happen to [his] son,” and in his will he subsequently
designated his son Sam as his successor. H.F. led the 500-strong company
through the Great Depression with no layoffs. He is widely seen as the creator
of international growth and the progenitor of new manufacturing technologies.
H.F. was, in fact, the company’s first chemist. On the personal side, besides
the relatively early loss of his father, he also suffered the death of his
4-year old daughter and a subsequent divorce from his first wife, who suffered
from alcoholism. The other two children, Karen and Sam, moved between their
father in the Midwest and their mother in New York.
After the Depression
years, H.F. started to worry about the supply of the key ingredient in the
company’s wax products, which comes from the carnauba palm in the Brazilian
rain forest. His background as a chemist had raised his awareness of the
importance not only of the manufacturing technology, but also about the nature
of the raw materials used in production. Believing strongly in product quality
he launched the “Product Plus” concept: every new Johnson product had to have a
distinct advantage over everything else on the market, or it had to be new and
unique enough to outstrip the competition. In 1935 H.F. bought an amphibious
plane and led a 22,000 mile expedition from Milwaukee
to the Brazilian rain
forest to study the carnauba palm tree. The trip, which received broad press
coverage, was described by Time magazine as “Johnson’s search for the ‘tree of
life’.” The expedition had a strong, favorable impact on the 36-year old H.F..
He returned invigorated and full of new visions for the business. In 1936 he
invited Frank Lloyd Wright
to design the new
company headquarters in Racine,
Wisconsin. He also wrote a book
about his Brazilian sojourn. On the inside of his son’s copy he wrote: “Sammy,
I hope you take this trip someday. It changed my life. Love, Dad.” Sam later
described his father as “a scientist, and indisputably proud of it, the
“father” of technology at Johnson Wax,” an
“internationalist” who created an “organization he could trust” so he
could travel, enjoy himself and “still take care of the business details on an
overseas journey.”
According to Sam, H.F. was “a creative leader” who “insisted on the best,” drew
superior performance from his people, and “believed in the benefits of
retaining wise consultants and counsel,” a man with a vision who thought in
terms of entire generations, a “humanist” who believed in the good of individual
creativity and in the dignity of man and woman.” Sam quotes his father as
frequently saying, “Every community where we operate should become a better
place because we are there.” Sam remembered his father as “a family man who […]
took his son hunting and fishing.”
In 1953 H.F. wrote Sam
a letter that was to be opened upon his death. Twenty-five years later Sam
opened it: 3
Some people may try to
challenge you by saying you are not doing as well as your grandfather or father
did. This is something you should not give any worry to because what your great
grandfather, grandfather and I did was to build on a foundation of honesty and
integrity in business. Just go ahead in the way you think best. I’m confident
in your future.
Sam (1928-) joined the
business as his father’s assistant in 1954, with a master’s degree in business
from Harvard Business
School in his pocket and two years of US Air
Force service. On the advice of a consulting firm (Booz, Allen and Hamilton),
H.F. developed a career plan for Sam. Later, Sam recalled that he had been
upset about having to follow a carefully laid-out development plan – after all,
wasn’t he the son of the owner and entitled to go straight to the top? But in
time, he came to appreciate the wisdom of the incremental approach thought out
by Jim Allen of Booz, Allen and Hamilton that initially had him directing a
newly created
department responsible
for developing new products. The Johnson Wax Company had grown internationally,
but it was still primarily limited to wax products for various applications. “I
had just become the company’s New Products Director, and our section had
decided that the insecticide field was a good and growing business, one in
which we wanted to play a part.”
Sam recalls his first
product idea. “I had a mock label created, stuck it on a can, brought the
sample of “Johnson’s Aerosol Insecticide” to my father, and announced that this
was a business we surely ought to enter. He looked at me and then at the can.
‘Don’t you realize we don’t make any products without wax in them?’ he said.
Although he was the boss, he
was also my father, so
I was able to risk a little impertinence and I answered, ‘Well, we could put a
little wax in it, but I don’t think it would do the product any good.’ My shot
at humor didn’t throw him off track. He told me we didn’t know anything about
bugs. I replied that we were learning. He said: ‘OK, then let’s get down to
fundamentals. Tell me what is better
about that product than
what is already on the market.’ I offered: ‘It will have a nice label and be an
aerosol.’ He said, ‘Does it work better than the other ones?’ I admitted
finally: ‘No. It’s just a darn good aerosol insecticide.’ My father replied,
‘Then take it back to the lab and
when you have something
that is better, come back and we’ll talk about the insecticide business.’ His
instincts were right and we did come back with a better insect killer: Raid.
When we came out with an aqueous formula, we indeed had a Product Plus. It
smelled better and killed insects without harming plants.” The following years
saw a number of new products move the company away from the wax-related
products: the Garden Bug Killer, Off (a mosquito repellent), Pledge (a
furniture duster and polisher), and Glade air freshener. Within a year of market
introduction they represented
35% of total domestic
sales.
The new product
development process created by Sam was so innovative that it became the subject
of a Harvard Business School
Case study, and stands today as a model for new product development
organizations.
In 1959 Sam moved into
international operations and traveled to Europe.
In 1960 he was named European Regional Director and in 1962 he was promoted to
International Vice President. Sam’s first important setback occurred in 1965
when he oversaw the consolidation of European regional manufacturing in a large
new plant in the Netherlands, an effort that was
designed to reduce cost
and improve efficiency. Faced with overcapacity, start-up problems and major
losses, Sam was called back to the US. His father was furious about
the bad results. Several weeks later, at the age of 65, Sam’s father suffered a
stroke that left him severely handicapped. He could neither read nor write well
and became very irritable. Sam 4 recalls, “I always
wondered whether I had given him the stroke because of the mess-up I’d made in Europe.”
In 1966, at 38, Sam
became President of the company, which now boasted annual sales of US$ 171
million. His father, now honorary Chairman, wintered in Florida, so Sam had to fly down every two
weeks to report. These visits often turned very unpleasant. His increasingly
irritable father often railed, “I don’t like these numbers. And I don’t like
you either. And
you’re fired.” Later,
Sam recalled that this was a most difficult and depressing time. When his
father died in 1978, Sam received the letter his father had written in 1953 for
posthumous delivery. The twenty-five year old letter “released [him] to be
[himself]
and not just a clone of [his] father.”
By then, Sam had put
his imprint as a strong leader on a company with revenues reaching US$ 1
billion in 1978. This was based on a strong, international expansion through
diversification and acquisitions. He had decided on this approach during a
one-year sabbatical he took in 1968 after his father’s stroke. He also planned
for the ownership transition from himself to his four children by setting up
trusts for them and the
grandchildren. In 1976,
in a statement of corporate philosophy entitled “This We Believe,” Sam codified
the basic principles that he believed drove the family business. It built on
his grandfather’s famous 1927 Christmas Profit Sharing speech:
Employees: We believe
that the fundamental vitality and strength of our worldwide company lies in our
people.
Consumers and Users: We
believe in earning the enduring goodwill of consumers and users of our products
and services.
General Public: We
believe in being a responsible leader within the free market economy.
Neighbors and Hosts: We
believe in contributing to the well being of the countries and communities
where we conduct business.
World Community: We
believe in improving international understanding.
Further to these
principles, Sam added: “the way of safeguarding these beliefs is to remain a
privately held company. Our way of reinforcing them is to make profits through
growth and development, profits which allow us to do more for all the people on
whom we depend.” Dick Hansen, current CEO of Johnson Financial Group, talks
about how these beliefs make a
difference for
employees in a family owned business: “I see Sam’s integrity through his
respect for the community. Sam challenges us to make our communities better
because we are there. He doesn’t talk values, he lives them.” One strong
example for this values-based management approach occurred in 1975, when Sam
Johnson voluntarily and unilaterally banned the worldwide use of
chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) from all Johnson aerosol products. At the time,
unproven research suggested that CFCs might
harm the ozone layer.
Both internally and externally, Sam’s decision was widely criticized until,
three years later, it was validated when the US
and Canada
officially banned the use of CFCs in aerosols. It also turned out to be a smart
business decision as company scientists 5 discovered that propane
was a cheaper substitute for CFC, a strong advantage over
competitors. The
business continued to grow in the consumer products field. In 1970 Johnson
Diversified, now known as Johnson Outdoors Inc., was created, making leisure products
like boats and camping equipment. The Johnson Bank was started in Wisconsin. These steps
were made
both out of fear and
logic. Fear of being cornered by larger, publicly held consumer products
companies, like Procter & Gamble. Logic by providing entrepreneurial
opportunities in new businesses to the next generation of family business
leaders. Sam had married Imogene Powers, whom he had met in college, in 1954.
Together they have four children: Curt (b. 1955), Helen, (b. 1956), Fisk (b.
1958), and Winnie (b. 1959). All four were educated at Cornell, where the
business school is called the Johnson
School. Each of the
children decided to join the family business without pressure from their
father. Although they recognized the expectations and pressures put on next
generation members of the owning family, they felt the company was a special
place. Like their father a generation before, they believed family leadership
was necessary to ensure the core values – which led to its success – continued
to guide the operations. In 1985 Helen was the first member of the fifth
generation to join the company as an associate product manager. In 1986 Winnie
joined as a public affairs manager. One year later Fisk joined the company as a
marketing associate. And in 1990, Curt joined the company when Windpoint
Ventures, a venture capital fund he started, was folded into the family
business. Late in his career, Sam began to suffer from the same addiction to
alcohol his mother had once had. With strong support from his wife and
children, he decided to confront this dependence. After a one-month treatment
in 1993 in the Mayo Clinic, of which he was the Chairman, he returned home
cured, and readying himself for retirement from day-to-day responsibilities. He
started to think about his father’s journey to Brazil and what it had meant in
his life.
Recalling the note his
father had left in his book expressing the hope that Sam would make the same
journey one day, Sam decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. The original
aircraft had been sold and crashed in Asia and
could not be salvaged. Sam decided to have an exact replicate built, a project
that took over three years. On October 22, 1998, Sam and his two sons, Curt and
Fisk, took off from Racine,
Wisconsin, for a month-long
trip to the Brazilian
rainforest, following the route of Sam’s father well over 60 years earlier.
There the rest of the family joined them. The trip proved to be an invigorating
experience – much as it had been for his father. But Sam also wanted it filmed as
a legacy for his family and companies. The film, “Carnauba: A Son’s Memoir,”
turned out much more personal than intended. In it, Sam speaks very openly
about his father, himself and the
difficult periods in
their lives. Even his children had not understood the extent of Sam’s
difficulties with his father. Fisk said, “My brother and sisters and I have
been huge beneficiaries of the relationship that my father had with his father.
I think my father said to himself, ‘I’m never going to put my children through
this’. ”His brother Curt stated in an Internet posting to the company
employees: “The trip has provided us with an opportunity to
talk about some of the
issues and opportunities facing the family businesses. I feel connected to the
visioning process my grandfather experienced when he made this trip.”
6 By
this time, the family had created a council with regular meetings of all family
members to deal with both family and business matters. Sam had a strong
interest in the history of family business; he knew well their fragile
structures, and he devoted much
to preparing next
generation family members and creating a large degree of transparency. The
council became the forum for succession planning. It became increasingly
apparent that the children had different interests and leadership aspirations.
Sam, who had seen many family businesses
suffer from sibling
rivalry, wanted to avoid siblings reporting to each other. Without conflicts,
the family arrived at a suitable arrangement in 1999.
Fisk, who has a Ph.D.
in applied physics, became chairman of SC Johnson, the core consumer products
business. Helen became chairman of Johnson Outdoors Inc., the recreational
products business. Curt became chairman of JohnsonDiversey, now the second
largest institutional and industrial products and services business in the
world. And Winnie, who had
expressed a lesser
interest in the business, became president of the Johnson Family Foundation.
Helen described the functional separation as follows: “We each found our spot.
Curt was the wheeler-dealer entrepreneur, Fisk was the technician, and I was
the one interested in marketing.”
In a joint statement,
the four children talk about the relationship between the two generations:
Under Dad’s leadership,
within just a few brief decades, the Johnson business went from a small wax
company (US$171 million in sales) to four major global enterprises (combined
US$ 8 billion in sales) that include household goods, innovative commercial
products and services, environmentally-responsible polymers, diverse financial
services
and some of the most
recognized brands in the recreational industry. And he didn’t just champion the
business. He took seriously the challenge of making our world a better place to
live. Whether funding the restoration of Martin Luther King Junior’s
birthplace, contributing time and money to the World Business Council for
Sustainable Development, or helping protect a unique ecosystem in Brazil, Dad
has dedicated himself personally and positioned the family businesses to shape
our communities and
protect our planet. But
even more important to us, his children, is the support Dad provides right here
at home. From the family dining room to the corporate boardroom, he has been a
coach, protector and friend to each of us. He has guided us with wise counsel,
but also encouraged us to follow our hearts.
*Joachim Schwass,
Professor of Family Business, IMD, and Director,
The IMD–Lombard Odier
Darier Hentsch
& Cie Family Business Center,
wrote this article.
References:
– The Essence of a
Family Enterprise,
by Samuel C. Johnson, 1988
– S.C. Johnson
Commemorative Journal, 2000
– Father Divides a
Business to Keep the Children united, by D. Barboza, New York
Times, August 22, 1999
– Waxing Personal, by
J. Tannenbaum, Wall Street Journal, May 7, 2001
– Various company
publications
- Award ceremony with Sam and Curt Johnson, Helsinki, September 2002
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