I think most people that are working for a company have thoughts of climbing the company ladder and getting to the top. I know that I did!
I have always felt that no matter how good a job you do getting your first opportunity to move into management requires a little bit of luck .... somebody from the top needs to reach down and pull you up. This "sponsor" is someone already in management who is willing to take a chance on you.
My “sponsor” was Bob Strong. Bob ran the Data Processing Department at Brockway Glass and he was a very interesting and "good" person. I may have mentioned that in 1960 during my early career with Brockway Glass they decided to purchase their first computer, an IBM 1460 … It had a 4K [4,000 Bytes] Central Processing Unit [CPU] and filled a 20 X 40’ temperature controlled room … Today, I am setting at my Laptop on my office desk with a 2 gigabyte [2,000,000,000] CPU.
Prior to that they were using an IBM 407 Accounting Machine linked with a IBM 604 tabulator using punch cards. These machines programs were connected using wired boards. This is where the program was stored … The wires plugged into the boards at what looked like an old telephone switchboard. Remember the old days where they plugged in cords into the board in the right holes to connect two parties. This is how the programming was done.
When the company was ready to install this first computer they had no one to write programs in a language called SPS for the new 1460 computer. They gave an aptitude test throughout the company to see who had an aptitude for computer programming. I scored high on the test and along with four or five other people I was taught to program the computers starting with actual machine language (binary codes using one's and zeros. if it was a one there was power present. If there was a zero there was no power). After mastering actual machine language, I received training in SPS.
Since the company had no programmers I was borrowed from the Industrial Engineering Department for 5 months to design systems and write programs for the Data Processing Department. It changed my life forever!
During this time, I developed a powerful bond with Bob Strong which was to play a big role in my business career.
Bob Strong did not have a college degree and the new technology was starting to pass him by. After about 3 years he asked me to become his assistant. People said he was crazy that I was going to end up taking his job away from him. He would reply in his humble way, “If he doesn’t pass me by I am going to be really upset with him. Someday, I expect to be working for him.”
When I arrived for work, Bob had moved a second desk into his office and he took me under his “wing” … He included me in ALL meetings, asked my opinions and discussed all important decisions over with me before making up his mind.
It was such an exciting time … we would work day and night with each other … Bob teaching and my “sucking it all in.”
I have to divert for one story about Bob. In 1939, Bob was in the first Machine Records Unit that the United States Army ever had. Bob had been sent to England (he met his wife Joan there). In 1944, he was sent down to the southern coast of England along the White Cliffs of Dover. He didn't know what he was doing there but realized that it was "top secret". He had 3-40 foot trailers sitting in a “U” shape configuration. The bottom of the “U” trailer contained IBM Accounting Machines and Calculators … The other two trailers contained IBM punch card files that were empty. Within a few days he started to receive punch cards to process and then store in the cabinets. He soon realized that each card was a injured or killed person in the D-Day invasion … Within 3 days the card files were filled up … Somewhere around 50, 000 cards … Bob was sure we had lost the War.
It was stories like this that he could tell night and day.
I have always felt that no matter how good a job you do getting your first opportunity to move into management requires a little bit of luck .... somebody from the top needs to reach down and pull you up. This "sponsor" is someone already in management who is willing to take a chance on you.
My “sponsor” was Bob Strong. Bob ran the Data Processing Department at Brockway Glass and he was a very interesting and "good" person. I may have mentioned that in 1960 during my early career with Brockway Glass they decided to purchase their first computer, an IBM 1460 … It had a 4K [4,000 Bytes] Central Processing Unit [CPU] and filled a 20 X 40’ temperature controlled room … Today, I am setting at my Laptop on my office desk with a 2 gigabyte [2,000,000,000] CPU.
Prior to that they were using an IBM 407 Accounting Machine linked with a IBM 604 tabulator using punch cards. These machines programs were connected using wired boards. This is where the program was stored … The wires plugged into the boards at what looked like an old telephone switchboard. Remember the old days where they plugged in cords into the board in the right holes to connect two parties. This is how the programming was done.
When the company was ready to install this first computer they had no one to write programs in a language called SPS for the new 1460 computer. They gave an aptitude test throughout the company to see who had an aptitude for computer programming. I scored high on the test and along with four or five other people I was taught to program the computers starting with actual machine language (binary codes using one's and zeros. if it was a one there was power present. If there was a zero there was no power). After mastering actual machine language, I received training in SPS.
Since the company had no programmers I was borrowed from the Industrial Engineering Department for 5 months to design systems and write programs for the Data Processing Department. It changed my life forever!
During this time, I developed a powerful bond with Bob Strong which was to play a big role in my business career.
Bob Strong did not have a college degree and the new technology was starting to pass him by. After about 3 years he asked me to become his assistant. People said he was crazy that I was going to end up taking his job away from him. He would reply in his humble way, “If he doesn’t pass me by I am going to be really upset with him. Someday, I expect to be working for him.”
When I arrived for work, Bob had moved a second desk into his office and he took me under his “wing” … He included me in ALL meetings, asked my opinions and discussed all important decisions over with me before making up his mind.
It was such an exciting time … we would work day and night with each other … Bob teaching and my “sucking it all in.”
I have to divert for one story about Bob. In 1939, Bob was in the first Machine Records Unit that the United States Army ever had. Bob had been sent to England (he met his wife Joan there). In 1944, he was sent down to the southern coast of England along the White Cliffs of Dover. He didn't know what he was doing there but realized that it was "top secret". He had 3-40 foot trailers sitting in a “U” shape configuration. The bottom of the “U” trailer contained IBM Accounting Machines and Calculators … The other two trailers contained IBM punch card files that were empty. Within a few days he started to receive punch cards to process and then store in the cabinets. He soon realized that each card was a injured or killed person in the D-Day invasion … Within 3 days the card files were filled up … Somewhere around 50, 000 cards … Bob was sure we had lost the War.
It was stories like this that he could tell night and day.
I will always remember Bob Strong and the opportunity he gave me. The opportunity he gave me to move into “management” changed my life forever and gave me the start I needed to “climb the ladder of success.”
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