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Morton Salt from it's beginning led a charmed life. The company was so well managed that it was a Wall Street favorite. Then they got a young CEO in his thirt
by rmason 6y ago
Morton Salt from it's beginning led a charmed life. The company was so well managed that it was a Wall Street favorite. Then they got a young CEO in his thirties. He thought the company could be even more profitable if they got rid of everyone in the company over 55 years of age. Their replacements could be hired for much less money than they were making. This was before laws prohibiting it so he went ahead and did it.
My father who had spent a thirty year career at Morton Salt was suddenly out of a job after having the best year in his career. What the young CEO didn't realize is that in one swoop he got rid of some of the top performers while at the same time wiping out the people most responsible for maintaining the company's winning culture.
Within six months the stock collapsed, the young CEO had no answers and was fired. Morton Salt never recovered. They were merged with Thiokol and after the space shuttle disaster that merger was unwound. The once proud Morton Salt was passed around between different chemical companies until becoming part of Milliken's empire. All because of a single action by a young CEO.
- dredmorbius 6y agoAny recommended readings on this?
- rmason 6y agoMorton Salt has whitewashed that part of their history. I know it because I lived it. If there wasn't a Harvard case study there should be. Some of the employees sued though my father chose not to be part of the lawsuit because he had moved on. The company lost the lawsuit but I can't find any record of it on Google. I don't think that was a coincidence ;<).
- dredmorbius 6y agoWhat, roughly, was the timeframe for this? I'm presuming within the past 50 years or so? Morton-Thiokol (I remember the name from the Challenger disaster, I didn't realise it was that Morton until, well, about 20 seconds ago) formed in 1982. So that'd be 1970s / early 1980s?
- rmason 6y agoIt was I believe in the late seventies, 1976-77 perhaps.
- kevinconaway 6y agoAccording to [0], John Simmons became CEO in 1972 at age 53 and remained there until he stepped down for health reasons in 1980/81 (he died of cancer shortly thereafter) [1] [0] https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/16/archives/simmons-takes-mortons-helm.html https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/16/archives/simmons-takes-mo... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/04/obituaries/john-w-simmons.html https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/04/obituaries/john-w-simmons...
- smabie 6y agoThis story sounds highly suspect.