Financial Services academyrecruiting on 01 Nov 2007 12:00 pm
Even in the Great Depression some companies grew
I was recently reading Driving Change: The UPS Approach to Business - a great new book for anybody with an interest in business operations in general or UPS in particular. There’s a ton of interesting information in the book, but one fact really jumped out at me:
“What’s remarkable is that UPS was committed to national growth even while American business was spiraling down toward its nadir. The company, in fact, would grow from 650 employees in 1932 to 1,650 employees in 1934 (my emphasis), many of these people being hired to work in New York at UPS’s facility at 38th Street and First Avenue.” (p 28)
I’ll admit to being completely shocked when I read this. Not only did UPS grow, but they more than doubled - 2 1/2 times the number of people in two years, smack in the middle of the Great Depression.
Now I wasn’t around back then, but like many of us, I’d heard all the family stories, seen the movies, and read the history, so the idea of a company actually growing during a time when people were hungry, selling apples on the street, the great dust storms were raging - all that terrible stuff that no one who ever lived through will ever forget - is just incredible. Even when you read about UPS during that time, the story you normally read is about how they started their air freight operations arm in February 1929 - clearly not the best of timing - and had to close it down in April 1931.
Things are not anywhere near what they were back then, but with all the current talk about bubbles and recession, this is an outstanding story to remember, especially if you are an aspiring financial advisor. The demand for talented advisors will continue regardless of the ongoing fluctuations of the economy - in fact, if anything, I think it will increase, the key word here being “talented”. Think about it - it’s a lot easier to make money in a growing economy, but the truly talented people are the ones who can continue to do well when things aren’t so hot. And those are the people the firms we deal with are always looking for.
