At the Commemorative Air Force Museum in Mesa, Arizona, there is a Grummen TBM Avenger on display. The plane is a carrier-based torpedo bomber that the Navy and Marine Corps used throughout World War II and the Korean War. Its wings are hinged for compact storage on carriers, and it carried a three-man crew, later modified to a two-man crew. The planes debuted in 1942 in the Battle of Midway, where five of the six Avengers were shot down. (George HW Bush was shot down flying one when he was a young pilot.) By 1944, however, they were a formidable force in the fight against German U-Boats and Japanese ships. The planes were used into the 1960s and were a successful addition to America’s war efforts in the 20 years they were in use.
And they were made by General Motors.
When I found out that General Motors had taken over the production of Avengers from Grummen in 1942, it made me wonder—What happens when a business pivots to something new? What would cause business executives to make such a change? How does a national war effort inspire in corporate executives the desire to support their country in a time of need?
I’m not naïve enough to think that GM created its Eastern Aircraft Division and took over the production of planes for free. I am sure that the company made plenty of profit off the government’s rapidly and endlessly expanding defense budget. But there is obviously a big difference between making Chevys and making planes. GM could have said that they were not equipped to make planes. They had already been asked to make other vehicles for the war effort. The company could have asked for another assignment closer to its core business, like making armored vehicles or something that would at least travel on the ground. Whatever they could have done, GM used all of its resources to support the war effort. As the company explains on its website, “GM began delivering war materiel as early as 1940 with all U.S. manufacturing plants – over 100 in total – eventually being converted to produce defense goods. Between February 10, 1942 and September 9, 1945, not a single passenger car for civilian use left the assembly line at any GM plant.”
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GM willingly took up a challenge. And even if there was a significant financial benefit attached to that challenge, money is not always enough by itself to motivate people to action—particularly the action of shutting down your core business for three and a half years and converting your factories to make something new. A deeper sense of national pride was at work.
I visited the Commemorative Air Force Museum just as I was finishing Legacy: One Family, a Cup of Tea, and the Company that Took on the World. In Legacy, Thomas Harding tells the story of the Salmon and Gluckstein families. They arrived in England as Jewish immigrants and quickly became the market leader in tobacco production and distribution. Through that business, known for its high quality and accessible prices, the families established a financial foundation that supported other business endeavors.
The family dynamic is worth a quick mention. The Salmon and Gluckstein families created a family fund where they would pool their assets and distribute money equally to family members. Each member received similar allotments for housing, transportation, and the necessities of life. When a family member wanted to expand the family’s existing business, the family members overseeing the fund would vote on whether to distribute the capital needed. In a way, it was like having a bank and a board of advisors combined in one.
One such business, started by one of the brothers, was J. Lyons. J. Lyons was many things over the years, but it is probably easiest to think of it as a hospitality conglomerate. The business started as a caterer and event planner/producer, and later came to include wholesale and retail locations for tea and baked goods. The catering business led to other hospitality ventures. Eventually, the family opened restaurants, hotels, and developed lines of packaged foods for consumers (like cartons of ice cream).
The heads of the Salmon and Gluckstein families saw their Jewish heritage primarily as a religious one rather than a cultural or racial one. Judaism was their religion, but they were British through and through they would say. They were British businessmen running a British company and supporting British interests. One member of the family, Sir Samuel Gluckstein, was a British politician. Sir Isidore Salmon was a Member of Parliament.
J. Lyons had the same national pride that GM had. And during the war, J. Lyons made the remarkable transition from making baked goods to bombs. “The exigencies of war demonstrate the versatility of man’s capabilities. From the management and administration of famous catering establishments to the supply of weapons of war seems a far and almost fantastic cry, but these men made the change with enthusiasm and success.” (H.E. Bates, The Tinkers of Elstow, 1947)
According to Legacy, the J. Lyons bomb factory produced 1/7 of all the bombs used by the British. That was over 100,000 tons of bombs destined for Germany.
J. Lyons had always been on the cutting edge. It was focused on increasing efficiency so that it could continue to provide quality food at affordable prices. It was also more advanced socially than other companies. When men went off to fight the war, J. Lyons quickly brought in women to fill the many positions. (The bomb factory in particular was filled with mostly women and girls working there.)
And it turns out that a company dedicated to processing high-quality food products efficiently is also able to produce high-quality armaments efficiently. Whether J. Lyons was focused on pastries or payloads, it could pivot as needed.
Businesses like GM and J. Lyons could transition so quickly because they had developed so much expertise in their own craft. If you are good at building one type of machine, you can likely switch to build another machine. If you know how to run a catering business, you can revamp the military’s food preparation and distribution program (which members of the Salmon and Gluckstein family also did).
These examples remind me of two principles: (1) always try to improve on your own craft and (2) do not be afraid to try new things where your skills are transferable. Everyone first needs a solid foundation, a core business. If you make things, make them well and figure out how to be more efficient. If you are a teacher, hone your craft and learn your material better than you do now. If you’re an attorney, develop your tools of the trade—writing, public speaking, marketing. But then be ready when your market changes. Is AI affecting your industry? Are there untapped business opportunities you could try like developing an online course or starting a YouTube channel? Are there synergies between your business and another seemingly unrelated business?
Developing your skills and looking for new opportunities are essential to competing and adapting to changing markets. You may just open up new opportunities in your professional or personal life that you did not think possible.
Remember to turn every page. Enjoy your weekend. Please let me know whether you need anything.
Best,
Aaron