International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)
International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)
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- Inventory on the way
Product Details
Company | International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation |
Certificate Type | Capital Stock |
Date Issued | 1950's |
Canceled | Yes |
Printer | American Bank Note Company |
Signatures | Machine printed |
Approximate Size |
11" (w) by 7 1/4" (h) |
Product Images |
Representative of the piece you will receive |
Authentic | Yes |
Additional Details | NA |
Historical Context
When Harold S. Geneen took the helm of International Telephone & Telegraph in 1959, it was a middle-rung communications concern with operations in Latin America. A decade later ITT was a 350,000-employee colossus with holdings as diverse as Avis Rent-A-Car, Sheraton Hotels, Continental Baking, Aetna Finance, Hartford Insurance, and homebuilder Levitt & Sons. In all, Geneen acquired 350 businesses in 80 countries--often, it is said, after inspecting a company's books for no more than ten or 20 minutes.

A new kind of giant now stalked the earth--and with it a new kind of CEO. While Patterson had been a salesman and Sloan a manufacturing man, Geneen had begun his career as an accountant. That put him in the vanguard of a trend: In 1939 just 7% of CEOs came from financial backgrounds; by 1969 the figure had climbed to 20%. (A decade later it was 31%.) This new generation of polymaths would push Sloan's managerial revolution to its extreme. With the right financial tools, they believed, smart managers could run any assortment of businesses, whether it was (in ITT's case) making lawn products, publishing books, manufacturing auto parts, or selling Twinkies. The product wasn't the important thing. It was all about the numbers.
And Geneen had a supercomputer's capacity for absorbing them. He claimed to digest every monthly report submitted by his 250 division managers. His readings for the annual business plan ran eight feet high. When traveling, it was said, he was accompanied by as many as 14 briefcases. "The drudgery of the numbers," he preached, "will set you free." Then there were the meetings. By Geneen's own reckoning, the company devoted some 200 days a year to "meetings at various organizational levels," the most important of which took place every month in Brussels. There, for four days straight, sometimes 14 hours at a stretch, 120 ITT executives gathered around a green horseshoe table with a large screen displaying statistics. Each executive's presentation was subject to a withering cross-examination by Geneen, who wanted to see not only the numbers, but also the expression of the man presenting them.
For a long span, Geneen made it all work. Earnings grew for 58 consecutive quarters. FORTUNE called him the "man widely regarded as the world's greatest business manager." His many imitators included Gulf & Western's Charles Bluhdorn and W.R. Grace's J. Peter Grace. Yet by the time of his retirement in 1977, the "Geneen machine" was losing steam. ITT had been hamstrung by antitrust suits and discredited by its effort to finance the toppling of Chilean President Salvador Allende. But the slow disintegration of ITT and the other conglomerates had a deeper cause: Managing by the numbers, as opposed to understanding what lay underneath them, couldn't hold together such a crazy-quilt empire.
Oddly, shortly before his death in 1997, Geneen published a book that criticized the modern merger craze. "If you mix beef broth, lemon juice, and flour, you don't get magic," he wrote, "you get a mess."
Related Collections
Additional Information
Certificates carry no value on any of today's financial indexes and no transfer of ownership is implied. All items offered are collectible in nature only. So, you can frame them, but you can't cash them in!
All of our pieces are original - we do not sell reproductions. If you ever find out that one of our pieces is not authentic, you may return it for a full refund of the purchase price and any associated shipping charges.
FAQ
Are the certificates offered on your site genuine or reproductions?
All of the certificates you see on our site are genuine pieces, we do not sell any reproductions.Are the certificates you sell negotiable on any of today's stock markets or indexes?
No. All of the pieces we sell are either canceled or obsolete and have collectible value only.
Are the images presented in your product listings of the exact piece I will receive?
It depends. We try to present images of the exact piece you will receive whenever possible. However, when we are offering quantities of a piece, this is impossible. Within every product page we detail whether or not you will be receiving the exact certificate listed, or if the image is a representative example of the one you will receive.
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Can I return my purchase?
Absolutely. You may return any merchandise, for any reason, within 30 days of the purchase date for a full refund of the purchase price.
We guarantee all of our pieces to be authentic. If you ever determine that a piece is not authentic, it may be returned for a full refund of the purchase price as well as any associated shipping charges.
Shipping Information
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We ship the majority of orders via the USPS, with domestic orders using the Ground Advantage service.
Shipping is calculated during checkout. Upgraded services such as Priority and Express Mail, as well as UPS and DHL options, are also available.
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Returns
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You can return anything we offer for an exchange, refund or store credit within 30 days of delivery. Return shipping costs may apply, and the item must be in its original condition and packaging.
Any shipping charges collected on the original order are not eligible for a refund.