Stories
Stories
Looking Through Glass, Historically
When Charlie Wilson (MBA 1967) was a small boy, he lived for a time in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his grandfather, Chas Howard West, the cofounder, president, and principal owner of the Westmoreland Glass Company, a maker of functional and decorative glassware. Wilson still remembers the day when, as a four-year-old, he was taken by his grandfather to visit the factory. "I can still recall the semi-darkness, the fire, the pot furnace with men gathered around it, and the fuss these men made over me as Chas West's grandson," Wilson later wrote. "I can even recall wanting to stay there all night." A year later, the company was sold.
Wilson subsequently became interested in Westmoreland after he learned of the long-forgotten, pre-eminent place it once held in the hand-glassware industry. As he writes in the preface of Westmoreland Glass, his 336-page book illustrated with many historic photographs, "Westmoreland has a story to tell that was not being told."
Established in 1889 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, the company for nearly a century produced a number of tableware and specialty items as well as art-glass, on which artists—most of them immigrants from central Europe—did painting and engraving. Westmoreland was the country's leading glass-decorating house for more than a third of the 20th century. Today Westmoreland is best known for its milk glass, which it made more of and for a longer period of time than any other company. But it was once recognized as a glassware innovator, pioneering several kinds of glass that are now usually attributed to other companies. Wilson found that between 1892 and 1929—the company's most creative years—Westmoreland was assigned 31 patents.
At one time, an estimated 150,000 glassworkers were employed in Czechoslovakia, earning one-fifth of what their American counterparts did. Nevertheless, for many years, the American glassware industry was able to hold its own against Europe, given its large internal market and easy access to raw materials and fuel. But America's real edge lay in its genius for mass production and not labor-intensive work, which could be done more cheaply overseas. Since imported glass was typically blown, the domestic US industry focused on pressed glass made from molds. It was also dependent on tariffs and benefited from disruptions caused by European wars: The first half of the 20th century offered plenty of both.
By the 1940s, Westmoreland had moved away from high-quality, hand-decorated, and hand-cut glass and enjoyed success in a niche it created between "hand-made" and "machine-made." When Westmoreland finally closed down in the 1980s, it had outlasted all but one major hand-glassware company. Last year, that company finally fell victim to a market force it couldn't control: the demise of "yesterday's woman."
"Today," Wilson notes, "glassware would not be on the modern woman's birthday, Christmas, or wedding-gift list. This change certainly looks permanent. But is it? Just note the popularity of Downton Abbey!"
The book project became a big part of Wilson's life. "For several years, my spare time was spent with Westmoreland," he says, with numerous visits to the Library of Congress and the Patent Office. "I had to buy over 1,000 pieces of glassware to describe and photograph. After the company closed, I was able to go through old sales, production, and financial records that I had found at the factory and in four days there, I inventoried over 3,000 molds, most of which hadn't been used in years.
"For this book project," Wilson concludes, "there isn't a course that I took at HBS that I didn't find useful in some measure, particularly marketing, production, control, and especially WAC!"
A Conversation with Charlie Wilson
HOW AND WHY DID YOU GET RE-INTERESTED IN WESTMORELAND?
It was the late 1930s. My grandfather, cofounder of the Westmoreland Glass Co almost a half-century before, its president and majority stockholder, was ousted by the v.p./treasurer. The "why" was not in question: The times cried out for "creative destruction." Sharing the views of most of the industry, my septuagenarian grandfather was ill-prepared for the new era. The "how," though, was a question that had bothered me for years: How had the treasurer managed to do it? While the family never discussed it, there were hints of accounting irregularities. Something in me wanted to get to the bottom of it. In addition, I had a gnawing question: If I had been there then, could I have made a difference?
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO WRITE THE BOOK?
I hardly started out with the thought of writing a book. But after the distribution of some important family glass, most of which I found was by Westmoreland, and the fortuitous closing of the company at about the same time, my seven-year investigation was launched. Then, when I found that Westmoreland had made much noteworthy, but forgotten glass; that its frequently told history came up short; that the company had once held a preeminent place in the "hand-glassware" industry; I felt I had to write a book.
YOU WROTE THAT THE COMPANY WAS A "PIONEER" — IN WHAT WAYS?
Westmoreland will always be remembered for its milk glass, which they made continuously for nearly 85 years—longer than any other company. But they should also be remembered as the pioneer of artistic black glass (1915); "carnival glass," iridized pressed glass, (1907); and "cased lustre ware," opaque and translucent glass spray-coated onto glass blanks (1910). While Westmoreland was credited for these innovations at the time, today they are usually attributed to other companies.
In 1921 the company president was able to boast, "We are the largest decorators of glassware in the country"—a claim that held true for the first third of the century. During that period, the key to glass sales was seen as decorative innovation. Glass molds were expensive, but glass decorators could create novelty on existing blanks. Most of Westmoreland's talented decorators were immigrants from central Europe and its decorating and cutting shops were non-union. At the shows, Westmoreland always received rave reviews. 1922: "The 'show' of the Pittsburgh Glass & Pottery Exhibition... is the Westmoreland display." 1924: "Over 3000 pieces of ware and no two items were alike.: 1927: "Startling new decorations vie with new shapes." In 1923 William Jennings Bryan even described one decoration ("satin-moire") in "The Commoner."
At the Patent Office I found 31 patents assigned to Westmoreland from, 1892 to 1929 — the company's creative years. The first was for a violin-shaped glass container for perfume sold by the company in its first year. The most bizarre was a buggy whip with a glass-container handle. Several of these have actually survived!
WHAT ARE THE ISSUES THE COMPANY DEALT WITH THAT HAVE LESSONS FOR TODAY?
Over the decades, the domestic glassware industry was always dodging bullets. In 1900, one commentator pointed out that even if we had a 100% duty, English imports could be kept out, but not Bohemian: In the 1920s and probably before, Bohemian glass wages were just a fifth of ours. "Beggar-thy-Neighbor" was scarcely a derisive term in the glass business, for as de Tocqueville pointed out in 1832, we were blessed with a comparatively large internal market. For American glass, high tariffs and foreign wars were its friends, and the first half of the 20th century offered plenty of both.
Still, given American wages, survival meant minimizing hand work. Since imported glass was typically blown, the domestic industry focused on pressed glass despite the expense of mold making. After the factory closed, I was surprised to find over 400 high-labor-intensive blow-molds there that had obviously not been used in years. Somehow, the desire to "make a statement" seems to have once won out over economic reality.
Coming out of Yale in 1933, Westmoreland's Treasurer's son could see the need for change; and supported by his father, he was able to bring it about several years later. His changes all made excellent economic business sense at the time. "Westmoreland" was given its first broad brand-identification. One specific market was targeted, and the glassware, now named rather than being simply numbered, was described in terms meaningful to this market through the company's first direct-to-the-consumer advertising. Production runs were lengthened and inventory simplified. Glass decoration was all but eliminated and, like Ford's Model-T, color was, too. Most important, with most of its assets written off, Westmoreland had a low break-even point. It needed margin then—not volume; and so, prices were increased. Although this was an unsound business decision, the records show my grandfather had kept his prices low during the Depression, presumably in an attempt to maintain employment.
WHY DID THE COMPANY EVENTUALLY GO OUT OF BUSINESS?
For 20 years these changes were hugely successful; but beginning in 1958, it all began to unravel. Given human nature, it may be inevitable: Success in one era leads to paralysis in the next, and the greater that success, the greater the reluctance to move in a different direction. This was certainly true of Westmoreland in the late 1930s and again in the late 1950s. But in the late 1950s they were also hobbled by having tied themselves narrowly to a specific market that was moving on. 1959 was the year department stores were using the term, "The Return to Elegance." But "elegance" is not the way 1959 was beginning to see Westmoreland, which had niched its products between "hand-made" and "machine-made" glassware under the slogan, "Authentic Handmade Reproductions." True, it was "hand-made," but it was also mass-produced. And, "reproductions" of what was never stated. That phrase was beginning to grate.
Somehow, despite its reluctance to change course, Westmoreland managed to limp along till the mid-1980s; and in all fairness, it had out-lived most of the hand-glass houses which had competed head-to-head. After Fostoria closed at about the same time as Westmoreland, this left only Fenton, which survived without competition till just last year.
In my view, there is a principal reason for Fenton's final closing: the demise of "yesterday's woman." Today, glassware would probably not be on the modern woman's possible birthday, Christmas, or even wedding-gift list. This change certainly looks permanent. But is it? Just note the popularity of "Downton Abbey"!
THE WESTMORELAND STORY IS A "CATEGORY OF BUSINESS HISTORY." IS THERE A PLACE FOR THIS SORT OF HISTORICAL STUDY IN THE MBA CURRICULUM?
History seldom repeats itself. But similar events requiring similar decisions keep recurring like revolving points on a spiral. We can learn from the past.
While few HBS cases are historic, some of the most memorable are. For example, who can forget that first-year marketing case about Packard from the late '30s? In going "down market" then, did Packard over-do it? This case certainly applies to Westmoreland as well as to any company rethinking its market focus: Are you boxing yourself in? Could you be passing the point of no return?
A typical HBS case closes with the question, "What should do?" Concerns are raised and observations made by many of the astute section-members, and the discussion ideally ends with a probable, though unknown, outcome.
A historical case has to close with the question, "What should have done?" Concerns and observations are similarly made, but with the aim of improving the known outcome. In both types of cases the target is the outcome, but with a historical case, the target is not in doubt.
WHAT HAS THE EXPERIENCE OF DOING ALL THE RESEARCH AND COMPILATION MEANT TO YOU PERSONALLY?
Once I decided to pull together a book with an arcane focus on a company's past, I had to face reality: Who would want to publish such a thing?
I found three publishers interested only in putting out illustrated price-guides. But I found one of them was willing to tolerate a more comprehensive book if I could give him what he wanted. We linked up.
In the end, my carefully staged photographs (why would anyone want to own this?) were all cut to the glass. Many historic photographs were passed up, and there were no footnotes—or even an index. And, of course, there was the chief requirement: I had to "value" each piece. But using several variables—I found this pricing a great deal of fun—perhaps, the most fun of all, and not the chore I had dreaded.
Almost all my writing was spared, including a number of puns, evidently not noticed. I was allowed to update all early costs and prices, assign date ranges, and bury citations unobtrusively in the text. By describing a marketing study I made, I was able to get a conservative, uncluttered, and rather old-fashioned-looking cover. Best of all, by pointing out the "confusion of too many numbers" on each page, I was able to keep all those "values" together in the back.
WERE THERE ANY SURPRISES?
The publisher and I made a great team. He had his pricing and got his sales—close to 14,000 copies in two editions. While most buyers were just after the prices, there were some who took the book seriously, and I believe, "Westmoreland Glass" today is more highly respected than it was when I began. The book reviews I received, many not expected, made all my years of work worthwhile. Sadly, the publisher is now out of business, but used copies of our book are now selling at a premium.
DID YOU FIND ANSWERS?
Over several years my entire spare time was spent curled up with "Westmoreland." There were numerous trips to Washington to the Library of Congress and the Patent Office, and I had to buy over 1000 pieces of glassware to describe and photograph. After the company's closing, I was able to go through old sales, production, and financial records I found at the factory. In four days, I inventoried over 3000 molds—most of which hadn't been used in years. Through all of this I was able to get a sense of what the company was like decades before. In the end I felt I could answer my original question: Could I have made a difference?
If I had been there, in the late '30s, with only my undergraduate degree, I could not have made a difference. There were, indeed, financial irregularities, and I would have been unable to spot them. I would have been tied too closely to my grandfather's (and the industry's) values to be able to see past them. And I would have been too deferential to the production staff who effectively ran the operation.
Going there with my Harvard MBA, however, I would like to think I could have turned the company around as effectively as the new management, and make many of the same decisions they did—decisions that were right for the times.
There isn't a course I took at HBS that I didn't find useful in some measure in this study—particularly, marketing, production, control—and especially, "WAC"!
Post a Comment
Related Stories
-
- 01 Jun 2023
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Spray Canon
Re: Jeffrey Deitch (MBA 1978); James W. Riley (Assistant Professor of Business Administration); By: Dan Morrell -
- 01 Jun 2022
- HBS Alumni Bulletin
Action Plan: Writing the Next Chapter
Re: Carole Hubscher Clements (PMD 73); By: April White -
- 01 Apr 2022
- New York Times
Nancy Lane Remembered
-
- 24 Mar 2022
- Barron’s
20 Minutes With: CultureWorks CEO Josh Wyatt (MBA 2005)
Re: Josh Wyatt (MBA 2005)