Word: p-b
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...lure that caused American art sellers to bypass Parke-Bernet increasingly and go across the ocean is Sotheby's lower commission-only 10% on art and antiques and 15% on books and manuscripts-compared with P-B's 15% to 22% , made necessary by higher U.S. costs. They were tempted even more by the higher bids generated by the business acumen and showmanship of Sotheby Chairman Peter Cecil Wilson, 51, known in the auction world as "The Fastest Gavel in the West...
Another machine, now going into the U.S. postal system, shuffles a mountain of mail so that each stamp faces in the right direction, then postmarks and cancels 500 stamps a minute, double what a man can do. Next November the Post Office will get a 75-ft. long P-B mail sorter by which twelve operators each can sort 720 letters a minute-triple the manual rate. Each letter passes on a conveyor belt before the eyes of a postal worker, who pushes keys to direct it to one of 300 cubbyholes. Now P-B's scientists are tinkering...
Years Ahead. P-B's success is tied to one man. President Walter Heber Wheeler. 61. Towering (6 ft. 4 in.) Walter Wheeler was an All-Eastern football tackle at Harvard in 1916, a subchaser skipper and Navy Cross winner in World War I, and a champion sailor. He joined the company in 1919, when it was a struggling small business directed by his stepfather, the late Walter H. Bowes. Bowes teamed with Inventor Arthur H. Pitney to develop the first crude postage meter. Wheeler went to Washington in 1920, presided over the demonstration of the machine that...
...Strikes, No Unions. P-B instituted group life insurance in 1928, profit-sharing for all employees in 1936 (current share: 6½%; of base pay), health insurance in 1941, noncontributory pensions in 1948. P-B has never had a strike, and the last attempt to unionize the company was snowed under 2 to 1 back in 1946. But Pitney-Bowes does have an elaborate parliament of workers, supervisors and brass who meet regularly and publicly discuss everything from the cafeteria's coffee (pretty good) to wages (above average...
...completely has the company sewed up the postage-meter business-more than 95% of it-that its only woes are with the trustbusters. All the competitors gave up because P-B outsold and outserviced them. Last month P-B signed a consent decree promising to create competition by sharing with all comers its current and future patents, and instructing them how to make, repair and service the postage meters. Wheeler accepted the decree with grace: "We believe in the antitrust legislation and what it has done for the country. We hope other companies do come...