Page 59 - Forbes - Asia (September 2018)

FORBES ASIA
FROM THE VAULT

One of a Kind: Oct. 15, 1965

BY ABRAM BROWN
ONE DAY IN June 1957, the president of a
small company arrived at Forbes’ Manhattan
oice and gave a presentation about his busi-
ness to a group of editors assembled in the
boardroom. he bespectacled executive made
a charming impression—appearing “sincere,
enthusiastic . . . extremely articulate”—but his
irm seemed too small (just $24 million in rev-
enue, about $214 million today) and not well
enough established to warrant a story in Forbes.
he man was Joseph C. Wilson, who had
taken over his grandfather’s Haloid Corp. a
decade prior. About three years ater his Forbes
meeting, Wilson changed the workplace forever,
introducing the irst plain-paper automatic oice
copier, the Xerox 914. he machine weighed 648
pounds, could make 100,000 copies a month and
cost $95 a month (roughly $800 today) to rent.
By 1965 the company, now called Xerox, had
revenue of $400 million ($3.2 billion), and Wil-
son wasn’t just in Forbes but on the cover. “Few
companies have ever generated the momentum
we have,” he said. “We can’t let it go.”
Over the ensuing decade, Xerox would fol-
low up with additional innovations, developing
one of the earliest personal computers, the Alto,
as well as pioneering laser printing and Ethernet.

SIGN OF THE TIMES
Mega Bus
Over a decade, Greyhound Corp.’s sales had risen more than
50% to $348 million, some $2.8 billion today. “The real reason for
Greyhound’s boom is the vast Interstate Highway program,” the
41,000-mile network across America that President Eisenhower
modeled on Germany’s autobahn. Twenty percent of Greyhound
trips used interstate highways in 1965, up from 5% a decade earlier.

HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES; GRANGER; XEROX NEWSWORTHY AND NOTABLE AMAZING ADS
Love Me Dough
“It’s ridiculous. Those devils hit the jackpot
every time,” said John E. Wall, president of
EMI, the British music publisher. He was talking
about the Beatles, who had sold 145 million
Moonshot Inc.
albums for EMI in under three years. EMI revenue
Douglas Aircraft, today a part
surpassed $280 million—roughly $2.2 billion
of Boeing, supplied several
in 2018 dollars—making it the largest record
crucial components of the
business in the world. That prompted a waggish
Saturn rockets, which would
Forbes to ask, “Who says the British can’t
propel man to the lunar
compete in world markets?”
surface four years later.
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