Background
Andrew Wellington Cordier was born on March 20, 1900 in Walla Walla, Washington, United States. He was the son of George M. Cordiner and Mary Jarron.
Industrialist business executive
Andrew Wellington Cordier was born on March 20, 1900 in Walla Walla, Washington, United States. He was the son of George M. Cordiner and Mary Jarron.
After attending local public schools, he entered the U. S. Navy and served for one year during World War I. Cordiner then enrolled in Whitman College in Walla Walla, where he majored in economics. He graduated with honors in 1922.
He worked part time as a salesman of electrical appliances for Pacific Power and Light, which introduced him to both selling and the electric industry. Cordiner showed an aptitude for both, and upon graduation he sought and obtained a post as commercial manager for Pacific Power and Light in Walla Walla.
Later in 1922, Cordiner went to work for the Edison General Electric Appliance Company, a General Electric affiliate, in Portland. In 1927, he became the company's manager for the Northwest region, and in 1930, the Pacific Coast manager (in San Francisco).
In 1932, he moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he was manager of the heating device section of the Appliance and Merchandise Division of General Electric and chairman of the Management Committee. Cordiner became a protégé of Charles E. Wilson, a GE vice-president a few years his senior. His successes resulted in promotion to assistant manager of appliance sales in 1934.
In 1935, Cordiner became manager of the Radio Division, and the following year returned to the Appliance and Merchandise Division, as assistant manager under Wilson.
In 1938, Wilson became executive vice-president of General Electric and heir apparent to President Gerard Swope.
Cordiner then succeeded Wilson as head of the Appliance and Merchandise Division. Realizing that he would be destined to remain in Wilson's shadow, Cordiner in 1939 accepted the presidency of Schick, where he spent the next three years.
In December 1942, Wilson became vice-president of the War Production Board (WPB) and asked Cordiner to join him there. Cordiner became director general of war production scheduling and a year later advanced to the executive vice-chairmanship of the WPB. He remained in that post until June 1943. Rather than return to Schick, he became assistant to Wilson at General Electric and in 1945 was named vice-president.
Among his duties was heading a task force to revamp the corporation to meet postwar requirements.
In 1949, Cordiner was elevated to the board of directors and was named executive vice-president, which placed him in line to succeed Wilson.
In 1950, when Wilson was named by President Harry S. Truman to become director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, he was succeeded by Philip Reed, not Cordiner. In 1958, Reed stepped down, and Cordiner was elected chairman of the board and chief executive officer. He also served as president in 1961, until Gerald L. Philippe was elected to that office in August.
As CEO, Cordiner drew up a plan to decentralize management, out of which came the structure that served the company well until the 1980's, when it was reshaped by CEO Jack Welsh.
Greater efficiencies were realized, but less direct control by headquarters had dire results in some areas. One of Cordiner's less successful ventures involved a computer business acquired by Reed.
At the time General Electric was considered the most computerized company in the world and was one of IBM's major customers. Computers seemed a logical extension of General Electric's business, so in the early 1950's it produced some military items but hesitated to move into the civilian area.
Cordiner believed the market for large mainframes was limited, that they were unprofitable, and that the product was bound to suffer when the country entered a recession he expected to hit in the late 1950's. He rejected the Computer Division's pleas for funding, used earnings to reduce debt, and as a result handed the company over to his successor, Frederick Broch, in fine financial shape. The end of General Electric's venture into computers came in 1970, when the operation was sold to Honeywell.
However, General Electric was involved in unethical practices of which Cordiner was unaware. In 1961, the government accused the firm and other electrical manufacturers of price fixing and market splitting through the use of rigged bids for contracts. Three General Electric managers were sent to jail, and the company had to pay fines of $437, 000. "We were diligent in the light of the facts as we then knew them, " said Cordiner, conceding that he should have known more of what was going on. "Why and how we failed has nothing to do with decentralization, in my opinion. " He promised to take steps to ensure more monitoring. Nonetheless, there were calls for his resignation.
Cordiner retired in 1963 and died in Clearwater, Florida.
Quotations: "A company is likely to grow and earn profits if it recognizes the reality of the ethical and social demands of society, and considers them as valid elements in the economic decisions of business. "
Cordiner married Gwyneth A. Lewis; they had four children.