The Enduring Management Wisdom of Lincoln

Headlines espousing the relative decline of the U.S. industrial base, despite a recent upsurge, have left American managers focused on today’s news and this quarter’s results. As a result, few have heeded the invaluable lessons of the country’s longest-running manufacturing success story. For nearly a century, the Lincoln Electric Company has consistently ranked among the most productive manufacturing enterprises in the United States, all while not laying off a single permanent employee for more than 60 years and, for 75 years, paying bonuses to its workers that average 60 to 100 percent of their annual salaries.