Agreed. I'm quite sure he was an important part on CN's and IC's success. However, there are other indicators of the record of a person besides financial statistics, some of which don't show up on balance sheets and financial statements. There are far too many opinions from people familiar with his work at the various railroads about his relationships with employees and customers to dismiss them as rumors or pure fiction created by soreheads.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
I didn't say anything about the OE..there's more to a business than that ..I stated Harrison's accomplishments did not diminish Tellier's...Surely having an experienced railroader like Harrison, who worked his way up through the ranks over many years, added value to Tellier's management team.
Historical CN operating ratios, starting in 1995 (1996 was 1st year of privatization):
1995 89.3
1996 85.3
1997 78.4
1998 75.3 (Harrison joins CN after IC takeover)
1999 72.0
2000 69.6
2001 68.5
2002 69.4
2003 69.8 (Harrison's first year as CEO)
Harrison joined CN in Jan. 1998. So to say the improvements in OE at CN under Harrison's predecessor Tellier were "a lot" because of Harrison is an exaggeration.
Tellier was a career civil servant...I suspect alot of what went well on Tellier's watch had to do with his second in command...namely Hunter Harrison. That would make sense...and it doesn't take anything away from Tellier's own impressive track record. CN has indeed been spending on infrastructure upkeep and improvements. Most recently, in February of this year, CN announced a 1.7 billion dollar initiative, 1 billion dollars of which is slated for right of way upkeep and impovement. CN's safety record over the last one, two and five year period speaks for itself. Sure there have been some well publicized incidents, but on the whole CN's safety record is much like its profitability: second to none. Harrison's most important contribution may be his succession planning..like his predecessor, he made sure that CN would be left in good capable hands upon his departure and that CN would continue to grow and prosper over the longterm.
Harrison's record needs to be evaluated on the basis of his entire body of work, at the Frisco, BN, IC as well as the CN.
It's public record that CN became profitable - and enough so to have its Initial Public Offering of shares - and starting attaining Operating Ratios in the the low 70's while Paul Tellier was CEO, and several years before the merger with IC that brought Harrison on board. Harrison kept that trend going and may have improved on it a little bit, but he was after the fact.
What Harrison did do was implement the "scheduled railroad" concept there, which apparently led to long, efficient trains per a rigid operating plan - and some customer angst.
However, he may not have "known his limitations" - or that of his staff - in transferring his 'flatland' railroading experience to those parts of CN with significant mountain grades.
It remains to be seen whether Harrison was a 'cherry picker' of easy cost-cutting and quick 'juicing' of earnings for each quarter's financial statements, but left behind the resulting 'skeletons in the closet' in the form of deferred maintenance or upkeep of track, bridges, equipment, bad morale, poor customer relations, short-term 'fixes', etc. that will have to be addressed and fixed later on, which is when" the bill will come due" for CN and its shareholders.
- Paul North.
Good , bad, or indifferent, Harrison did a good job for getting to the top of the heap. I MAKE NO JUDJEMENT.
Norm
Perhaps it's a question debated since 1532. Machiavelli, in addressing the question of whether it is better for a leader to be loved or feared, wrote, “The answer is that one would like to be both the one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them, it is far safer to be feared than loved if you cannot be both.” Perhaps Harrison followed that guideline.
Bad quarters come and go...bad weather comes and goes... the legacy has more to do with longterm viability and overall longterm performance. From that standpoint Harrison did a fine job. E Hunter Harrison was known for his aggressive no nonsense management style...which may have rankled some folks who are not made that way. His style isn't all that different from others'..JJ Hill was known for having a salty disposition and an aggressive management style..I suspect one doesn't get to the top at any railroad without having the smarts and an aggressive get er done" can do" attitude.
Personal opinion:
Perhaps Harrison Hunter was not the best liked of CEO;s he did turn CN into a profitable corporation
CP's first quarter of 2011 was the worst quarter for them in recent memory, due to costs associated with the bad winter we had here. As I mentioned on the one Harrison thread that is still running, CN has had a very bad second quarter up here, as well as in Illinois and Tennessee which I forgot to mention.
I am going to go out on a limb here and say CN's Earning per Share in second quarter 2011 is going to be less than half of the 2010 number. And that much vaunted expense ratio is going to take an attendant kick in the teeth as well.
Although E.H. Harrison can't control the weather, I will ask the question again. How did the legacies of his management style impact CN's ability to cope with all of the climate related issues they have experienced this spring?
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
I am not going to attempt to defend Harrison or any other detested Senior Executive on the carriers where they have developed their reputations. That being said, each is a product of their own experiences and the strategies they have observed as working and not working during their careers.
When one attempts to apply the 'one size fits all' theory of management to the carriers it overlooks the geographical realities that each carrier must face in particular circumstance. ie. what works in the flat-lands may not work in the mountains and vice versa.
The biggest problem with these Senior Executives is the necessary ego that must go with the personality. The ego demands that the individual is always right....even when the individual is wrong, the ego won't let them admit it and change their strategies accordingly. The Senior Executives did not get to their positions by being wrong very frequently and they have then developed the personality trait of believing that they are never wrong.
zardoz Ulrich: A great railroader. He worked his way up through the ranks, so he understood the business from the ground up. Is that why soon after the purchase of BCR that he tried to implement 'his' brand of railroading, which led to the rash of derailments due to stringlining? And I believe there are quite a few former WC customers that would have a few less-than-complimentary comments about how the CN treated them.
Ulrich: A great railroader. He worked his way up through the ranks, so he understood the business from the ground up.
A great railroader. He worked his way up through the ranks, so he understood the business from the ground up.
And I believe there are quite a few former WC customers that would have a few less-than-complimentary comments about how the CN treated them.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Ulrich A great railroader. He worked his way up through the ranks, so he understood the business from the ground up.
A great railroader. He worked his way up through the ranks, so he understood the business from the ground up. His legacy is what CN is today: the most profitable railroad on the continent and a railroad that is well positioned to do even better in the future.
Recently a number of forum members voiced some opinions concerning the former CEO of CN, Hunter Harrison, some based on personal observations. Unfortunately, those two threads are no longer with us. In his career, he generated a lot of strong reactions, positive and negative. Certainly he was one of the more colorful railroad execs of the past 50 years. This was seen in the Trains article in July 2009. More thoughts?
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