Tobacco Merchant by Duke Maurice;Jordan Daniel P.; & Daniel P. Jordan

Author:Duke, Maurice;Jordan, Daniel P.; & Daniel P. Jordan [Duke, Maurice & Jordan, Daniel P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Published: 2021-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

A Worldwide Company

Under the leadership of Gordon L. Crenshaw, Universal became a worldwide organization. Expansions were made into all parts of the globe, most notably in South America, the Far East, and Southeast Asia. To see the growth of the company during Crenshaw’s tenure, one need only look at yearly revenues. In 1966, for example, Crenshaw’s first year as company leader, annual revenues were $348 million. Two decades later, in 1987, it had reached the $2 billion mark. Figures reflected in the company’s annual reports are not startlingly large for any particular fiscal year; rather, they reflect solid growth: in 1966, $348 million; in 1968, $396 million; in 1971, $463 million; in 1974, $626 million; in 1978, $839 million; in 1981, $1 billion; in 1986, nearly $1.5 billion; and so on.

From the beginning of his tenure, Crenshaw brought a different perspective to top-level management. Although in many ways Crenshaw was cut from the same social and educational cloth as many other Universal officers, a marked difference existed between his business philosophy and that of his predecessors.

A native Richmonder and a graduate of the city’s John Marshall High School, where he had been an excellent student, Crenshaw had gone on scholarship to the University of Virginia, where he majored in economics. In both high school and college he had been a leader, first as co-editor of John Marshall’s student newspaper, later as editor of the one at the university, where he was also elected to the Raven Society and the leadership fraternity, Omicron Delta Kappa.

Crenshaw, who graduated in 1943, was offered an opportunity reserved for a few military inductees of his generation who showed exceptional promise. Having already committed himself to the Navy, in which he was ultimately commissioned, he was selected by the government to attend Harvard University for further study. Though he was sent there to take military courses, he ended up in what was essentially a graduate business curriculum. After completing his studies, he served on board ship in both the Atlantic and Pacific before returning to Richmond. He briefly taught economics at the University of Richmond before accepting an entry-level job at Universal.

Crenshaw ascended Universal’s corporate ladder in the normal way, although he chafed somewhat at having to sweep floors in the South Boston factory after having been a Navy officer. After coming through the sales department under the tutelage of Warwick and Laverge, however, he was thoroughly knowledgeable about the tobacco business and was ready to assume the company’s top post. Even so, there were obstacles to overcome and potential problems with which to deal.

For one thing, there was much potential for discord in Universal’s upper ranks. Warwick, Laverge, and Humphreys were all senior by a decade or more to Crenshaw, who had had barely four months in the presidency and was now, because of Jackson’s death, headed for the position of chief executive officer as well. Any one of these senior people was a logical contender for higher office in the company. In addition, the

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