Today Is The 125th Anniversary Of The Birth Of The Still Venerable “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ).

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by Anura Guruge

Click to access WSJ 125th anniversary archives.

I, like so many, owe so much to the ‘Wall Street Journal’. Thank YOU, WSJ. Happy Birthday.

When I first came to the U.S. (on my 2nd time around and this time as an adult as opposed to a 14 year old) in February 1985 I started reading the WSJ, assiduously, without fail and without missing a single edition. Though I had some stocks by then, all thanks to Mrs. Margaret Thatcher’s British corporate ‘nationalization’ program (BT, BA, BP etc.), I was totally oblivious to the workings of the U.S. markets and U.S. investment products. i was still into British ‘Unit Trusts’! I had come to the U.S. as a part of a 16-person Executive Team sent over by the U.K. “Case Communications” to take over and run the Silver Spring, MD based RIXON company they had just acquired. As such I was on an E-2 Treaty Investor visa. [‘Funny’ story about E-2 visas. I think I was told this either by an immigration official or somebody who worked for the State Department. How did the deposed Shah of Iran manage to come to the U.S. so easily. He too had an E-2 visa.]

I really should write more about “Case Communications” — at that time, in the mid-1980s, the most profitable European networking company. It was an amazing company with some beyond extraordinarily gifted executives, my mentor (and friend) Mike Hafferty in the lead. The entire U.S. company, all the way to the secretaries, were on monthly performance-based commissions. Genius. Case tried to be a rapacious money-making machine. The neverending mantra, in the U.S., during our first 2 years, by Mike Hafferty was: “Book and Bill”, i.e., sell and invoice. I came over as one of the two Marketing Directors for the U.S. company — the other was a grizzled, very canny and highly experienced modem-salesman hired in the U.S. At Case the title ‘Marketing Director’ was a misnomer. That was just for public consumption. The two marketing directors, plus Mike and 7 others, for a total of 10, were ‘Super Salesman’. Our job was to bring in sales whatever it took. Mike, a delightful, delightful character, had a litany of colorful expressions. One of them when it came to getting a sale was “Don’t leave that place until you have a P.O. in your hand or there is blood on the carpet”! No. No. We were never vicious. Case was renowned for its generosity, parties and girls. During those first two years we had another secondary mantra: ” We will NOT be outspent”. And I don’t think we were. We, as a company, to get market share, make a name (and, of course, have fun at the same time) spent money like there was no tomorrow — and alas when Mike and others, including I, left in 1986 the company went into a tail spin from which it never recovered. It was a magical company. I was blessed to have worked for them. It was even more fun than working for ITT UK and that is saying something.

Anyway, as soon as I got to Maryland, and my office was in the ‘new building’ in Columbia the very motivated and helpful secretaries immediately got two subscriptions for me: WSJ and the lifesaving OAG Flight Pocket Guide. For the next 2 years I always had at least one copy of WSJ and the latest (monthly) OAG in my briefcase. As one of the ‘crazy Brits’ one of the old Rixon hands had to show me how to use the OAG. Took me a few months to master it. But after that … There was no stopping me. I could flip through that thing and find obscure flights like nobodies business. Come into O’Hare, late, with an announcement that some of us had missed our connecting flights … by the time I got out of my 1st class seat and made it to the AA or UA desk … I already had 4 alternative flights picked out. Remember this was BEFORE there was a viable Web. Got stuck in Heathrow one Friday on a December because of snow on the East Coast. I still remember telling my wife “I have 14 reservations in the morning on 4 airlines to three airports, New York and Boston, I will take whichever leaves first and cancel the others”. I had learned to read OAG. So when I think back at 1985 and 1986, WSJ and OAG are imprinted in my mind. I just realized and I will go ahead and do so (since I already found some on eBay). I need to get an OAG, from the 1980s, for nostalgia.

Click to ENLARGE. Quintessential OAG Flight Schedule page. Once you mastered how to read this thing and you knew your airports you could get from A-to-B’ via C, D or E in so, so many wonderful permutations. You just needed to know where and how to look.