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'How a storekeeper's business suffers due to lack of financial controls and how installation of a National Cash Register restores its profitability. One of the many early educational / training films sponsored by communications visionary and NCR president John H. Patterson. Producer: Essanay Film Manufacturing Company.'
Public domain film from the Prelinger Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
The NCR Corporation (formerly National Cash Register) is a US-based computer hardware, software and electronics company that provides products and services that enable businesses to connect, interact and transact with their customers. Its main products are self-service kiosks, point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check processing systems, barcode scanners, and business consumables. They also provide IT maintenance support services. NCR had been based in Dayton, Ohio, starting in 1884, but in June 2009, the company sold most of the Dayton properties and moved its headquarters to Metro Atlanta. Currently the headquarters are in unincorporated Gwinnett County, Georgia, near Duluth.
NCR was founded in 1884 and acquired by AT&T in 1991. A restructuring of AT&T in 1996 led to NCR's re-establishment on 1 January 1997 as a separate company...
The company began as the National Manufacturing Company of Dayton, Ohio, which was established to manufacture and sell the first mechanical cash register, invented in 1879 by James Ritty. In 1884, the company and patents were bought by John Henry Patterson and his brother Frank Jefferson Patterson and the firm was renamed the National Cash Register Company...
Other significant figures in the early history of the company were Charles F. Kettering, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Edward A. Deeds. Deeds and Kettering went on to found Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company which later became Delco Products Division of General Motors. Watson eventually worked his way up to general sales manager. Bent on inspiring the dispirited NCR sales force, Watson introduced the motto "THINK!". Signs with this motto were erected in factory buildings, sales offices, and club rooms during the mid-1890s. Watson left NCR for IBM in 1914 and "THINK" later became a widely known symbol of IBM. Kettering designed the first cash register powered by an electric motor in 1906. Within a few years he developed the Class 1000 register which was in production for 40 years, and the O.K. Telephone Credit Authorization system for verifying credit in department stores.
American Selling Force
When John H. Patterson and his brother took over the company, cash registers were expensive ($50 USD) and only about a dozen of "Ritty's Incorruptible Cashier" machines were in use. There was little demand for the expensive device, but Patterson believed the product would sell once shopkeepers understood it would drastically decrease theft by salesclerks. He created a sales force, called the "American Selling Force" which worked on commissions and followed a standard sales script, the "N.C.R. Primer." The philosophy was to sell a business function, rather than just a piece of machinery. Sale demonstrations were set up in hotels (away from the distractions of the buyer's business), depicting a store interior, complete with real merchandise and real cash. The sale prospect was described as the "P.P." or "Probable Purchaser." Once initial objections were swept aside and the P.P. admitted to internal theft losses, the product was demonstrated, along with large business charts and diagrams. The deal was sealed with a 25 cent cigar.
Expansion
NCR expanded quickly and became multi-national in 1888. Between 1893 and 1906 it acquired a number of smaller cash register companies.
By 1911, it had sold one million machines and grown to almost 6,000 employees. Combined with rigorous legal attacks, Patterson's methods enabled the company to fight off, bankrupt or buy-out over 80 of its early competitors and achieve control of 95% of the U.S. market.
In 1912, the company was found guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act. Patterson, Deeds, Watson, and 25 other NCR executives and managers were convicted... However, their convictions were overturned on appeal in 1915 on the grounds that important defense evidence should have been admitted.
Two million units were sold by 1922, the year John Patterson died. In 1925 the company went public with an issue of $55 million in stock, at that time the largest public offering in United States history...